The Room

Imagine a white room. On the floor lies a girl. Dirty, ragged, and bruised. Hair disheveled and coated with dirt. Hands and feet tied up with a white cloth. About 15 or 16 years of age and taking slow, light breaths. Just then, she stirs and her eyes flutter open, terror encasing her as she registers her surroundings. Looking down she notices her binds and begins to squirm in an attempt to get free, but to no avail. She tries gnawing at the ropes and manages to make a hole big enough to slip one hand through and then the next. Now the girl tries to stand up, forgetting about the binds on her feet and falls, giving out a cry of pain. She sits up and uses her last bit of strength and pulls on the cloth as hard as she can, allowing her feet to come out. Fatigued, she slowly takes in her surroundings. The room is empty except for a sink near the wall and above that, a closed air vent. 

What is this place? Where am I? What’s happening?

The girl had no idea how she’d gotten there. There was nothing she could remember about the day before, in fact, she couldn’t even recall her own name! 

“AH!”

She shrieks in pain as her head starts to throb uncontrollably. A tiny feminine voice starts to become louder by the second saying the same thing over and over again-

Campbell. Campbell. Campbell...

Suddenly, the pain and the voice are both gone just as quickly as it had begun but still left many questions unanswered.

After panicking for what seemed like 20 minutes, “Campbell” flopped over onto the dusty floor. Whose voice was that? Who is Campbell? Is that my name? What’s going on? She tried mustering a loud voice in hopes that someone, anyone, would hear her.

“Hello?” sounded a tiny hoarse voice.

That was weak.

After waiting a while she tried again, a little louder, “Anybody there?” 

No answer.

No footsteps.

Nothing.

While sitting up, a tear dropped down onto her hand and she quickly wiped her face. She hadn’t even realized that there were tears in her eyes, and the feeling felt oddly familiar to her. 

Maybe I’m just the type of person who cries a lot. 

At that moment something caught her attention. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a tiny round object sitting on the floor behind the sink. Crawling over to it, Campbell picked it up and ran her fingers over it, a dime. 

Hmm... Why is this here? Could this help me get out?

She grasped the top of the sink and stood up, sweat trickling down her brow. 

Gosh, I can’t even stand on my own! 

Just then, a loud rumbling noise erupted, startling her. 

How long has it been since my last meal? 

Shaking the thought aside, she looked at the sink. It was just a normal, white-colored, round sink. Campbell swung the faucet lever allowing a big rapid stream of water to pour down into the sink. At the sight of the water, her eyes lit up and she placed her head under the faucet, taking large gulps of the nice cool water, with no breaths in between. It was as if she’d been traveling in a desert with no water, having been parched for days, and suddenly comes about an oasis. 

Mmmmm, this is heavenly.

Finally, once Campbell’s thirst was quenched, she felt a whole lot better. 

“Ahhh, that really hit the spot.”

She wiped her mouth with her hand and noticed that it came off with a huge amount of dirt and grime. 

Huh, looks like I need to take a bath. I guess this will suffice for now.

Cupping her hands, she waited for the water to pool and then splashed it on her face, scrubbing it lightly, and did the same to her hair. 

Mmmm, refreshing. Now, I need to think of an escape plan. It’s obvious that no one is going to come to get me. 

She glanced around the room and noticed the air vent above the sink, almost touching the ceiling. It was dusty and the screws were coated with rust, had to be at least 10 years old.

Hmm… I could definitely crawl through that and follow it out to the end. But how will I… the coin! Wait, where is it?

She looked around and noticed it lying on the floor a few inches away from her.

I could probably use this to unscrew the screws. It’ll probably work, considering how old that vent looks.

Campbell got up onto the sink and slowly stood up, trying to keep steady. Holding the wall as support, she stuck the dime in the head of the top right screw. Turning the coin as hard as she could, the screw began to move.

Yes! It’s working.

After one last turn, it finally managed to come out of the hole

Ok, now I just need to do one m-

“OW!”

A woman, probably in her early thirties, smiling wide with pearly white teeth.  She had long, wavy, dark brown hair and her eyes were the color of shimmering diamonds. 

“Hi Cammy, you’re just about the most precious thing I’ve ever seen. Yes, you are, oh, yes you are.”

 And just like that, the memory faded and Campbell was back once again, in the white room, standing atop the sink. 

“Woah. What the hell happened?”

It felt like… like a forgotten memory. She said, Cammy. A nickname for Campbell? That lady… I think that was my mother. Could this mean that...my memories are starting to come back?

Lost in thought, she started to walk, forgetting about where she was standing and nosedived onto the floor.

“Ughhhhhh, I guess that’s a good way to come back to the real world.”

Campbell stood up with a grunt and looked around for the coin, which had fallen in the sink. She climbed back up and repeated the same procedure she did with the first screw on the second one. The vent swung open, hitting the wall with a clang.

Oh my god, this it. It’s time to escape but, once I do, where am I supposed to go? I don’t know anything except for my name. Maybe I’ll go find a police station, my mom must have put out a search team. She’s probably worried sick! Ok, here I go. 

Grabbing the edge of the vent, she jumped and pushed herself through. 

Breathing heavily, Campbell finally stopped at a dead-end, where another vent happened to be placed. This one had only two screws instead of four.

Finally, now I can get out.

She took the dime out of the pocket of her long, plain white dress and used it to take out the screws keeping the vent shut. It fell onto the floor with a big metallic clunk.

Jumping down, she managed to land on her toes flawlessly.

Freed- Wait. this isn’t the outside.

“WHO ARE YOU? DO NOT MOVE! HANDS UP IN THE AIR, RIGHT NOW!”

Boomed another voice.

Hands in the air, Campbell slowly turned around, shaking. Standing there, a jagged piece of glass in hand, was a girl.