The AntiChamber

Into Darkness

I open my eyes to see a black and white striped room; it reminded me of graph paper. I'm staring at a black wall; at the top it says 'Controls'. I turn to my left and see another black wall; only this one has a giant picture on it. The picture is of a curled up baby, I think it's still in the womb. At the bottom it says 'Press'. I walk over to the wall with the picture; I place my fingertips against the cold wall and gently press. The picture slides to the left and shrinks, another square appears right beside it. Words slowly start to fall against the black square, 'Every journey is a series of choices. The first is to begin the journey'. Then the picture slides over the other sign with the words and they shrink into a smaller square and float to the upper left corner.

Something catches my eyes on the corner of the control wall. I turn to see that a timer has appeared on it, 'You have 100.00 minutes to complete the chamber. Go to the first room to begin the journey'. Before I follow what the timer said, I look around the room some more. To the left of the control wall is the wall where the picture just was. To the right there is another black wall with the words 'Map' at the top. There is a white square in the middle of the wall. Behind me is a rectangular hole that takes up most of the wall. On the other side of the hole, there's a door with the word 'EXIT' above it. I walk over to the wall and I reach out towards the door, but my hand is stopped. It's actually a giant piece of glass. I guess that's my goal, to get to the other side of the glass and to that door.

I turn back to the map and walk towards it. I hesitantly press my finger to the small white square. A larger white square appears. At the top it says 'Leap of Faith', below there is a picture of a room. In there, there are the words 'JUMP?' floating over a giant hole. Below the picture it says 'press here to go'. I press my fingers against the words and the world around me starts to dissolve. I close my eyes tightly and wait. Suddenly, I feel air rushing past me, and then I feel ground. I open one of my eyes to see that I'm in the room that was on the picture. I open the other eye and look around.

There's nothing behind me except a creepy eye and nothing above me, just white walls. I look forwards and see the words 'JUMP?' I slowly walk forward and peak over the edge. It's a long drop, I can justify that much. I take a couple steps back and run towards the hole in front of me. I jump, but I don't make it. The hole is a lot wider than I originally thought it was. Air starts to rush past me and the floor at the bottom is getting closer by the second. I squeeze my eyes shut and wait for the floor. I feel the ground meet my feet, but no pain. I slowly open my eyes and see that I've fallen into a white room.

In front of me is a black hallway. To the right of the hallway is a black square. I walk towards it and get a better look at it. The black square has an image on it; the square has an image of a sheep jumping off of a cliff. After staring at it for a while, I decide I need to press it. When I press the picture it disappears. Slowly words appear against the black, 'Failing to succeed does not mean failing to progress'.

I turn back to the hallway and slowly walk into it. The hallway is pitch black, I turn to the right and look around, I see that there are now white lines on the four corners of the hallway. I continue to walk down the hallway, following the lines. At the end of the hallway, the blackness fades into white. There's another picture to my right, the picture shows a guy pointing down the hallway, behind him there's an arrow pointing in the same direction. I press the picture and it disappears, 'Some paths are clearer than others'. That doesn't make much sense...

I decide to keep going and I look down the hallway and see a black arrow being painted and it's pointing to the right. I follow the arrow and turn right at the end of the hallway. I walk down the other hallway and I see another picture to my right halfway down the hallway. It's of two people, one has his hands closed and another looks like he's thinking about which one to choose. I press the picture and wait for the words to appear, 'A choice maybe as simple as going left or right'. I look back down the hallway and see two sets of staircases, one going up and another going down. The one going up is nice neon blue and the one going down is neon red. I decide to go down the red staircase. I walk down the red staircase and end up in another white hallway. I walk down the hallway and turn right; I end up exactly where I just was.

This time I decide to go up the blue stairs and see where it takes me. At the top, I'm confronted with yet another white hallway with a right turn at the end. I walk down and turn right, only to be back again in the same hallway. The only change in the hallway is that there is another picture there. It's exactly opposite of the first one. I go and look at it; it's about the same two people from before. Only this time, the guy who had his fists closed, now has them open, with nothing inside of them, he has a mocking smile on his face now. The other has his arms crossed his chest, not looking to happy about the outcome. I quickly press the image and read the text, 'The choice doesn't matter if the outcome is the same'. All I could do is stare at the picture. I look back again at the stair cases. Then it struck me, what if I went backwards and back down the staircases I already went through?

I turn around and head back down the hallway. I turn left and see that at the end is another left turn. That turn wasn't there last time I checked. I go down the hall and turn left again. At the end of the hallway, the walls fade into green and there's a right turn. What happened to the black one from before? On the right wall, right before the corner, there's a picture. I walk over to the picture and take a look at it. There's a guy on a pathway that has dropped his brief case. He has his hands on his head and marks around the head emphasizing that he is surprised. In front of him is a house that is on fire, I'm guessing that's his house. I press the picture and look at what it says, 'When you return to where you've been, things aren't always as remembered'.

I turn back to the right turn in the hall that has faded into green and start to walk around the corner. The green fades to white in the middle and into a neon red, like the stairs. There is another right turn at the end. I walk around it and there is another turn. The hall turns white in the middle and into a blue this time, again like the stairs from before. I walk around the corner expecting to have gone in a circle and be back in the hallway with the stairs. I'm confronted with another hall with a right turn. The process is the same, it turns white and this time it turns yellow. I expect to walk around the corner and have gone in a circle that I can never get out of. I'm surprised when the hall isn't green but magenta this time. Now this isn't possible. There's yet another turn, when I walk around it, the color is a light turquoise. This time I run around the turn and the hall fades into black this time. There's not another turn, but a door this time.

There's a red laser in front of the door. I walk slowly down the hall and stop in front of the laser. I cautiously reach out my hand and break the laser. The door slides up, I jerk my hand back and the door drops back to the ground. I walk through the laser and the door raises again. On the other side of the door is a white room. In there is another laser and a small black square in the middle of the back room. I can't quite see what is on the square. I walk under the door and through the second laser. The door drops to the ground and startles me. I turn around and walk back through the laser, but the door doesn't open back up.

I turn back around and walk towards the black square. It shows a finger pointing at what looks like the escape key on a keyboard. I touch it and read the sentence, 'Some choices leave us running around a lot without really getting anywhere'. I turn around and realize that I'm  trapped. The door has been replaced with another white wall. Now I'm in a white walled box. The only other thing is the room besides me, is the picture on the wall.

I turn back to look at the picture. I press it again just in case there is more. The original words disappear and are replaced with new ones, 'To go back to the main hub, press the ESC button on the watch'. I look down at my left wrist and see that there is now a watch on my left wrist. It doesn't look like a normal watch though. The band is thin and wide and the face is a flat piece of glass that is on top on the band. The band and the face both look like gray tinted glass with small moving particles.  It turn my hand and look around the watch, it doesn't seem to have any way to remove it. I look back at the face and touch it. The glass turned white and it faded through the band. The letters ESC appear in black in the middle. I touch them and the room turns black and then I'm back in the main hub. I'm facing the map on the wall from the beginning. There's no longer just a small square on it, there are now lines connecting to squares and circles. Compared to it before, it's grown a lot. I take a look around the room and see that two thing have changed.