Never ending

Everything was blurry as she looked around, she felt she was in some sort of a dream the more she looked around, everything was out of place, Verity blinked hard but still everything felt shapeless, she blinked again and then her vision began to clear a bit.

She was surrounded by white walls that seemed to go on and on, she couldn't grasp where she was or how she got there, she pinched herself, it hurt and it was only then did she realize that it wasn't a dream but a reality she had woken up to.

Strolling around she found that the walls weren't as endless as she had previously thought, there were dead ends, several of them, once she reached one, she had to turn back and take a different path.

But the dead ends were the only change she saw otherwise the white walls were the same no matter where she turned, it left her confused and directionless, she didn't know where to go, her mental map wasn't enough to grasp the complexity of it all!

Maze, that word flashed across her mind, it left her terrified for a second as she struggled to comprehend it all, she was trapped in a maze that seemed to have no exit at all!

Why was she here?, was she being experimented upon?, who was behind it?, she could find no answers to these questions, it was as if her memory had betrayed her, it couldn't remember the pathways that led to dead ends nor how she happened to get here.

She sat down exhausted, she was tired from walking again and again and finding no exit, she cursed her memory but then it occured to her maybe her memory wasn't the one to blame, it was just that she hadn't explored the maze enough.

There had to be an exit or something that provided a clue to it, she looked around determined but there was no clue in sight, she came towards another dead end and sighed in irritation, as she turned around to walk away, her gaze fell on something that seemed like a box, somewhat hidden in the wall.

She retrieved it, her hands trembling, scared of what was inside. She was hesitant to open it but decided to take the risk, as she carefully lifted the lid, she saw something circular inside it.

As she held it in her hand and gazed at it, she realized it was an orange, how could an orange be a clue she thought, as she brought it closer to smell it, the smell struck her, the beloved fruity smell enchanted her and thats when an insignificant memory popped into her mind.

The fruity scent of orange had always mesmerized her, that was the first time she had realized she could enjoy the smell of something so much, that smell had so much power, the power to uplift moods, the power to differentiate things and the power to make you wonder about the universe.

She slipped the orange into her pocket, it was going to be her food when she felt hungry but as of now filling her stomach was the last priority, she had to make sense of it all, to find out more about the place she was trapped in.

After encountering two dead ends she banged at the wall in frustration, if this was some kind of an experiment, she hadn't consented to it and she wasn't going to sit around and let the scientists study her, she screamed for them to let her out and that they were going to get nothing out of her.

There was a pink star shaped box in the corner, it was hid so well that she hadn't noticed it earlier, she bent down and picked it, it smelled as if there was a perfume inside but upon opening it she saw a plushie, it was the same color as the box and had purple eyes.

It was soft to touch, it brought her a sense of comfort, a feeling she didn't realize she needed. Holding it made her go back into time when she found the color pink cute, anything pink in her opinion was lovable and playful.

She chuckled as she remembered her fondness for pink but she knew she had to put the plushie away no matter how cute or comforting it was she couldn't carry it along with her.

As she walked along, she could feel the walls were very smooth, they weren't rough to touch at all but they weren't comforting either, they were cold and touching them made her realize the bleak reality she was pushed into more and she thought it was better if she didn't touch it.

As she decided to refrain from touching them and withdrew her hand, a part of the wall seemed to slide on it's own and a box fell out, this time it was black.

She felt a wave of hesitation which she found very difficult to fight but she knew that she had to pick it up but the manner in which the box came to her felt odd and her mind kept telling her to stay away from it.

She picked it up instinctively as curiosity got the better of her, the blackness of the box seemed to contrast in a way with the whiteness of the walls that surrounded her, she opened and dropped it screaming!

There was a long black snake that fell out of it, her mind went blank, where was she supposed to run from it?, there was nowhere to run to!, and most importantly what if it bit her?, who was going to ensure she wouldn't die?!

As these questions plagued her mind, she was paralyzed by fear, her gaze fixed on the snake, her eyes searching for any slight movement that would alert her to run and her mind telling her maybe the one who trapped her here meant for her to die.

But the snake didn't move at all, her heart felt it would rip out of her body but that didn't happen either, as she began to feel a sense of calm, she knelt down and looked at the snake more closely and on closer inspection she realized it was made of rubber!

She almost laughed, maybe this was all a prank and someone had just pranked her to see her reaction, a wave of relief washed over her, she just had to try hard enough and there would be a clue somewhere.

She ran in her excitement to search for clues but all she found were dead ends one after another, there came no box after that black one, she gasped for breath and slumped alongside the wall in exhaustion and hopelessness, was she trapped here forever?

What was forever though?, as she pondered over that question, something beeped inside her, the sound grew louder every second, she realized that was her internal alarm alerting her to something and then it struck her, she was running out of battery, the questionnaire on awareness she was given by the scientists before ending up in this maze came to her mind, she had scored 88 out of 100 and was proud of it, as her battery ran out she realized there was no escaping this maze and her pride had gotten to her.