Short Stories and Other Creative Waste

Put on Repeat

You know that feeling when you love a song so much that you put it on loop for a few hours and make yourself sick of it. You can no longer feel the same about it. I'm feeling that so much right now. The only difference, I die every time it loops. I woke up this morning, groggy and in pain, in a barren white room. No furniture or decorations, just white walls, a floor, and a roof. There wasn't even a door! I sat there for a good few minutes before the floor suddenly opened up and I began falling. Like a sensible human being, I began to panic. I fell for a few seconds that felt more like a few hours before landing in water. It was pitch black and I couldn't see anything except a distant white light. I began to swim, the only noise I heard being the splash of water as I swam toward the light. I kept swimming for what felt like fifteen minutes, but the light didn't seem to be getting closer. I stopped for a second to recollect my thoughts and heard something peculiar. I listened carefully and heard a rolling sound, like that of waves on a beach. It was faint, but it was close. I had to be close to land! I swam for about ten feet before a felt my hand hit solid ground, and I crawled out of the water, lying on the first solid surface I'd felt in too long. Suddenly a painful, blinding light filled my vision and caused me to close my eyes. After a long minute of getting over the pain, I slowly opened my eyes to reveal that I was in what looked like a larger version of the room I woke up in. This room, however, had a door. That door was wide open, revealing a lit hallway that was the same white as the room that revealed it. "Whoever designed this building should have really used a bit more creativity." I decided to walk down the hallway, choosing not to sit in this white room any longer. I had an uneventful, fifteen minute walk before finding a #2 pencil on the floor, the first interior decoration I'd seen in whatever asylum-like building this place is. I picked up the pencil and examined it. It was just a regular pencil with no special traits, but I picked it up anyway. At the very least it could be effective for self defense. I continued walking for an unknown amount of time before coming across a fork in the path. After a moment of realization that I have no idea where to go, I choose the left path, knowing that there is a fifty fifty chance of choosing the right path. However, I clearly chose the wrong path, because as soon as I took a step into the left hallway, a violent jolt of electricity shot through my leg and I blacked out.

I didn't know what happened to me after that. All I knew was that I was back where I started, in a small white room. After waiting a few minutes, yet again, the floor caved in and left me swimming in a pitch darkness. I followed the same events of finding the larger room, the pencil in the hallway, and finally the fork in the path. Having wisdom from my previous discomfort, I chose the right path. This time my first step didn't electrocute me, so that was progress. I kept walking, following a white hallway that was exactly the same as all the others before finding another fork in the road. After careful consideration I decided that I didn't trust the left path and decided to go right. I began walking and didn't get electrocuted, which was a good sign, but after I got about ten feet down the hallway, the path behind me sealed itself and the floor suddenly opened to reveal a dark chasm. I fell down the chasm at a speed that would surely kill me if I landed, which I did. I blacked out for the second time and woke up back in the small white room.