Servitude

Chapter Two

The two holders turned around and walked straight for the door. They then stood outside waiting for me to walk through. But I didn't; I just stood there frozen.

I haven't left this room in the twenty-odd years I have been alive.

Was this some kind of joke?

I honestly wasn't sure if it was. Why else would they want me to leave this room after all this time. It made no sense.

After deciding I had nothing to lose, I stepped outside the room and was greeted by a long dark hallway. It didn't differ too much from my room. It's just that it was longer and a lot darker with next to no furniture.

I saw no other doors along the never-ending walls. The only one that stood there was mine. Since I had never seen the outside, I was very interested to see what it looked like.

But I was extremely underwhelmed. I don't know what I expected, but it was definitely more than what I saw.

There was a big door, and to the right of it was a keypad and finger scanner. Above that stood a blank card. I could tell it was supposed to have information on it, but it was blank for some reason. Before I had too long to ponder the blank card, my attention was pulled away by one of the holders.

"Come."

With that, I moved away from the door. But as I moved away, I wondered if I would ever return to this room? Mostly I thought, why was I wondering this? The room didn't bother me; I had nothing there. It meant nothing to me. It had just been a prison cell teasing me with human life.

I was now walking alongside the holders down the dark, damp hallway when we got to another door. This door was much like mine. It was big and metal that held the same keypad and finger scanner. The holder to my right went over and did all the necessary requirements to get through the door.

When the door swung open, I was greeted by a much lighter hallway. It wasn't painted in dark, dull colours like the other two I had just been in.

No!

This was a bright white hallway filled with portraits upon portraits of people I didn't know.

Each painting held people sitting side on with a sullen look on their faces. Even though they weren't exactly happy looking, the images made me smile. I had never seen paintings like It.

After all, I had only seen coloured paintings through a small television screen.

With each new painting my smile grew wider. So much so that the holder to the left of me looked, and I could tell it was trying to understand why this room was so interesting to me.

How could it understand! It hadn't been locked up its whole life with the same four walls to stare at each day.

This was magical to me.

We were almost at the end of the corridor when I was stopped outside a metallic door. It wasn't as big as the other doors we passed, but it gave the industrial aesthetic. One of the holders opened the door and ushered me inside.

Once in, the door was shut behind me, and I was left alone.

The inside was just as white as the hallway, but instead of photos, the walls were blank. The room was small, but it held a couple of chairs that stood just to the right, and to the left were cream curtains that covered whatever was behind it.

As I didn't know what to do, I decided to clear my voice and call out for someone.

"Hello? Anyone here?"

I was about to start walking around when a smiley man walked out of the curtains. This was the second person I had seen so close up today. Yes, I had seen those people outside my room, but I had never seen them up close, and they never stayed long enough for me to remember their features.