An Unfamiliar Darkness

A Small Victory

"Angel!" Kim cried out.

She had forgotten about her in the struggle. Romulus smiled at her and asked "who's that?"

Kim felt to bad and was too worried to be mad about him tricking her. She tried to stay calm but Romulus could see the panic on her face. Kim looked down thinking hard.

Romulus watched her hair with hidden fascination, it curled and uncurled itself as if it could breathe and move.

That was the first thing he noticed when he had looked into the room and found her and not Selena.

He turned his head away and wondered where his Selena could have ran off to.

Kim looked at him and with rushed words said "how do I go two floors up?"

"How did you get two floors down?"

"I fell"

"Two floors."

"Yeah."

Romulus was not surprised at all and Kim was surprised for he was not.

She shook it off and almost begged "how do I get two floors up from near where you found me?"

Romulus glanced upwards in thought and played around with some ideas then told her "well you could walk up four more corridors, take a left and two more hallways. Then a door with a window on it will show you stairs. But that's a awfully long way away from were you fell. So let me see, you could-"

Then he stopped speaking. Romulus's eyes filled with excitement as he seemed to be listening.

Kim looked at him confused and wondered what she should do. Then out of nowhere he mummers with a joyful sarcasm "I found you, my lovely Selena." And like that he went flying down the hallway.

"Wait, what!" Kim went flying after him.

"Is there any other way! Romulus wait!" he was halls away by the time Kim realized he was not going to stop.

She slowed to a walk and with a disapproving glance in Romulus's direction turned and ran back to the spot they had stopped at.

Kim started walking the direction that Romulus had mentioned and hoped he was not kidding.

She stayed close to the wall, mostly due to a bad omen. Silence engulfed the hallways.

Occasional soft sounds were heard but nothing more.

Kim counted the hallways she passed, more secure about finding Angel and seeing her alive and as well as she could be in a place like this.

At the 5th hallway she turned left like she was told and walked two more hallways.

And sure enough Kim found the door with the window. She could not see the stairs inside of it but knew she could trust Romulus on this.

The door was locked.

Walking back into an unlocked door sat a table and a few chairs. One chair sitting alone in a corner was wooden, and Kim broke off one of its legs.

She used it like a baseball bat and hit the little window as hard as she could. Glass shattered everywhere, anything near by would have heard.

Once again she thanked any god who was around for helping find shoes for her and put her arm in the new found broken window to unlock the door.

A peace of wood was nailed just a little above the door knob on the inside of the area Kim wanted in to.

She moaned with frustration. Leaning her head against the wall she thought maybe there's something else helpful in the room I was just at. Spinning on her heal she briskly walked back to the room.

Kim stood in the doorway taking in the environment. The only thought she had of it was "this would make a good scary movie" and walked in.

Kim had not noticed all the papers siting on the table before and picked one up. The piece of paper only had one thing written on it. The handwriting was too sloppy for her to read and set it back down.

The sound of a door closing almost silently tiptoed across the floor but Kim did not pick it up.

The room was dark. Only a few lamps kept it lit. Looking around the room did not give any ideas to help her and turned around to leave.

Kim walked into the newly formed wall and backed up instinctively.

She did all she could not to yell or panic while a false claustrophobic feeling enclosing in on her.

Kim felt the wall to see if it was her mind or not. It was a solid object and she cursed.

Walking across the room she sat down in a chair and stared at the wall. There was nothing odd about it, besides that it was not a wall before.

Kim buried her face in her hands and took deep breaths. Looking up again nothing changed. Did I just enter crazy ville or am I just skimming the edges of it? Any which way I've lost it.

Her eyes scanned the table at all the papers. Kim really did not want to read about any one else that had been stuck here.

Many of them had dates at the top. Ranging from 1900's to current day, it was not in order of any sorts and no pattern from what Kim could tell.

She pushed some around and looked at a few, but nothing would help the situation.

Kim went back to the wall and stared at it leaning against the table. She stood like that for a solid 5 minutes.

Grabbing a chair Kim slammed it as hard as she could against the wall. It did not shatter or break.

It looked like a wall.

Furiously Kim turned around and punched the table. Then she yelled and shook her hand in agony.

Sitting down again she placed her chin on her arms and sighed.

Closing her eyes she thought 'this would be a terrible death. All over the news if they ever find me would say "girl found dead in room. Starvation, too stupid to walk out of the door she broke herself." What if they don't find me? What if no one finds little Angel? That's okay, because I'm going to find Angel.'

Kim sat back, now determined to get out. Pulling herself closer to the desk she started to seriously think. Flipping through the papers Kim found the scribble one again and actually looked at it.

From what she could read, which was not much, was 'only. . .out, . . take.'

Kim shook her head in confusion and stared at it. Then like a sign that was invisible a moment ago Kim could read it.

She read out aloud to herself 'the only way out, is to take a step back.'

Standing up she looked at the wall then back down at the note. She analyzed the note seeing how complex it was.

Turning her back to the wall Kim hopped she would not fall as she walked backwards to it.

She stumbled thinking the wall was behind her, but no wall was found.

Kim continued walking out till the door way was in her view. A smile appeared on her face.

With a giggle she turned away, looked back at the door way that was once invisible then continued to walk to the original goal.

Kim tried to unlock the door again but it was already unlocked. She opened it, neglecting the fact of the wood that had been nailed to the door now sat in a corner Kim did not care to notice.

She looked at the stairs with pride from her small victory. Then proceeded to climb up.