Prologue

I opened my eyes and I had to wait for them to adjust. They were badly blurred and I could not see properly. I blinked a couple of times and as I did, my surroundings slowly became more clear. As my eyes began to focus I could see that I was in a wide, box-shaped bathroom. A light-bulb above my head blinkered on and off as if there were insufficient electricity or a loose wire somewhere. By the annoying flickering, I could make out a long and narrow bath tub on the far wall, on my left side. Flies hovered above it in a tight swarm. Others were crawling around the bath rim and up the walls. In the pathetic lighting I couldn’t count them but I guessed there were at least twenty, maybe more.

I was huddled in the far corner on the right side. On the furthest wall, straight ahead of me was a single whitewashed door. Before that, a sink and a large, dirty old mirror. A tiled floor spread out beneath me, a flat ocean of porcelain. It looked as if it had not been cleaned in years; the tiles were badly stained and covered in a brown sheen of dirt. I think they were actually meant to be white. The pale grey walls were in pretty much the same condition with veins of grime and filth snaking about in every which direction.

Slowly, I climbed to my feet. My body ached but not terribly. Turning around and I saw that I had been propped up against the toilet. The lid was down. I lifted it up. Nothing was there, in the bowl. No water, and surprisingly, it was cleaner than anything else in here. If this room had been properly lit, I dare say I would have been able to see my reflection.

I moved over to the bath to investigate what was attracting the many flies. As I peered into it, I got more than I had bargained for. The bath was brimming with brown, putrid water and sloppy lumps of human waste floating idly on the surface. Flies were crawling everywhere and the filth stunk more like rotting flesh than anything else. Wrinkling my nose in disgust I backed away.

I paced over to the door trying to shake the image out of my mind. I wanted to get out of here and more so, I desperately wanted to get away from that blinking light. It was making my head hurt. My hand hovered over the stainless steel handle, hesitating. I did not know what I was hesitating for but I sure did feel awkward. Ignoring my better judgement, I pushed down on the handle and opened the door.

Stepping into what seemed like an endless corridor, I closed the door behind me. The corridor had whitewashed walls and pale cream linoleum. Unlike the bathroom, it was clean. On my left, wide windows ran the entire length of the avenue. I could see that dusk was melting into an overcast sky and below, there was a boundless field of long grass, swaying in fast autumn winds. On my right and further along there was an only door and it stood open.

I moved towards it. As I walked I noticed how utterly quiet this place was. I could not even hear the wind from outside. The one thing that I did detect however was the ardent stench of bleach. It stung my nostrils and I hated it. Where the hell was I and how had I gotten here? Arriving at the door and I poked my head round its frame to see what lay beyond.

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