The Black Room

By Rebecca Susan John

The room has four walls, ceiling black and the floor with white tiles. The only source of light is a bulb hanging in the centre, out of reach. I woke up in the black room, leaning against the wall. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I started to look for doors or windows. There were none! If someone had put me here, there must me a way out. I started to tap on the walls, every square inch of it. I stomped on every tile to find a trap door or anything that gave hope to escape. Then there was the ceiling but I could not reach it. There were holes around the bulb socket that was probably the source of the oxygen in the room. I kicked the walls and punched the air in frustration just to hurt my limbs and send a shock up my spine. Leaning against the wall, I closed my eyes.

Screams. Screams of a lady, in so much pain that it might kill her. But when I woke up, there was pin drop silence. No one around. My shirt felt wet. There were blood stains on my white shirt and blue cargo pants. I checked myself for wounds but there were none. I saw that some liquid was oozing from the walls. It was blood. I smeared what was on my hands on to my pants and moved to the centre. Blood oozed down but never touched the white floor. I stayed in the centre and closed my eyes.

Screams woke me up again. The wall looked shiny. I touched it. It was a thick film of blood. But it never touched the floor. As I was about to smear the blood on the floor, there was water around my legs. The blood just disappeared from my hand. The water was crystal clear. Not stained but quickly rising. I was happy, now as the water rose, I could swim and reach the top and get out. But then I saw that was chained to the centre. Curse the soul that put me here. The water rose quickly but never touched the blood. I started to jump to get air. But then I gave up. I pushed the air out of my lungs and breathed in the water so that I would die quickly. As the bubbles went up in front of me everything started to go dark.

No chains and completely dry, but again in the room. No blood, nothing. Just me and the lone bulb that hung down. What was going on? Who was playing this horrible prank? Rage rushed through me as I hit the tiles with my clenched fist. I did not feel the pain. When I opened my eyes, I was burning, the blue flame spread from me to the floor and then the walls. I did not feel the heat. I only felt my anger. The flames climbed the wall and the blub shattered. The whole room was lighted by the flame. But I did not want it to stop. As I opened my eyes again, I saw a figure form from the flames. It got hold of me by my shoulder and shook me.

I was lying on the grassy fields of some forgotten land. I was relieved to escape that living hell. I pulled my hand to my face to protect my eyes from the sun but couldn’t. my hands, legs and neck were chained to the ground. I was trapped again. The wind started to howl against my ears like it was going to pull me out of the ground. I didn’t go with the wind, everything around me did. I tried to protect myself from the mayhem but I couldn’t do much. I laid there suffocating on the dust. 

I got up in the middle of the desert, my chains came free from the ground but they hung around me. I walked around aimlessly. With each step, the sun beat hard down. The heat became overwhelming and the chains mercilessly heavy. I couldn’t take it anymore. I tripped and fell into the sand face first, to open my eyes to cold water. When I slowly tried to break the surface, I sat on my bed, panting. The four walls and the ceiling was black. And there hung a lone bulb 

By Rebecca Susan John