Paper Parrots

Chapter 1

My head hurt, no, or rather, burned. Never before have I felt a pain like this, as if bit by bit my brain was being burned down.

Painful.

I felt my eyelids cold, I tried to open them with all my might, it was difficult, but after a few attempts, I was finally able to open them. They burned as if they were dry.

It took a while for them to adjust to the almost non-existent amount of light in the room, which was strange. I couldn't even feel my lungs, the air felt different, like there was something else that had never passed through my nostrils before.

Suddenly I felt my heartbeat passing through my right wrist. I managed to move my little finger, then my ring finger, my middle finger, and so on until all the nerves in my hand were activated. I tried to lift it, but I had no strength. I was having such a hard time opening my eyes that I couldn't even open my mouth.

When I felt the rest of my body I realized that I was face up on the ground. Chills ran down my spine from how frozen and dry the ground was. I was able to look up. The "ceiling" was made of stone and above it was a dark purple substance.

I don't know what it is, and I don't want to know either.

I carefully turned my head to the right, same thing, an ancient grey stone wall covered in that stuff.

I turned my head to the left, the same thing, but I had the sensation that the purple thing was moving. Or maybe it was just an illusion of mine, who knows what was going through my head at that moment...

I gathered enough energy to be able to sit up, a little painful, but I achieved my goal.

I looked around more carefully, realizing that there was an endless dark hallway in front of me, and with the little strength I had left, I looked around and, without realizing it, I said...

– This seems familiar...

I sat up, though my entire spine ached. I couldn't move any other muscles, only those in my neck to look around. I stared into the great dark space before me, if there was something or someone there I couldn't tell.

The environment was strange, there were no light bulbs, no electricity to generate light, so the almost non-existent light that there was came from... the walls? I looked closely at the substance that lay on the walls, that purple thing, probably viscous and that emitted enough light to distinguish what was a wall, floor or ceiling.

– Hello?

The echo of my voice reverberated throughout the place, it certainly wasn't a small space.

I tried to stand up. I managed to gather enough strength in my arms to push myself up and, supporting myself with my legs, I finally managed to stand up. My legs were shaking, but I managed to keep my balance without having to lean on the walls, I still don't know if that thing would help me or if it wanted to kill me.

Slowly and carefully I took a step forward, I could feel all the parts of my body tingling as they activated, I had been on the ground for a long time. My stomach began to twist, and I realized the state of my body, how long had I been without food? Weeks, months?

My conscience was alerted, maybe someone had kidnapped me and wanted to kill me. I would never have thought that this would happen to me. Everything seemed surreal, straight out of a horror thriller movie, or, who knows, a novel.

I turned around to face the wall behind me. It felt a little strange, it was certainly not made of the same rock as the walls.

I think.

I carefully approached the right wall. Now that my eyes were adjusting to the low light, I could recognize that from a distance it was like a moss or a fungus. I hastily backed away, realizing that if it was a fungus, it probably had spores, and breathing them in wouldn't be good.

But what now? I don't know how long I was there before I regained consciousness. If those things were dangerous, there wasn't much I could do about it now to avoid them.

I looked back at the large hallway that opened up before me. The walls were the same on both sides, grey rock with that substance.

I took a step forward. The lack of stability in my ankles caused me to fall face first onto the ground, but I slowly got back up. When I was able to control my balance, I crouched down almost as if I were about to do a squat. The closer I am to the ground, the less far I will fall.

I continued my task of following the corridor. As I took each step carefully, I was able to analyze the floor. It was made up of stone blocks, covered in a thin layer of sand and dust.

The lack of dust could only mean that there was no source of air nearby, meaning that there was no exit or entrance nearby either.

Oops.

I unconsciously started to feel overwhelmed as the worst thoughts grew deep within me.

Just as I was on the verge of collapsing, something inside me changed. Maybe there was something weird in the air in that place that was about to make me lose my mind, or maybe my brain started secreting hormones that weren't in my system before. Whatever it was, I had no way of knowing at the time.

I tried to remember something, looking for some clue about that place, but all I got in response was a very sharp pain in my head. I could feel my veins throbbing in the back of my neck and stabbing in my brain.

Nothing. I don't remember anything.

But I still had a language in which I could think and organize my few thoughts. Maybe it wasn't even my mother tongue, but at that moment I appreciated how blessed we humans are to be able to communicate and express ourselves in such a relatively specific way.

Something inside me stirred. Not physically, but a kind of intuition or instinct, that same feeling that had saved me so many times from missing the bus, telling me not to stop running even if there were supposedly a few minutes left until the bus arrived at the stop. That same instinct that in the middle of a multiple-choice test made me hesitate after having chosen an option, which in the end always turned out to be the correct one.

Maybe I shouldn't trust myself.

I picked up my pace, still with that feeling twisting inside me. I continued for what seemed like 200 meters until at the end I could see how the hallway split into two. One of the paths turned to the right while the other turned to the left.

I continued walking, hoping for the option to appear of "If you choose the right path, go to chapter 8. If you choose the left path, go to chapter 17," but even when I reached the fork, that never showed up for me.

Oh, how I wish life was like a book of those. I wish I could turn back the pages to see what other options I could have made.

I considered the option of choosing one of the two and always turning to that side, so that sooner or later I could go through everything. But I had no way of ensuring that that option would keep me alive. Nothing stopped me from falling into traps or facing things that I would have no chance of overcoming.

At that moment I would have liked to have a coin and let a head or a tail define my actions, so I would be free from feeling guilty if I were to take the wrong path. But no, I had nothing to avoid making a decision.

Memories of that lesson of probability didn't help. With the knowledge I had at the time, both options were exactly equal, 50 - 50.

I sighed, and after realizing I didn't know anything, I chose a hallway and kept walking.