1000 YEARS - Book 1 - Awakening

6. The Hallmate*

Her heart fluttered with the unease of doing something probably forbidden, as she leaned out the doorway and looked around. — Seth had vanished.

Before her lay an all-white corridor with three other identical doors: one across from hers and two more, also facing each other, to her left. Each doorway was a minutely recessed depression — the only thing that distinguished it from the surrounding solid wall. There were no discernable sounds; just the eerie, non-descript insane-asylum white of everything. The windowless space had no detectable light source, yet the corridor was bright — walls and ceiling seemed to be emitting their own light.

— Seth had to have vanished behind one of these doors. ...How would she find him? ...Was he making his rounds? Should she just stand here and wait for him to reappear?
No. She might be discovered by the doctors, ...or someone else! — She had an opportunity here, and if she wanted to make progress, she needed to be proactive!

She tiptoed out into the corridor, and no sooner had her back cleared the doorway that the door panel swished shut behind her. She jumped and rounded in alarm. — Shit! It would do no good to get locked out of her room!
Anxiously she pressed her palm against the door. The door immediately reopened. — Oh, thank goodness! ...She stepped back, and the door shut right away. Just for good measure she repeated the process once more and was rewarded with the same results. — Good! She breathed a sigh of relief, elated to have figured out this unremembered technology.
Undecided, she stood silent for a minute before cautiously padding to the doorway across from hers. Up close she could faintly hear the muffled sounds of a male voice. — Seth? For several moments her hand hovered undecidedly over the door panel.

Should she knock? ...What if she ran into someone else? — It would be dangerous, not knowing friend from foe!
If she ran into the wrong person, her unauthorized 'escape' would be discovered — and there would most certainly be consequences.
...Maybe she could improvise? ...feign ignorance? ...when in doubt, act stupid...!? That should not be too hard, considering the confounding technology they were hiding from her. — 'Oh, I'm sorry, I had no idea. The door just opened!' ...Yep, that should work! It wasn't even too far from the truth.
And if she ran into someone ...useful? ...she might finally get some real answers to her questions; since her caregivers were so 'tight-lipped'!?

Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself to knock. But as soon as her knuckle made contact with the surface, the door swept open and revealed a narrow, marble-tiled foyer with a large, garishly ostentatious sitting room beyond. Gilding and gold accents adorned every surface: from the wallpaper to the oversized chandelier and wall sconces, all furniture surfaces and assorted 'ornamental' knickknacks, and the cannonball feet that supported the single overstuffed golden armchair which faced the distant wall and the (— yes, gold trimmed!) oversized, blaring 3D television that stood in front of the wall-spanning floor to ceiling panorama window. — It looked as if a leprechaun had vomited the contents of its pot-of-gold over every surface in the room.
— At least that was how it appeared through her film-covered eye. Through her other eye all this gaudy pompousness consisted of the same chalcedony-like material found in her room. Obviously, the reality-altering technology had been applied to this space as well!

The blaring male voice came from a commentator on a horserace that played out on the 3D projection television; and she noticed a tuft of disheveled dirty-blond hair sticking up above the high back of the armchair.

"Hello? Excuse me..." she called from the safety of the corridor. — No reaction.
After hesitating for a moment, she put one foot into the foyer and leaned forward. Her repeated call came to the same fruitless outcome. Whoever was sitting in the armchair was either totally engrossed or completely deaf!
She stepped fully into the foyer and the door immediately shut behind her.
"Hellooo?..."
She took another step and leaned into the sitting room.
"HELLO! EXCUSE ME!" she shouted at the tuft of hair, and, with a metallic clatter, a corpulent man rounded out of the armchair sloshing a purple can of what she guessed to be beer. At his feet a dozen or so empty purple cans rolled and clanked as his foot kicked them around the floor.