Persona: Breakout

The Garden's Light, Part 1

(Scene 1)
First Person POV

My eyes open to blue. Deep, endless blue. Music drifts through the space - a soft melody played on piano and violin. The notes hang in the air, lingering longer than they should. I see... a garden... The garden stretches impossibly in all directions. Tall hedges made of blue roses form walls that reach up into darkness. Each rose pulses with inner light, their petals thick and velvet-soft. Small specks of light float up from the blooms, drifting into the starlit sky above. The stars stay fixed, unmoving points of silver in the endless dark. Stone pathways wind between garden beds, their surfaces smooth and polished midnight blue. My footsteps would make musical notes if I could move. Small ponds dot the spaces between paths, their black surfaces refusing to reflect even the starlight. Blue roses grow in neat rows, their perfume heavy and never leaving, captured in a single moment forever.

I sit in a wooden chair. My body feels light. The chair faces a desk made of dark wood. Glass orbs float through the air around the gazebo, each one glowing with soft blue light. They move in slow circles, never touching, casting dancing shadows across the white marble pillars. Blue vines wrap the columns, small silver bells hanging silent until some unknown force makes them chime. The gazebo floor shows butterflies traced in blue stone, their wings spread in eternal flight. Stone benches line the pathways leading here, each topped with plush blue cushions. Behind the desk sits a strange man. His eyes bulge wide, unnaturally round. His nose stretches long and pointed. A grin spreads across his face, unmoving. White-gloved hands rest folded on the desk before him. His black suit absorbs the blue light, each button glowing like a star.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room," he speaks, his voice deep and calm. "This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter." His eyes fix on mine, unblinking. "My name is Igor. I am pleased to make your acquaintance."
To his right stands a young woman. Her black hair falls straight down her back, perfectly still despite the rippling of her dress. A blue velvet headband holds it there. Her gown flows like water, moving without wind. Her golden eyes watch me. "This is Patience," Igor says. "She will aid us on the journey ahead." "I sense great potential in you," Patience speaks, her voice clear as crystal bells. "The paths ahead hold many crossroads. I shall help you navigate them, when the time comes."

Igor's fingers tap once on his desk. "Let me tell you a story I know well. There once was a girl who loved the snow. Each winter she would catch snowflakes, trying to keep them from melting. But snow must melt. That is its nature." He pauses. "One day, she caught a perfect snowflake. Six points, each exactly matched. She wished so strongly to keep it. But as all snow must, it melted away." The bells on the gazebo vines chime softly. Small lights continue their endless drift upward from the roses. The black ponds stay perfectly still, mirrors of nothing. The floating orbs cast their light across Patience's face, making her golden eyes glow. "The girl could not accept this loss," Igor continues. "She spent every winter trying to catch that same snowflake again. Years passed. She grew old, still searching. Until one day, she too faded away, like snow in spring." His unblinking eyes study my face. "What do you suppose became of her perfect snowflake?"

"Time flows strangely here," Igor says. "But soon you must wake. When next we meet, a contract will await your signature. Until then, ponder the girl and her snowflake. Their story may prove more familiar than you expect." "Until we meet again," Patience adds softly, her words mixing with the bell chimes. "May your dreams guide you back to us." The blue light grows brighter. The music fades. Igor's grin and Patience's golden eyes stay fixed on me as darkness creeps in from the edges of my vision. The garden begins to blur, the floating orbs merging into streams of light. "We shall meet again," Igor's voice echoes as everything fades to black. "The next time by your own choice." The last thing I see is the garden stretching endless in all directions, every path leading back to the center where Igor waits...