Just as Max had started to become forcibly accustomed to the stifling darkness of the room she had been confined to, a sudden ticking sound broke the impermeable silence. Max backed up against the wall of the dark room, and grabbed her car keys, positioning the sharp ends of the keys in between her fingers, and balled her hands into a fist. She didn’t know what the ticking sound was, but when that door opened, she was ready to take on whatever was waiting for her one the other side. The ticking sound started to get faster and faster, then suddenly stopped, with a loud clicking sound. Max stood there, awaiting her fate with her head held high, but her body trembling.
“You can come out now,” Max heard a man’s voice say from behind the door, “when the timer ends the door unlocks.” Max lowered her fists, but kept the sharp end of her car keys ready.
“Tell me you you are,” She said. Whomever was behind the door laughed snidely.
“You first,” said the voice, “I gotta know what I’m going to see when that door opens.” Max gritted her teeth. Max guessed that this might be the woman’s husband, or maybe some sort mobster that was going to hold her hostage for a sum that her mother would never be able to pay.
“I’m Max,” she said, “some lady just locked me in this room,” The voice took a while to respond.
“Look sunshine, just come out of that room and…” the man paused, “well, lets just say, whatever situation you were in before you entered that room, ain’t going to matter at all anymore.”
“Are you with her?” Max asked, her eyes locked on the door handle.
“I’m not “with” anyone, if you could just open the door you’ll see what I’m talking about,” the man replied snidely. Max lowered her fists, but still kept her car keys in her hand.
When Max opened the door, she expected to see the basement again, but she was instead greeted by an entirely new room. Max froze in place. It kind of looked like a bathroom from the twenties, teal tiles with pink accents that went halfway up the wall, but there was no furniture in sight. There were two doors, the one that Max had just came out of, and another on the far end of the room. A black man with an afro, dressed in a satin shirt, patterned bellbottoms, platform shoes, and dark aviator sunglasses was leaning against the wall in the middle of the room.
“I’m guessing,” the man said, lowering his sunglasses, revealing a pair of dark brown eyes, “that this room looks nothing like wherever you were before you found yourself behind that door.” The man stepped way from the wall, and gestured towards the door at the far side of the room.
“They say it’s best to show, instead of telling,” he said, “open that door for me, walk in to the room and close it behind you, then turn around and open it again.” Max walked froward steadily, making direct eye contact with the man.
“After I do that, you’re going to tell me what the hell is going on,” she said sternly. The man gave her a knowing smirk. Max proceeded to do as the man said, first opening the door at the far end of the hall. There was something different about this door, unlike the door she had just exited, it had a symbol carved into the wood right above the handle. A circular drawing of a snake eating its own tail. Max ran her pointer finger over the carving, feeling the intricately carved grooves on the snake’s scaly body.
“You know what that means?” The man asked. He looked at Max with genuine curiosity. Max nodded.
“It’s like some old symbol, I think it’s called the Ouroboros. I’m pretty sure it was used to represent the concept of infinity or the circle of life.” The man looked slightly dissatisfied with Max’s answer.
“But you don’t know what it means when it’s on a door like this,” he muttered. Max shrugged, and pulled open the door, revealing another room. Max and the man entered the room, and closed the door behind them. Max turned around like the man had told her to and opened the door again, but not to the same teal tiled room she had just been in. The man clicked his tongue.
“That,” he said, pulling the sunglasses off his face and hanging them on the brim of his shirt, “happens whenever you’re going to open a door from now on.” Max stared at him listlessly.
“You, sunshine, are trapped just like I am,” he said, “I entered the same room you did once, and since then Ive been opening doors, walking into room after room, each one different from the rest.” The man pursed his lips together for a second, and furrowed his brows into a slightly pitiful look.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Of course, the rooms occasionally repeat themselves, but it’s still pretty disorientating,” he muttered, turning on his heel to face the doorway. Max put her hands out in front of herself dramatically.
“Trapped? Oh hell no. This is not happening, I’m getting out of here,” she shouted rushing towards another door frantically. The man grabbed onto her shirt to stop her, nearly ripping it off her body. Max turned around and thrusted her key into his face, raising her eyebrow.
“Cool it, sunshine,” he said, his hands above his head and his eyes locked onto the tip of her car keys.
“I’m not your damn sunshine.” Max said, her hand steady. The man smiled innocently at Max, sweat accumulating on his forehead.
“If you go running off alone like that you’re going to get yourself killed,” he said, “I’ve been here a while, seen some things you wouldn’t want to think about if you want to sleep soundly at night.” Max scoffed, not because she didn’t believe him, but because the whole situation was completely absurd to her.
“We aren’t the only ones, the only things that have found their way in here,” he said, “If we travel together they we are going to have a better chance, plus I’ve been in here long enough to kind of get a hang of the place.” Max looked down at the man’s clothes. A pit started to form in the center of her stomach. The man had either been attending a disco themed costume party, or had been trapped wherever “here” was for a long time. Max lowered her hand, and the man straightened himself.
“What’s your name, and how the hell have you been staying alive without food or water,” she said. The man laughed nervously.
“Whatever we are trapped in, it doesn’t want us to die,” he said, “right when you are on the brink of thinking you’re in trouble, BOOM, there’s a fresh plate of food and a full glass of water.” Max was going to make an argument about how none of that make sense, but then she remembered that nothing about whatever situation she was in remotely made any sense.
“Oh, and my name’s Ezekiel, but everyone calls me Zeke,” he added.
“Well,” she said, lowering her hand and finally clipping her car keys back onto her belt, “lead the way Zeke.” Zeke frowned at her, as if she had said something wrong, and kicked his feet like a disappointed child.
“Well, um, I was thinking that you could lead the way?” He said, “I have a theory that the rooms you get are based on whoever opens them.” Max shrugged.
“Whatever,” she said, “you’re the one that said you had a hang of the place.” Max turned around and headed towards a door. I need to search every single room that I come across, she thought, there has to be something that can give me more information about this place. Zeke followed her tentatively, his hands clasped behind his back.
“You said that you’ve seen some freaky shit in here,” Max said, opening the door, “what exactly did you mean by that?” They were in a library now, which was noticeably bigger then any of the rooms they had been in previously. The library was actually quite impressive, despite all the books being slung across the room in random piles.
“Well, there are other things that have been trapped in here,” Zeke said, casually kicking one of the books across the floor, “I don’t really know what they are, but they definitely aren’t animals or people. I don’t really stick around to find out, cause I don’t really think humans are equipped do deal with that kinda supernatural looking stuff, I mean, we don’t even know what’s going on with all these doors.” Max picked up a book off the floor. Each book was identical, bound in dark leather, with the same snake symbol embroidered onto the cover with gold thread. Max opened the book, and quickly realized that every page was the same, the words “The prison is malfunctioning,” printed repeatedly in dark red ink.
“Prison,” Max muttered. Zeke looked at her, slightly alarmed.
“Prison?” He asked, “do you know something about this place that you’re not telling me?” Max tossed a book at his chest. Zeke opened it and looked inside.
“Oh, that’s pretty ominous,” he said, “I’ve been through this room before I think, but I never looked at any of these.” Max looked at his face, trying to read his body language for anything strange. There was something off about him, but Max couldn’t put her finger on it. If he had been here for so long, and kept opening doors for all that time, for so long that the rooms started to repeat, and he never looked at anything inside of the rooms?
“You have been in this room before, a giant library filled with strange identical books, and you never looked inside any of them?” She asked. Zeke pursed his lips again, and gave her another innocent look. Max narrowed her eyes.
“You’re the only other human I’ve seen since I entered this place,” he said, “It’s not like I have been the most mentally sound when I’ve been walking through these rooms.” Max turned away from him without a word and started picked up another book, looking inside of it to see if it was any different.
While Max continued picking up books, Zeke walked over to the next doorway and opened the door for himself, peeking into the next room that had been generated for him. It was a painfully long hallway, completely shrouded in darkness. It would take hours to reach the next door at the end. Zeke frowned and closed the door. Angry, aren’t we, he thought, stepping away from the door, you always give me the unpleasant rooms when you don’t like what I’m doing. Zeke sighed, smiling slightly, and closed the door.
