Love Games

Thirty - nine: Trapped

"Come with me," Jack says as our kisses subside, his voice low, almost a whisper. Confused and still dazed from the moment we've just shared, I ask him, "Where are we going?"

I'm not sure what to expect, but I follow him without a second thought as he takes my hand. We walk down a long corridor, the end of which I can barely see.

It's huge, covered in something indescribably luxurious, but cold at the same time.

The whole house is like a labyrinth, full of secrets and corners that I am not sure I want to see.

Suddenly, a staircase appears in front of us.

The scene is strangely familiar - it is as if I have stepped into a scene from 'Titanic' where Jack is waiting for Rose.

The stairs are high, white, every tile, every element of the banister seems so perfect, as if the house had been built without a flaw, without a soul. Everything is white. Cold.

"What the hell is this?" I whisper to myself as I hurry after Jack, who doesn't slow down. His determination keeps me moving, even as a restlessness begins to grow inside me. His long strides force me to follow him, step by step, as if he is heading for some secret place he has not yet revealed to me.

My mind is full of questions. What is this place? Where is it taking me? And why does everything seem so unreal?

"Jack, wait!" I almost gasp, but he doesn't slow down. He pulls me even closer, as if he doesn't want to lose contact.

We hurry up the stairs, his hand still holding mine as if he will never let me go.

When we reached the first room on the left, I stopped for a moment and looked around.

All this silence and unfamiliarity began to be overshadowed by something more disturbing - fear.

The door in front of us is white with a red handle, a strong and unusual colour.

My eyes wander down the corridor, where each of the handles belongs to a door of a different colour. One is blue, one is green, one is yellow.

What the hell is this? My heart is beating faster and my head is full of questions I have no answers to. Where have I gone? Where am I?

I realise that I am all alone in this vast, unknown world.

Without people to support me. I miss my best friend Emma and the pain of not knowing her cuts me even more.

Why isn't she here? Why couldn't she tell me what was going on before I got this far?

Maybe I expected her to be with me in some way, or at least to make what I was going through more understandable.

Instead, here I am, trapped in a world where answers are shrouded in mystery, where doors of different colours are just another metaphor for everything I don't yet understand.

"Jack, what is this place?" I whisper, but my voice sounds faint, almost lost.

His pace slows.

He turns to me, but I don't find the comfort I'm looking for in his eyes. Instead, he seems to be hiding more than he is willing to admit. "You'll be safe here," he says, as if that explains everything.

But nothing is clear to me.

"Safe? From what?" I ask, louder than I intended because I feel the panic slowly overwhelming me. "What does all this around me mean? These colours, this door, this house...?" I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to find some meaning, something to hold on to.

Jack gently takes my shoulders in his hands, his touch warm but not reassuring at the moment. "Trust me. You'll be safe here," he repeats, but his words hang in the air, not really answering the questions racing through my mind.