The Room

Author's note: this story is a sequel to The City Ripper.

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I woke up a moment ago in complete darkness. I am laying on the ground and I cannot see my surroundings. I can barely see my own hands. The floor is cold and feels humid. It is also very hard. It must be a concrete floor. We do not have a concrete floor at home.

Where am I?

I feel I have been asking myself that question quite often lately.

The last thing I remember was standing in a loft, looking at a man wrapped to a stainless steel table. The man was chief inspector McClane. Chief asshole, as we nicknamed him.

There was something about the two of us not being alone in that room, although everything is still foggy in my mind…

I stopped thinking for a moment and shifted my attention to my muscles as they were in pain. I cannot be certain if the pain was due to a longer-than-usual sleep or because I slept on this slab of concrete.

My head hurts. Again.

There was this relentless pounding physically taking place inside my head. This headache was slowing me down and making it difficult to focus on my surroundings. Surroundings that I was still unable to discern.

I reached out on my head where the pounding took place. My fingers felt something wet; it was more than regular sweat wet, it was a liquid type of wet. I instinctively put my hand in front of me to see what was the said wet substance. My eyes were still unable to adapt to the surrounding darkness. I could not see what is on my fingers. I decided to wipe them off my thigh.

I asked myself out loud, how long have I been here, staring at the darkness? 15 minutes, maybe? It is hard to tell.

Unknown voice: "You have been staring at the surroundings for less than 5 minutes."

I jumped as I heard an unknown voice respond to me. I was not expecting any of this to happen. Yet, it was unsurprising. I was in an area totally unknown to me, and chances are I was not alone.

I turned around, hoping, or not, to see someone standing behind me. There was no one. I was puzzled by this. The voice sounded extremely familiar, yet I was unable to find its source. It was a deep voice.

I started having cold sweats. 

The deep, unknown voice went on: "We have been in contact and met before. You are the journalist that covered those murders in the windy city. I am the blogger who was writing about them, providing you with additional data for extra coverage, as requested by…"

It then came back to me. Yes, I was a journalist, and there was that blogger. I had several journalist friends, too. We were covering what was a serial murderer's work, despite some police inspector saying it was not the case.

Turns out the murderer was "handling" the likes of the worst type. Those individuals were neo-nazis, racists, homophobes, transphobes, all people who targeted minorities and killed them. The killers ended up being hunted and executed. That was such poetic justice.

Another voice chimed in: "Yes, you are beginning to remember, Sam. You never were alone, we were always there with you."

This voice also sounded familiar, although I could not discern if it was a feminine or masculine voice. If anything, it was quite androgynous. I was puzzled.

Myself: "How do you know my name?"

I asked that question, although I shortly regretted doing so. If they knew my name, they probably knew a whole lot more about me. I never wrote articles using that name. I only used a pen name.

The androgynous voice replied: " I have been following your work for some time, now. You have been following and covering mine as well. I am the ripper."

I was paralyzed in fear.

Myself: "You said you are the ripper?"

The ripper: "Yes."

I was starting to hyperventilate, panicked about being tossed into a situation that kept getting weirder. I was becoming lightheaded.

This is not good at all.

I put my hands around my mouth and nose, attempting to emulate a paper bag. I took deep breaths and tried calming myself down.

The ripper: "I know your name because you, our blogger friend Casey, and myself, Alexis, all know each other."

Casey, the blogger: "Deep breaths, Sam. No one is going anywhere and we are not a threat to anyone else. We are alters, individuals who are part of the same system. We share the same body, yet we have our own thoughts."

I stopped my controlled breathing, listening in disbelief to what these two were saying. Was I losing the north? I kept turning around on myself, trying to see if they were behind me or if everything was all in my head.

Casey: "No, you are not losing it. And yes, we can hear your thoughts. We all share an area called the common brain. Alters are what people used to call multiple personalities. Truth is, we can work together if need be."

Alexis, the ripper: "Sam, we need to figure out where we are and how to get out of here. The last thing we remember is standing in front of a man, the inspector in chief. You were given the choice to either let him go or execute him."

I took a deep breath and decided to sit down on the floor. I realized I was wearing only a nightgown. I was not wearing any jewelry, nor any other clothes. My bare ass was on the cold concrete. 

Where am I and how did I get here? Where did my other clothes go?

I let out a loud scream… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

I listened to the silence, in case there was an echo. None could be heard and nothing else broke the darkness. I swear I heard some noise in the distance, though. I could not be sure of it.

My mind went a hundred miles an hour with all the questions that passed by:

Did I get kidnapped?

Did I sleepwalk here?

Was I dreaming?

Was I hallucinating?

Casey: "I would like to point out you are asking the right questions. Or at the very least going in the right direction."

Alexis: "I can certainly tell you none of us is dreaming nor hallucinating."

Myself: "That is very encouraging. I am talking to myself and those other voices are proud of me and tell me I am not hallucinating. How am I to take this seriously?"

Both Alexis and Casey did not seem to appreciate my sarcasm and my snarling at them.

Alexis: "You do realize if we are here, it is most likely because I have executed all those supremacists, right? Every single person on that list, save for the last one, is now all dead. The only reason why you are here is that we share the same host, the same body."

Casey: "This would be the only reason why you would have been kidnapped. The people who kidnapped you were not happy with the execution of their buddies, the supremacists."

Myself: "This means… there were more people implied than those on the list? If so, how can we find those people, and how can we get rid of them?"

Alexis: "So far I would say they found us. Although they do not know we exist. They know you exist."

I tried to make sense of all of this. What was going on? My headache worsened and I was feeling exhausted. It did not feel like a migraine.

It felt like it was a hit on the head, like a concussion. A constant banging took place, with some loud noise coming from above.

Shit… not another one, for fuck's sake. I played enough hockey in my youth to know how bad that stuff can get. The pounding went back and forth. I could sense my heartbeat where the pain was located. I touched the area again, my fingers getting wet along the way.

Casey: "The headache, the pain you are feeling is most likely due to the interactions you have with us. I highly doubt it is a concussion. It is a pain that you will get used to, eventually."

Demoralized, I sighed at hearing this.

My vision still had not improved; the area surrounding me was pitch black. I brought my fingers under my nose and took a deep inspiration. I wondered if I could detect what the liquid is. I worried it could be blood. A bloody head wound would not be a good prognosis.

My fingers smelled of rust or cold metal. Something in the likes of an old metal paper clip. I did not like what I was smelling. I hesitated for a moment and concluded I did not have any other choices. I licked my fingers with the tip of my tongue, a little, no more. Nothing. I could not taste a damn. I did not lick enough of it. I sighed and took a deep breath. I licked some more, with disdain, this time making sure I tasted the viscous liquid.

It was of a weird mix of flavors. It tasted both like sweat and iron… most likely this was blood. This also meant I must have been laying on the side for a long time if sweat managed to make it in the mix. As for the blood, I was having a second thought about it might not be mine. I spat on the floor.

Myself: "How could I have a dissociative identity disorder anyways? One requires trauma when they were a child to trigger all of this. I had no trauma during childhood. And none of you came to exist until recently."

Casey: "Yes, there was some trauma. I do not think we should talk about it for now. We have been around since you were... You probably never noticed. We will leave it there."

There was a long silence. I was not sure if we were all talking in the common brain or if we were talking out loud. It could have been a mix of the two for all I knew. If I did speak out loud, it meant anyone near me could have heard the conversation. So far, I had not sensed anyone else around me. Or around us, rather.

A thought crossed my mind… With all the time I spent here, what if I was not alone? What if someone moved closer to me and was right there? Someone I could not see yet was able to see me? I timidly asked, "hello, is anyone here?"

As expected, I got no answer.

Casey: "We could have told you that there was no one else."

Myself: "Hush."

I caught wind of a faint sound in the distance. It reminded me of someone breathing softly. I shook my head, thinking there was no one else around here. Even though, I think I might have heard some other sounds earlier…

I brushed those thoughts away, and I put my head between my hands, in an attempt to recover some spoons. I had to decide what was I going to do next. 

First thing first, I needed to figure out where I was. I looked up, towards what would be the ceiling, and all I saw ahead of me was the darkness. All around me, no matter where I looked, darkness reigned as a master. My mind It was of no use. I could have stayed here as long as wanted to, I still would not be able to see a god damned thing.

Myself: "I need to get moving, to figure out where I am at, and see how to get out of here. Wherever here is."

Casey: "We."

Myself: "Hmmm, I am sorry, what?"

Alexis: "Please start referring to us, the system, as we and not only as yourself. We need to get moving, not I need to get moving."

I sighed.

I slowly got up, as I was still feeling somewhat dizzy and I did not want to be taken over by a wave of vertigo. I started moving my toes while I tried to get a sense of a general direction I needed to take. I was barefoot, so I needed to move slowly, in case I tripped or walked on something. I extended my arms and my hands ahead of me, in an attempt to feel whatever I encountered. I started moving.

Casey: "We need to walk and find a wall. Something we can lean on, something we can follow. Walls lead somewhere, always."

Myself: "Walls will have switches, doors, windows."

I slowly walked, trying to avoid tripping over anything that could have been on the floor. I also wanted to avoid falling into something like a pit or a trap. Who knew what the ones who brought me here did to the area. With my luck, they could have booby-trapped the whole area.

I walked around for about 15 minutes. It seemed like it took forever. My fingers finally touched a wall!

Casey: "No, we did not walk for about 15 minutes. It was closer to 5."

Myself: "What?"

Alexis: "Yes, by our time estimate, and the speed at which we were walking, we probably cleared a distance of 200 feet."

I touched the wall and it felt cold and hard, like the floor. Was this a concrete wall? Ruh-roh…

Myself: "We must be in some sort of warehouse. With a concrete floor and a concrete wall, such a long distance to walk without even feeling anything, and being unable to detect the ceiling, I do not see any other type of buildings or rooms that would fit this description."

I decided to lean on the wall, and my back instantly felt cool. I looked around, trying to get a small crumb of evidence of where we were. I saw nothing. I got nothing. Sometimes, the lack of evidence is the evidence itself.

I soon needed to take a direction, either left or right, and blindly follow where the wall led me. I had been leaning on the wall for about ten minutes, unable to decide, when I suddenly remember an episode of Family Feud. In that particular episode, people were asked which direction they would take first on a map. Almost everyone always picked left for some reason.

Myself: "Should I go left? Or would that be a trap? … Maybe it is time I start asking the "family" for support."

Casey: "Go for the left."

Alexis: "I would normally go right, only because I want to surprise people and kill them. I say left."

Phew, that was a relief.

I went left, walking slightly faster than earlier, as I felt overconfident due to having a wall to guide me. I ended up tripping on something and crashed on the ground. What was that? Something hard, which fell metallic. I quickly turned around to face the object. I was on all four, slowly moving towards it, making sure I was not walking into something else in the process. I was moving around blindly, and my hands were my only eyes. 

It finally found what I tripped on and crashed. It was something solid, cool. I got on my knees and leaned forward. I moved my hands towards the base of the wall and then moved them up. It was a drainage pipe, one of those commercial or industrial ones. It was about 6 inches in diameter.

I stopped breathing for a moment and listened to the darkness. There was a faint sound of water running down the pipe.

Casey: "You know, I was thinking about this. Maybe we are in an underground garage. The type of construction would make sense, given the pipe and all. We should find a light switch, soon enough."

Myself: "I love your optimism."

Alexis: "… Why do I have the feeling we are a wild beast trapped in a cage, waiting for something to happen?"

I stopped for a moment and considered what Alexis had said. What if?

Who put us here?

What do they want from us?

Do they know it's us and not I?

Why do I feel like someone is spying on me?

Is this someone's breathing I feel over my shoulder?

I let out a scream. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, but forever. Again, save from a faint echo, there was only silence. There were no other noises this time. 

I resumed my walk towards the left, tapping in the air with one hand while I followed the wall with my other hand. Maybe I was moving on blindly, yet my hands and my ears served as new sets of eyes. As I walked I felt two other drainage pipes.

After a few minutes, I once again had the eerie feeling we were not alone. Someone, or something, was watching us. I asked the darkness "hello, is there anyone here? If so, please respond and show yourself!" 

Alexis: "Sometimes you better be careful what you wish for."

I tried once more, this time more direct, yelling, "Show yourself, bitch!"

The only response I got was from the echo:

"Show yourself, bitch!"

"Show yourself, bitch!"

"No, you're the bitch!"

…What the fuck did I just hear?! The voice echoed did not even resemble mine. Nor did it sound like one of the two alters' voices. The air surrounding us suddenly felt colder. My mind was either playing tricks on me, or I was in a very bad pickle right now.

Alexis: "Your mind is not playing tricks."

Casey: "We both heard that, too."

I resumed the walk and eventually hit another wall. I was now at a 90 degrees angle. When facing it, the new wall went towards the right. With some luck, this place is either square-shaped or rectangle-shaped. Good. I knew a little more where we were.

Although, the main question remained: where were we?

I stopped for a few moments and sat down on the ground, leaning against the angle. I decided to evaluate where I was.

When facing the directions, I came from the right and was still going towards the left. I walked for about 200 feet from my starting position up until I hit the first wall. now, I have no idea what distance I walked from when hitting the wall up until the angle.

Casey: "We felt two other drainage pipes along the way, for a total of 3. They are usually spaced 100 feet apart from each other, and the last one was about 50 feet from the corner. This would give us a distance of 250 feet. I also guestimated we walked for about 50 feet until we hit the first one, meaning we were probably in the smack middle of the area. Total, we walked for about 300 feet."

I had not considered doing all those calculations.

Casey: "But wait, there's more. If you consider the 300 feet is about half of the wall, the total length would be about 600 feet. If we also consider our initial 200 feet was half the room across, it means the total width is 400 feet. We would, in theory, be in a 240,000 square foot location…"

It turned out having alters was not the worst thing ever, if I ignored the fact sometimes they were in charge and I had no idea what happened.

Between the headache, all these talks with alters, and the extra noise coming from above, my head was still relentlessly pounding.

I heard a low, menacing growl in the distance. It was faint, yet it was there. Adrenaline filled me as I quickly stood up. The feeling of fight or flight was strong and it was better I resumed my walk. Staying in a corner would be the worst thing to do

I continued, still going left, as I followed the wall with my hands. As I walked, I heard my heavy breathing and attempted to regulate it. I wanted to be as quiet as possible, to avoid giving out my position. I knew we were no longer alone. 

Chances are they already knew where I was at.

I heard some footsteps, far away from where I was. Instinctively, I crouched and scrutinized the area, looking for some source of light.

Nada.

Wait, was that a blinking red light?

Nope, nada indeed.

There was a long silence, which was eventually broken by a collective sigh in the common brain.

I was not a fighter and had no idea what to do if someone or something emerged to attack. I was becoming really afraid.

Alexis: "Do you understand if we are endangered I am to take over and fight for our survival?"

Myself: "Would that be the first time you do so?"

Alexis: "No. I have done so several times. I am protecting us, the muscles if you want. Casey would be the brains in this situation."

Casey: "We have a different set of skills in which we're more proficient than the others. For instance, you are the most artistic one in our system. While every system is different, some bases are similar to one another. We are built this way to protect ourselves from new traumas."

Myself: "What new traumas? And wait, what is the old trauma? You two keep talking about it, yet I know nothing of that. You could be making this up for all I know."

I was still crouching, half paying attention to what was around us, half paying attention to our conversation.

Casey: "Trauma is required. You simply… locked the memory away. Or rather, your mind, our mind, shattered when it happened and you do not remember any of it."

Alexis: "It is not something easy to talk about, as even for us it brings back awful memories."

There was a moment of silence.

Alexis: "You might start remembering after I tell you this…"

I was sweating like a pig. I was feeling increasingly dizzy. What was going on? then, it struck me. Flashbacks of a long-forgotten, distant past emerged in my mind. The headache cranked itself up to 11. I tried to remain silent as I felt the intense pain from the influx of memories.

I collapsed. I was enraged.

Myself: "Because we might die at any moment, you two decide to tell me the truth, now? Could you not have done so earlier, like weeks, months, or even years ago?!"

Casey: "No. We are telling you now so you know why we exist, and that we will make our way out of this place, alive. One way or another."

Alexis: "Once we figure out where we are and where our way out is, I swear I will kill anyone who gets in our way."

That was not anger. That was pure fury.

Myself: "We better get moving, I can still hear some growling."

I got up and went on my way. As I walked, I also heard the same voice as earlier. It was more of a whisper in the distance than a call for attention.

"Bitch… bitch… bitch…"

I heard a distant, maniacal laugh.

I decided to start running. I did not care about being careful anymore. Someone was right there and I needed to escape. 

I have no idea for how long I ran, although it turned out running with my arms stretched out ahead of me was harder than anticipated. I did not want to end up crashing into a wall, or someone.

I had to stop after a while, I was out of shape and panting. I was feeling dizzy, once more. When was the last time I ate something? I had to lean on the wall for a moment.

As I rubbed my face with my hands, and as I was expecting to see someone pop out on me, I realized I was leaning next to a door.

A door.

There was a faint red light coming from under it.

It was one of those fire doors with a crash bar. Sometimes, when you pushed on the crash bar, a fire alarm would go off. I asked the other two if they wanted to go for it.

Myself: "I have no way of knowing what is behind this door. It could be a trap."

Casey: "We could end up in a room full of people, those who put us here."

Alexis: "Did I stutter earlier? I will kill anyone who gets in our way."

Myself: "Here goes nothing…"

Still aware there might be someone else with us, I pushed on the crash bar as gently as I could. I tried to remain quiet to avoid being detected. I mentally counted to 15, as most alarms will trigger at that point.

No alarm went off.

I pushed the door; it opened making a weak creak. I peeked inside.

It was a staircase lit with faint red emergency lighting. No stairs were going down. The only option we had was to go up. There was no one else either.

I quickly went inside and closed the door. There was no way for me to lock it, although I figured I could use the garage as a backup, in case I needed to hide.

I went upstairs as quietly and as calmly as possible. Despite being able to see something more than this forever darkness I was plunged into, I did not want to trip on something I overlooked.

After a total of 61 steps (but who's counting ?), I came upon another door. Right above it was an exit sign.

I could not believe it!

I did not wait to discuss this with the others and quickly opened the door. As I rushed outside of the staircase, I was immediately flooded with daylight. The light was warm and felt good. I was finally out of that place.

I took a deep breath.

There was a masculine voice that interrupted my moment of newfound freedom.

"What are you doing?"

I blinked. There was no one around.

"Do you mind untying me?"

I blinked again, shaking my head.

"I have been calling your name for over an hour."

It was a man, although I could not see him in the sunlight. I was blinded by the light.

"I have been on this table for about a day."

I slowly blinked, one last time. When I opened my eyes, I finally saw the man who was talking to me. He was strapped to a stainless steel table.

"Ah, there you are. Back to your senses."

It was McClane.

I was back in the loft, right above the Barn Owl Café.

Suddenly, it all made sense. No one brought me elsewhere. All of this happened in our common shitposting brain.

I have never left this room.

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Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents in this story are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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Story © Eve F. R. Kirchner