Room 93 (FIRST DRAFT)

Day 7

'Gone! What do you mean gone?' Alexia screams out to the others. Astra steps forward and signals for the others to remain quiet,
'We mean: this morning we awoke and went down for food but it wasn't there,' calm fills Astra's voice and I can't help but admire the calmness she bathes everyone in,
'This is bad, very very bad.' Alexia mumbles. I cover my ears as they speak and curl up, the voices drumming in my head.

Rules, rules, rules. You need to follow the rules, Liz.

I cover my ears with my hands and hum as loudly as I can.

Listen to them, Liz! Listen to what they are saying...

I take my hands off my ears and listen to the others. They are mumbling and looking down in the warehouse at something on the floor. I stand up slowly and walk over to them.

They are all looking at a poem scrawled on the floor with flour. The words are diffrent from the last few poems but still in couplets.

Up above, way up high,
If you fall you cannot fly.

A breeze blows round me and makes my loose hair dance. I look round at the way the wind is coming from but, like the first room, there is no window or open land from which the wind could be coming from.

The floor below us begins darkening and turning into a grey colour. The walls and ceiling turn into a blue sky with clouds surrounding us. I feel the cold embrace me once more and the light of the sun blinds me. I look down at my little flat sole, blue leather shoes. The once white floor has been replaced by a metal grate, through which you can see small buildings and people walking round.

Eric is standing on a grate a couple of meters away and Alexia is standing even closer on a separate grate. Darren is standing with Alexia and Astra, Maggie and Laya are all standing together on the same grate, cuddled up against each other like penguins. I look around form Samantha but I can't see her. She is still unconscious somewhere from when she fainted at the sight of dying Jason. My head goes fuzzy with the lack of oxygen (from being up high) and the images of Jason that I have now put in my head. I spot Samantha below Eric's grate, she is sitting up but still dazed and barely awake. I want to tell her not to move but I can't, not with the large ball that has welled up in my throat. Alexia stops in her tracks beside me, looking through unseeing eyes into the abyss below us.

'Alexia!' Astra shouts to Alexia, her voice being carried away by the raging wind, 'Alexia, stay calm don't freak out on us.' I stand in silence listening to Astra's pleads. No one else moves we just listen to the howling wind.
'Liz!' Samantha's voice cuts throughout the air like a knife and I bend down and stare at her. She is balanced on the edge of the grate, clinging in with her toes. Everyone is paying attention to Alexia who is paralysed on the spot that we aren't paying attention to the dazed and confused Samantha, who has only just woken up from a nasty bump on the head from when she fainted.
'Eric!' I scream at Eric who is the closest to Samantha and the only one who could possibly help her. So far most of our sky line conversation is made up of name calling! Samantha topples over the edge and just manages to hold onto the grate with her fingers alone.

Eric bends down and clambers over the side of the grate he is standing on. I watch in worry as he clings to the frame with only his fingers, just like Samantha. What if he falls onto Samantha's grate and the jolt knocks her off and he falls off too? The dark cold voice teases me. I would normally try to drown out the voice by covering my ears or shouting loudly but for the first time ever I agree with The Darkness. What if I get them both killed? What if they die because of me? What if...

Eric releases his hold on the grate and falls down onto Samantha's grate. I sigh as the fall doesn't seem to effect her hold. He grips her wrists and hauls her up onto the grate. I see the floor mould from the heavy metal grate into the white floor and the sky and buildings flatten until they are once gain the white floor of the room.

I run to Alexia and wrap my arms around her, distressed at the sight of my fried paralysed. She slowly wraps her own arms around me but she is stiff and cold. Samantha approaches me wearily and grins at Alexia. I slip from Alexia's grasp as Alexia shuffles away from us and falls asleep on the floor.

'You okay Samantha?' I ask, smiling whole-heartedly. She nods,
'Yeah, just been sleeping. What did I miss?' She chirps like a little robin. I tell her about the food and Alexia and Jason. She listens to my words carefully and simply nods once I conclude the happenings of the last two days.
'There is one more thing.' I add just as I finish summing up what has happened, 'In my dream there was a room. I could feel the dread of it lingering in the air and burrowing in the depths of my mind. I don't remember much about it except two things: it scares the life out of us all and contains something that scares even the people with the hardly any fears, the second thing is to its name - Room 93.' Samantha looks at me in confusion. I don't blame her, I would be confused too. I smile falsely at her then lay down beside Eric and fall asleep.