You're standing at the edge of your life - or what used to be your life, but do you jump?
It's not only the struggle of not knowing, it's also a journey through your past. It's an emotional roller coaster between live and death. And most of all, i...
When I wake up I feel numb. I hadn't slept in a long time but now that I did I feel even more tired. I blink a few times and wipe the sleep from my eyes. I'm still with my head on Katy's stomach. 'Eve?' I hear someone whisper. 'Yeah?' I whisper back. I think I'm talking to Katy. 'How do you feel?' the same person whispers. I now remove my head from Katy's belly and I see that it's indeed her that I'm talking to. 'I'm fine,' I say 'you?'. 'I'm okay, I guess,' she pauses and I wonder what she's thinking about. 'But,' she continues, 'but I feel like we're running in circles... you know, that we're just doing the same thing over and over again without getting closer to an escape.' She says. I know exactly what she's talking about, I too have thought about that a lot. Our lives have been rewound and played back to us, right in front of our eyes, but we still know nothing. 'I know,' I eventually say. 'but what more can we do?' I ask but since we both don't know the answer we sit in silence. (well I sit, Katy still lies on her back, staring at the ceiling, deep in thoughts...)
I grab her hand and squeeze it softly. 'We'll get out of here, okay? I promise you, we'll get out of here together.' I say and she smiles weakly. 'I hope so.' She answers closing her eyes again.
A bit later Megan wakes up as well. She stretches her arms and legs. 'Man, I feel amazing!' she says half yawning. 'Slept well?' I laugh. 'Never before has sleep felt this good.' She says and she smiles brightly. I let go of Katy's hand and get on my feet. Megan also stands up and Katy sits up straight.
'Wait,' Katy suddenly mumbles and then she jumps onto her feet. 'I got it! Of course, it's so easy! So obvious! How could we not see it earlier?' she practically yells. 'What?' I ask and I look at Megan to see if she knows what Katy is talking about. Clearly not, she looks as confused as I feel right now. 'Well,' she begins, 'we were always looking at both sides individually but we have to look at the bigger picture!' she takes a quick breath. 'The first door on our left we were 1, right?' she doesn't give us time to answer. 'and the second door on the right we were 2, the third door on the left again we were 3. The fourth door on the right 4 and the fifth on the left 5, you see? It's that easy.' She says and she smiles brightly.
'Oh my god! Katy, you're brilliant!' Megan shouts and she hugs Katy tightly. I stare at them, I still don't get it. 'Um, guys,' I say carefully but they don't hear me. 'Guys,' I say a bit louder. They look at me. 'I still don't understand...' I say and now they stare at me. 'Seriously?' Katy asks and then she turns back to Megan. 'How did she always get better grades in math?' she then asks grinning. 'I guess a part of her brain has died completely.' Megan retorts and then they both burst out laughing. 'Yeah, yeah, very funny. Can you just explain it to me?' I plead. 'Okay, okay, I'll explain...' Katy says and she finally starts explaining. 'So first the left side, there we have 1, 11, 3, 13 and 5, right?' she looks at me. Does she really wants me to answer that? 'Right.' I say. She grins. 'Okay, there are still some brain cells alive in there,' she laughs but then she continues. 'On the right we have 10, 2, 12, 4 and 14. So if you put them together you see that the numbers 1 to 5 are in chronological order but just each time one on the left, one on the right, one on the left, one on the right, are you still following?' 'Hmm' I say nodding even though I lost her long ago. 'Okay,' she continues, 'then when you look at the numbers 11 to 14 you see that 11 is next to 1, 12 is next to 2, 13 next to 3 and 14 next to 4. That's each time the previous number plus ten.' She looks at me hopefully, like she's pleading for me to understand. 'Wait, I'll draw it for you!' she says and she gets a pen from the little pocket in her shirt. 'Where did you get that from?' I ask surprised. 'It sat in my pocket when I woke up in the white room, it must have been sitting in my pocket when we died.' She says like it's the most normal thing ever to say.
When we died... it still sounds so weird to me.
'You can write on my arm.' I eventually say but Megan retrieves a white piece of paper from her pocket. 'Did you also found that in you magical pocket?' I ask, expecting the answer to be yes but she shakes her head. 'No, I wanted to tell you guys but I didn't really know how,' she says and me and Katy both look at her with a puzzled look. 'When we came back from the last memory I was holding this note. I don't know how I got it or where I got it from but here I was holding it...' she says. 'What does it say?' Katy asks and I walk over as well to read it myself. My heart sinks as I read the words that are written in black letters. "If the time is right, JUMP."
Jump? Jump from what? From where? I'm even more confused now. 'What does it mean?' I ask. 'I have no idea.' Megan says. 'Me neither...' Katy agrees. We all stare at the words until Megan turns the paper. 'Anyway, we were explaining the logical order of the doors to you.' She says. 'Right,' Katy continues. She sits down onto the ground and starts drawing squares with numbers in different colours. (Thank god it's a four-coloured pen she found in her pocket!)
When she's finished she turns the paper so I can read the numbers.
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She has combined all the red numbers with a line and all the blue numbers with another line. 'Can you see it?' and finally, after all this time I understand. 'YES!' I exclaim. 'Yes, I finally understand!' I start laughing 'So that means that we have to go to the last door on the right.' I say with a questioning tone. 'Indeed!' they both agree and then we all jump onto our feet again. 'There might be a way out of here after all!' Katy laughs and she grabs my hand and starts pulling me along with her towards the ninth door. 'Are we ready?' I ask when we all reached the last door. They both nod and I step onto the elevator button and the doors open. When Katy and Megan are inside I run in as well. The doors shut and the lights turn on.
'Do you see any differences?' I ask while walking over to my shelves. 'Apart from the fact that there are a lot less bottles everything looks the same.' Megan says and I see her reach for the last bottle. I take the last bottle as well. I can't see which one Katy takes but within seconds we all have a bottle and turn to face each other. And just like always, we look at each other one last time and then pull it open at the same time.
