Esoteric

Chapter 3: Meeting

Mary emerged from her sleep and awoke to what had become the familiar sight of the blinding lights. She groaned, realizing she was still in the same place she had known for as far as she could remember.

Sitting up, she reached for the paper and the pencil and reviewed the map she had drawn from yesterday. Mary quickly realized an entire day had passed and she must have been here for 24 hours. A whole day, and there were still no answers. She tried to jog her memory to see if she had any dreams from the previous night, but nothing came to mind.

Picking up the pencil and paper, Mary realized she had an irritating pain on the back of her head, probably from accidentally hitting her head on a cold, hard metal door the day before. She trudged through the hall hoping to find another place or clue that could explain why or how she was here.

Yet again, she found another door. It had the same identical wood as the last door, but this one had a vertical window. The design reassembled that of a classroom door. As with the previous door, this one easily opened and Mary stepped inside. Once again the room was decked out with white paint and white furniture, with three perfectly made beds sitting on the farthest wall from the door. As Mary had noticed with all the previous rooms and hallways, there were no windows that showed the outside world.

Along with the beds, there was a white desk sitting on the right side of the room, with a luxurious looking office chair. There was nothing in on on the desk to accompany the set up.

Finally, there were twinkling string lights hung up by twine along the ceiling of the room. Mary was completely impressed by the design and everything in it, considering it was the first room she had encountered with the most personality. She trotted over to the bed that sat in the middle of the others and sat down. Feeling the fabric of the sheets in her hand and the fluffy pillows, Mary was ecstatic at the fact that she could have somewhere new to sleep. She quickly jotted down her new discovery on the paper.

Suddenly there was a soft knock at the door. Mary jumped and goose bumps crawled up her back. The knock increasingly got louder and more impatient, and Mary grabbed her things and hid under the bed. After a few more moments of knocking, she heard the door knob being twisted open. She watched from under the bed as she saw someone walking into the room, wearing the same white socks. Out of fear, Mary held her breath and closed her eyes, hoping she wouldn't be seen.

As the footsteps got closer, Mary realized she would need to confront them. What if it was whoever had trapped her here? Grabbing the pencil, she crawled out from under the bed and froze when she saw a girl.

"Nah! They gave you beds?" The girls eyes widened as her gaze met Mary's, and she looked equally as confused and shocked. Wearing the same outfit as Mary, she was skinny and had mid-length, curly brown hair. She looked to be around 17 or 18. Her eyes were a deep brown and pierced right through Mary.

"Uh...who is 'they?' W-who are you?" Mary stuttered.

"I don't know. Who are you?" The girl rolled her eyes at the question.

"I'm...Mary. I think?" Mary was still shocked that she was interacting with another person and tried her best to muster a competent response.

"Nah! They gave you a name?" Once again she rolled her eyes and chuckled at her words.

"Yes, did...they...not give you one? Could you tell me who this 'they' is?" Mary looked down at the cold tile floor after talking, ashamed that she was being mocked by someone who didn't even know her.

The girl looked directly at Mary, almost as if shocked by the question.

"No!" She laughed harder this time, and then returned her attention to the room surrounding them. Mary watched her with questions racing through her mind.

The girl approached the desk and aggressively opened the drawers to find nothing. Mary occasionally looked down and then looked back up, wishing that she would just leave. Finally, after a few tense moments of the girl inspecting the room, Mary got the courage to speak.

"So like...where did you come from? How did you get here? All I remember is standing in front of double doors in a long hallway."

Once again, the girl looked startled by the fact that Mary was speaking. She turned around to face her and sneered, "Same place as you came from. Except I wasn't in front of a double door. I woke up in a completely empty room, but I found my way out."

"Oh...interesting. I didn't even really wake up, I was just kind of standing. And when I looked around I saw writing on the wall that said "HI MARY" in bold. That's why I think my name is Mary. And then I found an exit door that didn't open, and eventually I found this room." Mary tried to sound as friendly as possible, hoping the girl would stop being so passive aggressive.

"Thanks for the life story. I'm writing all of it down right now so I can add it to your biography later." She continued looking under the beds, pulling off the sheets, and inspecting the walls.

Mary once again felt embarrassed by the fact that she was just letting this person make fun of her. She had been here first, why did this girl think it was her place to act so rudely?

"Anyway, uh...what do you think your name is?" Mary swallowed nervously after speaking, expecting another rude comeback.

"I don't know. I haven't even seen myself yet. But I feel like I would be named something like Molly." She quietly signed as she stopped searching the room.

"I think Molly fits you. Have you not encountered the bathroom or something? Yesterday I found a room with a toilet and a mirror and I was able to see myself," Mary informed her.

"Um, no, I'm assuming if we started in different places than we probably took different paths which eventually lead to here." Molly now stood across the room with her arms folded.

"Yeah, I was just wondering...Also, do you know how or why we're here? Do you know the people who put us here or something?" Mary questioned.

"Yes. Personally, I'm great friends with them. We all go out to dinner sometimes, and then we drive home and sing karaoke together," she answered, sarcastically.

"Okay jeez, I was just wondering. You were mentioning 'they' earlier, so I thought you know something..." Mary trailed off.

"I was saying that to refer to whoever is behind all of this. Stop taking everything so seriously."

"What? Have you not noticed this isn't serious? We're trapped in some undisclosed building and we have no idea who are are!" Mary felt her face turn red with anger.

"I'm aware. You're over analyzing everything."

Mary huffed and sat down on one of the beds. She fought the urge to cry. Molly glanced over the room once again. She sighed and then slowly turned to the door she had come from.

"Where are you going?" Mary asked.

"Trying to find a way out. I don't want to spend the rest of my life in some asylum looking building. You're welcome to stay though."

Mary quickly got up and solemnly, pen and paper in hand, and followed Molly out the door. As upset as she was, she couldn't help but to feel relieved that she wasn't the only person here.