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There and Back Again (10) : The hallway looked like it belonged there, maybe even felt like it had always been. There was nothing immediately disarming about it, except perhaps for one flickering light. But, you’ve been here enough times to know that this place is strange–foreign. It’s not supposed to be here. Or, did you really just miss it, all this time? Well, it’s here now. Why not investigate? The hallway stretches on. And on. And on. And the worst part is, you don’t even realize how long you’ve been walking until you turn around and there’s nothing behind you but an endless hallway. Maybe there is furniture, or decorations, or doors that never open, but there doesn’t seem to be any end to this hallway in either direction. You’re stuck here, under the harsh lights that buzz loudly around you. Maybe it feels like a moment passes, maybe an eternity–eventually, if you keep walking, you reach the end–and you’re right back to where you started, and it’s like no time at all has passed. The hallway is gone–but the hum of electric lights vibrates in your ears for hours after the experience.
She didn’t even look when she stepped out of the elevator and into the hall. With her hands full and a deadline to meet Shannon wasn’t even paying attention as she hurried past door after door, her mind miles away on the documents she was already composing in her head. It wasn’t until she passed by a particularly decorated door… for the third time… that she paused and looked around. It looked like the hall she always traversed.
Dingy carpet that had seen better days, doors that typically only had the apartment numbers on them, lights that definitely were not following the LED trend. Most older apartment buildings were all the same, the larger they were the more liminal the halls became. Only the occasional sounds of life from behind the doors broke into the eerie silence of the hall. Only at night, when the majority of the residents were home did things become more lively, and not always in the good way. But right now all was quiet, there were even the occasional packages tossed at door sills and yet there was a strange otherness about it. A stillness that wasn’t natural, only the random buzz of electricity from the horrid lighting.
Shannon looked further down the hall but only saw it stretch into darkness with no end in sight, a glance behind her proved the same. She was in some kind of loop. One that was both frustrating and boring, it wasn’t even like there was someone she could fight as far as she could see. Feeling that twisting bundle of emotion in her she stomped towards the door with garish holiday decorations already up, ready to pound on the door until someone answered. Anyone. However, as she raised a fist to slam into the door, the papers that she had been holding securely in her other hand shifted and several folders fell.
The woman stood there, fist raised, papers scattered at her feet, and mentally paused. It was absurd. It was all just so damn crazy. Like her neighbors would ever orchestrate something as stupid as this. There was something else at play here, and the only way to actually face whatever it was, was to actually play along. At least somewhat. So Shannon took a deep, calming breath, before gathering her papers and continuing along the way down the hall. She counted the doors, finding it to be a type of meditation after about two dozen doors, the anger and frustration fading with each passing frame. Zen filling in the space that impatience had been at the start of this whole trek.
After some time she had lost count, but still continued to walk. At some point, maybe a moment later or years later, she started to sneeze. After several hard, bone rattling sneezes, ones that forced your body to flinch, Shannon opened her watering eyes to see she was standing in front of the elevator once more. A few of her papers had scattered from her sneezing fit but other than that everything was normal. The hall was bright and relatively short. She could see the window at the end of the hall, letting in fading fall light. A TV blared behind one of the doors.
She was no longer in that endless space, not that Shannon delayed in observing her ‘normal’ surroundings. She wasn’t entirely sure she would encounter the same problem if she didn’t hurry. So, hurry she did. Shannon only turned to look behind once she was inside her own apartment, noting how one of the lights buzzed louder and flickered for a moment before glowing normally once again. As if the building was mocking her. “I hate this season,” She muttered as she closed the door with a bit more force than was necessary. The city always seemed to go batty around now… she really needed to start scheduling her vacations around the ‘seasons’ of the magic outbreaks.
