The Scarlet Chamber

Chapter Six: Orientation

Charlotte's eyes felt heavy as they struggled to open a blinding ruby-colored light burning her retina as a flood of pain and numbness drowned her senses specifically her head as it refused to move even an inch. In fact, none of her body parts would move, fingers, legs, nothing like sleep paralysis without the demon in the corner. The past was...a blur, just a strange collection of yelling and voices before everything faded to black. The space between Charlotte leaving her home and arriving in what she thinks to be a chair just doesn't exist.

If Charlotte's memory was a film strip there would be a huge part of it cut leaving the two ends to mold together like a scene switch in a movie where the locations change in an instant. "Kenny..." Charlotte's lips split open as they moved to speak her tongue was unbelievably dry and her throat felt scaly and dusty which didn't help the foul stench rising from the cramped pit of her stomach. How long have I been here? I smell like death, FEEL like death. And I clearly haven't had anything to drink in at least a day. What happened to me? Why can't I remember anything after leaving the driveway? Why won't my body move?! It's like I've been drugged or something! No that can't be right why would I be on anesthetics?

Charlotte continued to fight the uphill battle of keeping her eyes open the enemy fire coming from the blinding ceiling light and lack of moisture straining what little control she had. My chest feels so heavy and my legs are cramping like a bitch....I must have been here a long time. Did I get into an accident? Is that why my last memory is leaving my driveway? I don't feel too banged up just....tired...unmoving....and stiff.

A horrible scraping noise filled Charlotte's ears as a dark soiree opened in the corner of her eye a strange figure moving through it. A Door! Charlotte didn't know what was happening or where she even was so she figured if she went back to sleep they might leave and give her more time to get her bearings. Each click of the woman's heels sent her heart beating against her chest urgently trying to break free of its cage.

Finally, the clicking stopped right next to Charlotte's ear as she could almost feel the weight of the person's shadow looming over her cold and observing. A breath of exasperation cooled the air as the womanly figured sighed. "Get her up." Charlotte's fear spiked and an itchy feeling coated her arms as the hairs stood on end the command Get her up ambiguous to the young woman. Sharp, acute pain filled a spot on Charlottes lower leg a strange burning fluid following up her body and constricting her muscles forcing the woman to grit her teeth as to not react to the pain slowly crawling up her torso.

The liquid bubbled and boiled as it reached her heart carried there by her blood a vector of suffering. Her already pounding heart was viciously punching through her ribs and chest cavity now like someone had stuck their hand inside her chest and was ripping her organs out. Charlotte began to falter as her lip began quivering and her blood supply ran short the arteries it ran through closing up causing the blood to clot. Eye bulging from the pressure Charlotte's eyes lids forced themselves open to the peeved figure looking down at her.

The golden brooch keeping her greying blond hair together, the cream-colored skin that appears... wore almost, Those crystal-like blue eyes with a certain haze looming over them like a bad filter or a dirty camera lens. Slender nose and narrow eyes. Crinkled Carmel colored lips and a slim angular jawline that rivals the greek gods.

Venus Thompson! She looks so much...older. I've seen her only once in person but she's in the local news all the time, I should know after all. Her pictures always made her look so...young I guess it could be botox but dang...who would have thought the neighborhood tycoon was running an underground dungeon!

"I took a big risk bringing you here," Venus said as she sat on the side of the gurney her navy blue dress tightly wrapping around her body as she dug her long talon-like nail into Charlotte's forehead. "And. I. Don't. Like. Having. My. Time. Wasted." With each word, Venus twisted her nail in Charlotte's skin leaving a red scratch where the flesh used to reside.

"Now that you're here and sitting in my shadow we can begin your...orientation." Charlotte shivered at the word her terror only eclipsed by the beating feeling in her chest. "This is my world, Charlotte Lile, and the only way out is through my way. You can resist all you want it won't change a thing. If you light a sheet of paper on fire its will to persist won't stop it from burning, only water can do that." The woman stood and began walking toward the door her slender fingers flipping a switch on the wall that sat the gurney upward to face a massive red wall seamless and without flaw.

"But pouring water on paper will kill it anyway. You're the paper, Ms. Lile. It's your choice whether to burn or drown but it's not your choice whether to live or die. It's mine." Appearing through an opening in the metal another switch sprung to life prompting the elegant woman to flip it to which the floor opened letting the gurney sink into it like a rock in the ocean. "Fortunately for you, I've chosen to allow you to live." Charlotte's strained breathing became heavier as the light from above was slowly fading away Venus blocking the light that remained as she veered over the whole to the frightened woman unable to speak or even move her body.

"Welcome to the Scarlet Chamber, Ms. Lile. You are going to be here for a VERY long time. In one way or another anyway." Those words, so cold, so haunting...The Scarlet Chamber? Makes sense since everything is red. Why me? Why would she bring me of all people here? Is it because of my conversation with Kenny? If that's true then why would Luccas have brought me in any way? So many questions...nothing's making sense and where am I going?! It's so dark and cold it feels like I'm underground all this stale air...underground... yeah maybe that's where I am...

Abruptly the gurney came to a standstill a massive gym-sized room circling all around her the smell of mold and mildew burning Charlotte's sensitive lungs. The room was dusty you could see it in the air and there didn't seem to be any hope for light until a small panel opened on the floor releasing a storage cylindrical object through it.

As if she were a slab of metal about to be treated leather bracers locked Charlotte in place as the gurney inclined to have her in an almost standing position facing the object still rising through the floor. "Is that a-" Charlotte was silenced with a blast of water the chill it assured and the pressure from the blast painful enough to numb the sense and shatter whatever thoughts she may have had. Now drenched and back in a haze, Charlotte could marginally process the television being rolled into the room by two obscured figures the stand they carried holding a small box on one of its ledges.

The two figures doggedly dashed out of the room as a red light on the tv's base flashed to life signaling that it has been switched on. Charlotte got the light she wanted in the form of a static television screen but the sound that came with it was like a torment saved for the deepest corners of hell. A horrid high pitched screeching sound filled the room it's power enough to shake the television as if something has possessed it...something foul.

The noise cut Charlottes hearing like butter and the ringing...oh the ringing, it gave the feeling of being unable to hear yourself think a different meaning. Damn it, why now? Why here? Why when I can't even garner the will to concentrate? And why when my body is too weak to retaliate? Oddly enough in this torrent of hellish noise, a single thought managed to stand ground seemingly unaffected by the waves drowning her senses.

"Are we clear Ms. Lile?" The thought strung in a voice, not hers with emotion she didn't own. "In here even your thoughts are mine. Everything you had I control now, that's how it should be. That's how it WILL be. Everything has a place and that includes people. Willed above weak. Me above you." That's Venus' voice! How could she be in my thoughts! How is this even possible!? It's like she took control of my brain!

"Now for level two. I hope you are ready, Lile." Charlotte squirmed in protest as the voice in her head grew louder and more refined along with the sound splitting her head open. "Wait! Hold on!!" Nothing, her pleas meant nothing. To be rendered so helpless was a new feeling for her, to have her thoughts invaded her very privacy degraded in such a manner. That's fear. Everyone's fear is different but this. This is the sole definition...of fear. To be somewhere you don't recognize. And be too feeble to understand.