Morning all. I hope you had a fabulous three day weekend, if you had one. I really needed it. I was sick last weekend so everything was a blur and nothing that needed to get done was done. Which made last week a bit of a mess. This weekend I got to not only catch up but feel like I actually had a bit of a weekend which was nice. But here we are a fresh new week stretched out ahead of us. Let’s see what today’s prompt brings shall we?
As soon as I reached th end of this I realized what story it belongs to. There will need to be some adjustments as I didn’t realize it until I got to the end, but I am kind of excited that I know exactly where this will go. Woo hoo, great way to start the week.
Tuesday, February 17th: The corridor seemed endless.
The corridor seemed endless. Anna walked down it’s length slowly, studying the walls. There were no doors, which she found odd. Surely with this length of hallway there should be some doorways. The walls were textured and she placed a hand on them she felt the pebbly texture.
She frowned.
‘Stucco inside seems strange,’ she thought. Anna looked up. The ceiling was covered with the same white texture. ‘Maybe it’s a popcorn spray rather than stucco,’ she thought.
Lined up down the center were long rectangles of fluorescent lights. They hung down on cords about eight inches from the ceiling and were placed at regular intervals down the length like a dotted line across the ceiling. The casings were slightly yellowed compared to the stark white of the ceiling.
Anna let her fingers trail across the wall as she walked, feeling for any irregularities, any hidden doors. There weren’t any that her fingertips could find. With nothing changing Anna almost felt as though she was standing still.
She increased her pace, walking briskly now. Nothing changed. The corridor stretched on. Anna dropped her hand from the wall and began to run. It was a light jog at first but it seemed to get her nowhere. She ran flat out for a time, stretching her legs to lengthen her stride. Her heart was pounding and her pulse racing. She began to tire and slow, gradually decreasing her speed back to a walk.
Nothing about the corridor changed.
Worse, she had a sickening feeling as though she had seen this corridor before. The thought niggled at the back of her mind. It was familiar, but she didn’t know where she would have found it. She kept walking, somehow knowing that stopping before she found a way out was not a good idea.
Her heart returned to its normal pacing’s, her breath became steady and even and the stick in her side faded. The light ahead changed. She realized it might be the end of the corridor at least.
Recovered from her earlier run, Anna picked up her pace until she was running flat out again. She could see it now, the end of the long white corridor. There was golden sunlight at the end and a stretch of green grass behind. Her eyes fixed on the color, the splash of green drawing her eyes.
She raced to the end of the corridor spilling out of the open door and tripping on the shallow step just outside the door. She went flying and slid across the grass. The scent of green was thick in her nose and she drew it in. Green grass ripped and smeared, it’s scent mingling with the scraped dirt beneath so different from the antiseptic scent she left behind. She drew it in in deep gulping breaths, her hands clutching at the ground. Grass scratched her palms and dirt embedded itself under her nails. She didn’t care. She was free of the corridor. She felt herself smile and heard a laugh bubble out of her throat.
The sound of the alarm was jarring. Anna woke in her own bed, hands clutching the blanket and face buried in the pillow. She forced herself to let go of the sheets and reach for the alarm clock. She pressed the button and cut off the sound that woke her. Slowly Anna extricated herself from the bed. Her body was sore as though she had been running.
The remnants of the dream weighed heavily on her mind as she began her day.
Ten til Midnight 