Within

Chapter 1: Unknown Journey

The rain pelted the thin window panes as the night sky lit up behind the clouds. The dreadful downpour caused water to leak from the ceiling. The house was old, the type that if you were lost on a deserted road, you’d choose to keep walking instead of knocking on its door for help. Nonetheless, many had called it home, some for just a few days, and others years due to their inability to discover what lies within.

Maxine, or Max as most knew her by, woke up to the patter of water drops hitting the puddle on the floor. The unfamiliar room smelled strongly of smut fungus and the whistling of wind through the cracked brick walls sent a cold breeze down Max’s back.

As the storm continued in the background, Max sat up, placing her bare feet on the splintered hardwood floor. In the corner she noticed a table with a small lamp and a pair of worn shoes sitting next to it, other than that, the room appeared to be void of any other items.

Max had no recollection of how she arrived in the room, or even who she was. As flashes of light filled the room, Max looked down at her hands to see them full of blisters, which made since as her hands hurt the moment she woke. Max had on a pair of jeans and an old t-shirt with what looked like dried paint. The hat next to her had some kind of logo though she couldn’t make sense of it.

Max was young enough to claim innocence, but old enough to manipulate a system. Her soft hazel eyes would welcome anybody in, and her smile would accept them as family. Those same soft hazel eyes could become sharp at a moments notice, and if needed, her smile could easily turn into a gnarly grimace that would scare everyone away. Max was inclusive of everyone’s minds, but also was extremely protective of her own feelings.

Max stood up, wobbling as she walked toward the lamp. As she nearly reached the lamp, Max lost her balance and fell to the floor. She was athletic and strong, but her legs gave out like she hadn’t walked for years.

Max heard a large crack in the background, which she imagined the ants outside might interpret as the apocalypse. Max was inquisitive, the strange type with an eccentric hobby of entomology. The dilapidated structure shook and the room brightened with angry flashes of lightning reveling an object under the ironwood bed.

Intrigued, she put on the old shoes to help provide some kind of warmth to her feet. Max caught her breath looked around, reaching for the table for support, she used all her strength to stand. She clicked the switch for the light, but it didn’t turn on. Dismayed, Max again took a deep breath as she tried to center herself.

Her attention was brought back to the lamp. She pulled the table out, unplugged the lamp and plugged it back in. All millennials know the first troubleshooting step is a hard reset, and Max did just that. She attempted to turn on the light again with no luck. She then reached over the brim of the shade to grab hold of the dusty light bulb, which told her that the lamp hadn’t been used in quite some time. She grasped the bulb and turned it just slightly before the lamp illuminated the room.

Satisfied, Max brushed off her hands and looked around. The walls were dirty, a corner had writing all over it and the other had tally marks. Max’s mind ran with different scenarios, most of which ended in her death.

- - -

Max began to hyperventilate, as her circumstances became more real to her. She remembered the object under the bed. She again inhaled deeply. She pushed the scribbles and tally marks on the walls out of her mind. Max, on all fours, looked under the bed. It was dusty, in the back right corner you could see a spider had made its’ home, obviously hiding from any light and rain. In the left back corner, lie a little black notebook.

Max crawled under the bed to grab the notebook while keeping her eye on the spider at all times. Max tended to be brave, but spiders were one thing that she couldn’t face, even with a hobby of studying bugs.

The hardcover notebook was worn, it seemed someone or many someones had used it before. The pages in between the covers were wrinkled a bit with the moisture from the stale air. An elastic strap held it shut. From outward appearances, it was an ordinary plain black notebook.

Max noticed a thick ribbon marking a page in the notebook. Opening the book to the saved page, a thin rectangle piece of paper fell to her lap, as it did, Max saw the words; “Escape, and it’s yours.” She grabbed the item from her lap, turning it toward the light so she could read it better. It was a check for $20,000 addressed to her with the memo: escaped. Perplexed, she flipped through the notebook, seeing nothing but blank pages and the remains of paper that was hastily ripped out. The only other identifying feature, was the logo ‘Moleskin.’

Max gathered her thoughts. Well she attempted to. She was only in a musty room, with less than average lighting, and a small bed that had an odor of sweat. There were scribbles on the wall, mostly illegible, though the word escape appeared a few times. She didn’t count the tally marks but at a first glance she knew it was far too many for her to count quickly. It was storming out, and despite being able to determine what was going on, she knew storms and mystery notes never go good together.

Max finally said out loud as if she were speaking to the notebook itself, “Okay, I don’t know who I am, though the check says Maxine O’Neal. I’m in an unknown location with wack writing on the wall. It smells gross and it’s storming so loudly, I could scream and somebody standing in the front yard wouldn’t hear me. Oh, did I mention the $20,000 check addressed to me. Escape... have I been kidnapped?”.

The only thing Max hadn’t tried was the door to the room, which she studied as soon as she finished her conversation with the notebook. The door was large, actually oversized for the room, but the wood appeared worn. Surely, Max thought, if someone was locked in here before me, they could have easily busted through the door. Max approached the door noticing the large keyhole below the rusty doorknob. The door was more sturdy than she expected. Max twisted the door knob with false confidence, the door shuddered but did not open. She leaned down to look through the keyhole expecting to see a dark hallway matching the room she was in.

On the other side of the door, the hallway was warm, heated by the red rug running down the hall. The friendly chatter among people and the crackling fireplace filled the air with a homey aroma. The lights hanging from the ceiling were modern in style, but modest and well maintained. The furniture was nearly begging you to grab a book and sit in it to read for the rest of the evening. People walked up and down the long hallway smiling, appearing to be quite comfortable with no signs of distress. The windows outside revealed a clear starry night, with a waning moon on its last phase looking down on a light breeze passing through the trees.

Max fell back in shock. All of her assumptions, everything she thought and planned for; it didn’t line up with her narrative. What did she miss, what was going on? How could her room be so dark and the outside so light?

Max flipped through her brain trying to gather some type of memory, though she remained empty-handed. She was missing something, and the word escape kept ringing in her ears.

Max grabbed the mysterious nondescript notebook once again. She browsed the blank pages more slowly, like she was reading an instruction manual. Max was unaware, but she was a top mathematic student at a nearby university. Her mind worked quite logically and her skills to problem solve far exceeded her peers. She was labeled a child genius growing up, which she disliked. However, with no knowledge of life prior, she lacked confidence in her ability to find a solution to her situation.

Max sat in the dull room, and finally had the fortitude to start gathering the facts. First, she was in a room that seemed to exist in another world. Second, she had no clue who she was and how she arrived at this house. Thirdly, was the short list of items found in the room.

That’s when it happened, Max’s brain sparked alive for the first time, and she realized everything she needed to escape had to be in this room. It was more than jumping out a window three stories down to the ground, or simply breaking down a door. It had to be a test, and she was good at tests.

Max grabbed the notebook, feeling each page lightly with her right hand. At about 57 pages in, she felt indentations on the pages. She ripped out the page, careful not to tear it or to allow it to fall into the nearby puddle. She removed the lampshade from the light and the room lit up like a campfire lights up a forest when started. She rubbed some soot from the floor on the paper, creating a light shade of gray. She sat on the ground and held the paper up to the light it read;

“Max - You chose to be in this room so you could discover yourself, don’t forget, even if it takes you years to escape. The below things will be essential to increasing your chances of leaving this room. Think fast, every time you fall asleep, you’ll awake the next day with no memory once again. You are doing this to challenge yourself, not just for the $20,000 reward.

1. Everything you need is inside, look deep within.

2. Not everything outside is as it appears.

3. Coldness can be warm.

4. Your mind isn’t safe, but you can trust it.

- Best, Max O’Neal”.

She read the paper a few more times trying to make sense of what she was reading. Was she Max? If she was, did she actually write this note and allow herself to be locked inside? What did that list of cryptic hints mean?

Max then looked up at the wall with tally marks, which were easy to see now that the lampshade was removed. She counted slowly and came to a total of 263 marks, which she assumed to be days. In the corner, she saw her name. Max had been in this room for nearly 8 and half months.

Max shoved her hands in her pockets as if she were contemplating a piece of art work. She felt a solid object in her pocket; a piece of metal matching the springs to the bed in the room . She examined the wire and grasped it as she reached to etch a line on the wall in front of her.