12.

Alisha Kelly was five years old when she was first brought to a local pool for a swimming lesson and the memory of that day was to always stay with her. She was cautious at first with the sight of so much water, she couldn't go in there ... not by herself, even at the shallow end. Mummy had always told her to stay away from water but in this moment, mum was being encouraging and if mum says so then it must be alright.

She had her own instructor and once she had gone into the water and over to her instructor, Alisha appeared to take to it ... well ... like a duck to water. She loved it, every second of that first day, and she took to swimming as quick as or quicker than most five-year old's would and fairly soon, she was as good at swimming as some who would be twice her age or even three times her age.

Swimming would be her sport, her game of choice to the point where she would go competing and do quite well for herself. There had been a brief period where she had backed away from it for a while when she was ten but that was to be expected. If anything, the break away from it aided her to bring herself back to herself just as much as being around four new friends would.

That first swimming lesson was twelve years ago ... fast forwarding back to the here and now, her room of choice is entered into, and how a skill she learned so long ago will aid her in that here and now is something she could never have anticipated. Not every room at the Flesh Factory is set up in darkness and of course, no two rooms are the same though the one she gets so happens to be one of darkness. Like any other challenger that takes this place on, once inside a room the door is locked behind her with clanging clunks that are ominous in their own right.

From what she can see, there is a chair almost right in front of her and on that chair ... there so happens to be a stuffed red fluffy heart, just like the one she has at home in her bedroom, the one she chose at carnival after Gary had won a prize and had let her choose it. Perhaps this is the same exact heart. Anything else that may be in this room, she will have to discover its presence with quite the element of difficulty.

Like someone watching a horror movie shouting at a main character to not be stupid enough to go after the ominous sound especially when said character is all alone, she's all for staying in one spot ... try stay away from trouble rather than go seek it out but she cannot help herself. A viewer can always inquire as to why a main character would move to a suspicious source when it is clear and obvious that this character is going to be in for a shocker of a time, actually being in the moment is another thing. For Alisha, maybe the best course of action is to go into the darkness.

She may not be staring in her own horror movie, but this right here is as good as the next best thing and as it so happens, movement is not such a good course of action at all. Hardly ten steps into the room and Alisha has lost her footing ... with good reason too.

There is no floor where she has stepped into, nothing level at least, and needless to say she realizes this too late as she plunges into water, a lot of water. She is already well beneath the surface before she could even think about catching a breath and right away, she struggles. It takes her a few seconds before she can think in any way. A water safety rule in situations like this is not to fight. The natural instinct when plunged into water is to fight it, attempt to get top side aggressively when relaxing herself will get her there quicker.

It's crazy just how much can run through your mind in just a few short seconds as it also is crazy that such a thing can happen when a moment of sudden danger has come your way. Perhaps a thought comes, subconsciously perhaps, that you are not going to make it and almost in accepting that ... your mind turns to the past rather that to what needs to be done in the current moment.

Or perhaps it is the belief that all is fine or will be fine that encourages certain thoughts to arise. Yeah, perhaps the belief exists that all will be fine, and that is what sends your mind into a wonderous play back.

During Alisha's time underwater, she thought about her swimming lessons and of many of the races she competed in. She also thought about her little sister, she thought about dancing with her little sister and of one routine in particular and of the lyrics of the song playing to that routine ... I just came to say hello ... How Alisha would much rather be in that moment of memory rather than within the confines of her current predicament. Yeah ... she just came to say hello ...

Now floating topside and having caught her breath right here in the present, there is that what now moment. She cannot see very much so how much of the room does this water encompass? She cannot stay in the water for ten hours, no, that won't do, especially given current circumstances ... there could be anything in this water with her.

Besides the thoughts that anything could be in this water with her, there is the fact that it is water, and cold water at that too so simply floating on the surface like this surly will mark her down for challenge failure adding potential loss of life to a list of reasons she cannot stay where she is. Getting out of this ... pool, is a must.

As it would have it, the pool is approximately ten foot by ten foot with it quite likely being ten-foot-deep making a perfect cube. The room is so much larger than being a ten-foot by ten-foot cube. The square pool likely takes up just a small corner of the room. Once the realization is made that this room is so much bigger than just what it is that Alisha had fallen into, she is out, and a second chair can soon be seen.

On that second chair there is a towel and a set of clothing that just so happens to fit Alisha perfectly. Was Alisha always meant to come to this room? Did she actually choose it at all? Did someone know she would fall in? perhaps someone else is in here with her, ready to add some sort of set up as each situation occurs?

Each of the five friends all chose a number, they had been free to do so. Perhaps somehow, they each were pre-programmed, subliminally bombarded so a choice made or to be made was no choice at all.

Will someone be watching her as she changes clothing. She could move into complete darkness in order to change though what else may be in that darkness? And it could be quite possible that infra-red could be used to some degree. Hell, she needs to change clothing and she will change unless something presents itself giving her cause to re-think.

The room currently is so quiet, Alisha is almost afraid to do anything at all for fear that something will come at her out of the blue. The sound of wetness hitting the floor as she wrings out her hair has an odd weirdness to it. There is an odd sense of being back down at her local pool, or perhaps the sense is more something similar to what she would feel only just having concluded some sort of swim meet.

The thought enters her mind of as to if there was something in that water, has it been treated with something it shouldn't have? Is there some chemical or other in it that may alter how she feels or maybe cause her some sort of harm before the night is over? Might it cause her sickness in time, sickness she may not recover from? No point thinking of the likes of that unless something were to give her reason to think such a way.

One thing is for sure and that is that the night is going to be a long one and it has only just begun. Hell ... once changed, Alisha decides what the hell? That particular routine with her sister, she is going to go through it to calm herself and perhaps to piss off her capture if he is watching ... a dance to suggest she is fine and well, she won't be broken mentally, or physically if she can help it. Yeah, she is going to do a lot more than just say ... hello.