Running storyline. Fiction... and really bad fiction at that. If you are interested Part One is found here. Not sure if I will ever finish this thing. Vote in the comments section to keep this going or to kill her off.
Part II
She pushed the door open in front of her and it swung softly on its hinges until it settled against the wall to her left. She stayed where she was, letting her eyes adjust to the room. How could any space be so completely dark? Wouldn’t windows let in some ambient light from the moon, stars, passing cars, other houses or buildings, maybe even street lights?
The feeling was coming back into her legs and feet. She was relieved to find that each leg, each foot and all of her toes were still attached. She flexed her thigh muscles and wiggled her toes. She braced herself on either wall of the closet she was inside and raised up on her toes, laying her head on her right shoulder as not to hit the clothes bar above her. She wanted to stretch her calf muscles so she kept her palms braced against the walls and kept her heels planted on the floor as she lifted the toes of her feet. Each foot, raised and lowered three times. She wanted to rotate her feet on her ankles but she knew that whatever noise she was spared from her knees popping when she stood, she wouldn’t be so lucky with her ankles.
Each time she lifted her toes she thought of three things. Number one. No Noise. Number two. Ballet. And number three. What are my toes are brushing against?
She knelt again in her hiding place, keeping her eyes trained on the room in front of her. No motion, no sounds, no odor, no light, nothing that was living and breathing was waiting for her in the room beyond her closet door. She felt in front of her feet and found a large canvas bag. The bag had a shoulder strap and two heavy nylon stitched handles. She pressed down on the bag to see if she could discern what was inside of it. No luck, she would have to explore the bag when she found a safe quiet place with light. But she knew that she would have to take the bag with her.
She stepped lightly over the bag and into the room. She moved to the left and felt the inside of the closet door handle pressing up against her back. She kept moving until she could feel the wall behind the opened closet door. She slipped behind the opened door. It acted as minimal cover and let her try to get her bearings. She needed to find out the layout of the room. Where were the windows, where was the door, and if there were more than one, where was the other and how heavy was the canvas bag she that she found in the closet?
The wall was smooth behind her. She edged her way around the room clockwise until she came to a sharp right angle. She was breathing quick, shallow little breaths. She knew that she was still alone in the room, she just didn’t know for how long, or why. She crept along this new wall with her left hand trailing the wall and her right hand out in front of her so she wouldn’t bump into any furniture.
She found the ledge of a window. Her heart hammered in excitement.
She might need to leave in a hurry once she able to open the window; or a door if she came to one; so she returned to the closet, tested the heft of the canvas bag, found it comfortable in it’s weightiness but not heavy or awkward to carry. She slung the shoulder strap across her head so the bag hung diagonally across her narrow back and she returned to the window sill.
The room seemed to be empty but she wanted to be sure. She was certain that going out a window would be preferable to going deeper into rest of the building or the house. She felt if she could just get outside her current holding room, she would be able to see, and then find her way to wherever she needed to be.
She had not figured out where she needed to be, or where she needed to go, she just knew she had to get out, with as little difficulty as possible.
With the bag slung across the middle her back like a modern day quiver, she traversed the room finding another window, another wall and then another wall and then she came to a door. The room seemed to be empty and the door wasn’t the closet door, but a door that opened into the building. She hesitated.
The window? Or the door?
She still couldn’t see and she didn’t know if the windows had been blacked out or even worse, bricked over. She was already at the door, she decided to take her chances and find some light. At least, then she could see what was in the ruck sack she was carrying. There may be a clue inside of it to who she was and what sort of predicament she was in.
She crossed silently to the other side of the door, found the knob and turned it slowly. The knob turned like it had been freshly oiled and when she felt the lock disengage she let out a small breath of relief that she hadn’t heard the mechanism work, but only felt the smooth vibrations of the bolt inside the lock being withdrawn from the door frame.
Instinct kicked in and she took a deep breath through her nose, put her right eye up to the door jamb and pulled it open just enough to see that the hallway just on the other side was as dark as the room she was in.
She opened the door just a bit further and was able to see the outline of some stairs about twelve feet from the room she was in. If she could see the outline of the stair landing, there was bound to be a little bit of light filtering in from somewhere. She opened the door enough to slip through and stood just outside the door listening for noise within the building or house to help her find her way out or away from whomever put her in that closet.
No noise. It was silent as a tomb and she knew that it could very well be her own tomb if she didn’t get a move on. Her eyes were adjusting to the faint source of light as looked around the landing and saw three other doors and a longer hallway to the right. The stairs was where the brightest source of light was coming from and they only led up. She knew that light could mean other people, but she needed to see inside of her canvas bag. Something important was inside, it would help her... she just knew it.
She moved to the landing and looked up. The only thing at the top of the stairs was another door. Leaning forward into the stairwell, she looked up and saw where the light source was coming from. A sky light was about seven stories above her and a sliver of a moon and starry night looked back at her.
She headed up the stairs, keeping to the outside of the stairs and staying on the balls of her feet. The stairs seemed to be concrete. Office building? Was she downtown? If so, she could get out of the building and disappear into the night once she was outside. She looked forward to the night air like with eagerness akin to hunger.
She got to the first landing and saw several more doors leading off the main stair case and another set of stairs leading up to the next landing she took these stairs a little more confidently. Making sure to keep herself in check, she knew that being too cocky could get her killed. She reached the top of the landing in no time and this time, along with the doors to other rooms or offices, she saw a registration desk and a hallway that bisected the building.
One part of the hallway ran straight in front of her and deeper into the building and what she thought would be an emergency exit, and the other part ran to the front doors.
Which way to go? She flipped a mental coin, chose heads and turned to the back entrance hoping the power was off throughout the whole building so she wouldn’t set off the emergency alarm when she pushed the exit bar.
She walked lightly in her flexible shoes. Toe first as to remain silent.
She got halfway down the hall and heard noise coming from a closed door. There was the tell-tale sign of flickering light dancing along the crack between the floor and the door signaling a television. She hesitated for a split second to try and hear any voices other than those on the TV... with no luck so she hurried on to the back door.
At the back door she resettled the bag against her back and gently pushed the exit bar on the emergency door. Surprising her the door swung open on silent hinges. No sound. Nothing.... then a blaring siren signaling her exit. She ran out onto a concrete landing with stairs leading down. She knew she needed to move and move fast so she jumped the railing and landed on the damp asphalt of the alley, she straightened and leaned forward pumping her legs, running for her life.