The Room

He woke up in the pitch black room with every limb on fire and a headache that felt like his skull would rip in half at any moment. He moved his head to the left and right, but the inky black of the room allowed for nothing to be discerned.

How in the hell did I manage to fuck this up, too. He thought to himself. The shame of having to face others after what he did was not an appealing thought.

“Hello? Is anyone there? I’m sorry, alright. Just turn on the lights and we’ll talk about it.” There was no response from anyone, but all of a sudden a dim light began to emanate from nowhere and everywhere all at once, revealing the features of the room.

He was laying in the dead center of the room. The wall to his right was lined with seven doors, each with its own strange symbol. The end wall closest to his feet held a window, with nothing visible except the same unyielding black that he just woke up from. The other two walls were completely bare. As he stood up to investigate his surroundings, his arms ached from his irresponsibility.

“So I guess this isn’t a dream,” he muttered to himself.

He walked slowly to the window to try and open it. When he reached the it, he noticed that there was no latch present, but when he tried to open it, the window wouldn’t budge. He inspected every inch to see if there wasn’t a possible mechanical release of some kind that he missed or some sort of button, but there was nothing to indicate it could be opened.

He left the window and explored the two barren walls to see if there wasn’t some sort of hidden doorway that would only be revealed up close. As he ran his hands along them, he was amazed by the walls’ smoothness. He had worked construction his entire and never felt any material quite like this. In a couple spots he knocked to see if he couldn’t find studs and punch his through in a worse case scenario, but every spot he knocked on returned the dull thud of a cavity-less wall.

After walking the length of the bare walls, he reached the doors. As he was approached, he could feel a pit in his stomach develop that grew bigger with every inch, and when he reached the doors it manifested as full fledged terror. As he approached the first door, his hand began shaking so violently that he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to grab the doorknob. His fingers slowly tightened around the knob and when he had enclosed within his grasp he gave a small twist. Locked.

He breathed a sigh of relief and moved onto the next door, which was also locked. When he reached the door in the center, the knob turned, but he pulled his hand away in fear before the door could be opened all the way. He moved on to the other doors, each one in turn locked tight.

As he made his way back to the one unlocked door, the sense of fear returned to the pit of his stomach. Whatever lie beyond the doors with the strange symbols, he knew he wasn’t going to like it. As reached the unlocked door, he painfully swallowed down the fear that had built in his throat. He reached out, grabbed the knob, and swung the door open. The blackness greeted him on the other side and before he could react, he was sucked in and the door slammed shut behind him.

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