15.

Within a bed within a currently unknown room within a currently unknown building, a young woman has awoken. This is not Room 211 of The Mulberry Hotel though it is a room just as relevant as Room 211 of The Mulberry Hotel and it may take some time before such a fact can be truly known.

Unknowingly to herself, and to others including a lady who did wake in Room 211 of The Mulberry Hotel, this young woman is just one of a number of people on this day to awake suffering memory loss within a town none of them are as of yet properly or even fully aware of.

This room she woke in ... it is hardly illuminated though it is lit to the point where she can see her surroundings. Outside the room beyond the doorway, it is dark, quite dark. It is so dark that nothing could have been seen of what is beyond this room through the glass panels prior to opening the door she reached for; then again, those glass panels are rather dirty. If she has been brought here, to wherever it is here is, then why here and not some place ... cleaner? Maybe here had once been ... cleaner.

She sticks her head past the door to see what might be seen in an effort to be able to revert back inside the room as quickly as she can if she needs to, not that doing so can do her any good if there proves to be trouble nearby.

This doorway she is at is the only one into and out of the room so if any kind of trouble is near then there really isn't anywhere for her to go. If someone or something threatening sees her then hiding under a bed will not and cannot save her. She realizes this fairly quickly though, as it would appear, there is no one in the immediate vicinity. There had been someone else but that was ... that was before.

Calling out to see if she receives a reply is not something she particularly wants to do, so stay as silent as possible is how she moves forwards. Now wholly out in a hallway, she can better take in her surroundings despite how dark it is. As she comes out of that doorway, when she looks left, she can see a short staircase that leads downwards and a compulsion takes her towards the top of those steps.

Going down there can only be a bad idea based on looks alone, but what if this is the way out of this building. There is no signage, nothing in particular which might suggest any possible way out, so in a way making the choice to go down there in an effort to find a way out is as good an option as any. This first choice is a kind of a fifty-fifty choice, either left and down or right only to soon be given a further option of either left or right.

Yeah, based on that look alone, not that much of anything can be seen, it more than likely not a way out but the compulsion to go down these steps and at least investigate is too great. There could be anything down there including a possible multitude of danger, still on she goes.

She looks around, slowly doing a full three sixty before taking a descending step, no matter if this does nothing to make her any more aware of anything in particular. This hallway she is in, the far side of the double doors she came from, the right turn if she had of taken it, is slightly longer than the distance she has moved over towards the steps. Before she has an opportunity to move down these steps, she can hear something, footsteps, footsteps coming from beyond this hallway, on its other side, a sound of footsteps from the hallway beyond this one.

So now, even if she hadn't already decided to head down to a lower level she may just have to, especially if she wants to avoid whatever it is that could be creating those footsteps she hears. She hasn't seen anything, or anyone arrive yet, so down she goes. Would it not be a good thing to make contact with others if there are others here? Who knows? For now, she would rather avoid contact until she can possibly know better ...

As quickly and as quietly as she can she moves down these steps. One flight of stairs, not many more than possibly twenty steps, is descended and then through a very short hallway that brings her into a darkened place. There are a few wall mounted LED lights spread out down here making it clear that this place, that this room is enormous.

These wall mounted lights are weak; they do no more than barely illuminate the spot they each take up. If this room contains anything at all within it, then what it is it may contain cannot be seen.

The floor down here is pure concrete and with her lack of footwear she instantly feels the chill, the coldness of that floor. The area her feet first make contact with is smooth and clear though much of the floor is covered with debris, debris which is extremely difficult to see. Maybe coming down here was not such a good idea.

The lack of sound is deafening, her own breathing is noticeable and there is a plop ... plop ... plopping sound down here, water is pooling somewhere but cannot be seen. This might be of some concern then again it may be of no concern at all.

There must be a way out of this building, and it is quite unlikely that a way out is located down here, for if such were located down it then it possibly would be much easier to see; surely an exit would be accompanied by some kind of lighting. Down here nothing can be easily seen, however down here is where she has come to be.

Up where she had just come from, those footsteps she heard, do they belong to the person who had come to the room she had woken in? If not, then how many other people are within this building? Are any of them in the same situation she is in? No matter if there had been just the one other person in this place, or if there had been more, if there are more, then could these other people be responsible for her condition? Had she been someone's prisoner?

Again, she needs to get out of this place, and if she does manage to get out then where could she go? What could she do? She clearly has no money, she hardly has any clothing, she knows of no home she may be able to call her own, she knows not of anyone she could contact, hell, she doesn't even have herself a name.

Being more than a little reluctant to go back up the flight of stairs she had come down from, at least for the moment, she decides to make her way around the room, maybe she can follow the wall right the way round in the hopes she may be able to find some sort of a door or two.

If she is lucky there will be a direct route to the outside where she will take her chances once such a time comes, if she is a little less lucky then she may find a way into another part of this building without having to return back up that flight of stairs. And if she has no luck at all then she may be trapped in this place and forced to deal with whoever or whatever else there is which could possibly be near, and again she knows as little about this place as she does about herself so how can she possibly hope to accomplish anything?

For the moment at least, stick to this plan of hers, walk around by the wall and see what she may find. There will be no venturing out into the center of the room itself or anywhere at all away from the walls unless such a thing becomes absolutely necessary for it is so dark down here that nothing at all can be seen within the room itself.

It is indeed completely dark apart from the few weakly powered wall mounted lights which don't light much at all. She can't even tell as to what she may or may not be stepping onto. Yeah, it is a stone-cold concrete floor though if there is much debris of any kind laying around, which there is, then it could be very difficult to avoid.

Almost right away it becomes difficult to manoeuver. The distance between the lighting is great, so great that once one so happens to be out of the immediate range of a particular light then one could find his or herself consumed by darkness to the point where you may not be able to see your own hand if you held it out before you, and fairly soon she finds herself in such a position.

All this, all which is going on, is this some sort of punishment? There are so many questions that cannot be helped but be asked or thought. Is she no better than a rat in a maze? Is she someone's guinea pig? Or perhaps she has moved on from the land of the living and this place is some kind of limbo, a purgatory for lost souls. No, this can't be so, she cannot allow her current way of thinking to get too extreme. Deal with one problem at a time and move on as best she can. Answers will come; surely this nightmare she finds herself in will end sooner rather than later.

As if things can't get any worse, they do. The footsteps she previously had heard, she is sure these footsteps are now maneuvering down the single flight of stairs which she herself had travelled down. Ah hell, this is all she needs. A woman comes through, a woman who quite regularly wears a long white coat, some gold rimmed glasses and usually has her hair tied up in a bun. In this moment the white coat is not being worn and the hair is loose and not tied up.

This arriving woman takes a number of steps into the room and comes to a halt. She looks into the darkness as if she were putting forward a challenge. She moves her glance, searching for anything which may be, then holds her search for a moment. Is she able to see that someone else is within the room? With a smile taking hold of her face, she pushes those gold rimmed glasses of hers up along her nose then turns to head back towards and up those stairs.

Hidden by darkness in this moment is both a good and bad thing for something has been stepped on. A fist is bitten onto and not a sound is made, and a cover of sorts is not blown. A person being watched does not know for sure that she is being watched. Just as well for the moment perhaps, for there is enough to deal with as it is without adding a feeling of or actually being a watched rat dealing with one heck of a maze.