I was woken up by a bright light shining directly into my eyes. When I opened them, I was greeted with a completely unfamiliar sight.
A square room with a strange see-through television with a divided screen embedded into its outer wall and a night stand, on top of which there was a weirdly shaped object with the time and some other blinking lights.
I moved the blanket to get up and noticed I was wearing an ancient piece of clothing we used to study in history class that hasn't seen the light of day for at least the last 5000 years. It found its use in protecting the wearer's private parts from the harsh clothing fabric, but was discontinued when every piece of clothing was embedded with soft padding in that area.
I stood up and made a few steps to test out the artifact and it proved to be rather comfortable. I wouldn't have chosen it over sleeping naked myself, but I wouldn't mind it still being around for the purpose it was intended for.
When the initial euphoria wore off I was left with the realisation that I woke up into a completely different world than I was used to.
Was I sent 5000 years back in time?
Did square rooms and elevated buildings become trendy again?
Was I kidnapped? And tortured using weird ancient methods?
As much as I wanted to, I couldn't answer any of those questions.
The square room and archaic furniture made me feel anxious and I couldn't stand another second in there anymore. I left for the door and after several failed attempts at using a strange door knob they finally opened.
I thought I could finally get a breath of fresh air, but instead I was greeted by a long hallway that smelled even worse than the room I woke up in.
A rugged old carpet on the floor that didn't even look red anymore, walls so dirty you could hardly call them white and doors upon doors upon doors.
I remember seeing I was above ground level back inside the room on the see-through television.
Did any of these doors lead downstairs?
The lights on this narrow hallway were so scarce I could hardly see anything.
When my eyes finally adjusted to the dim lighting I saw what seemed like a staircase in the distance.
I walked down what seemed an endless array of doors that all looked the same. The only difference between each was a little metal plate bearing a number.
"223, 222, 221, 220, 219, ... , 202, 201, 200," I was reading the numbers out loud as I walked toward the stairs.
The stairs were just as filthy as the rest of what I had encountered so far.
There was no way anyone would live here, right? This must have been abandoned for ages. At least so I thought.
I descended downstairs and the lower floor was just like the prior, only it was in blue instead of red. Same dim lighting, same endless corridor of doors and a ficus tree every 10 feet.
There was an unusual noise coming from down the stairs.
Did stray animals inhabit the old, god forsaken building?
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