Liza woke up and everything was black. She had heard of rooms like this before, but never thought she would be in one. Only bad people end up in rooms like this and she wasn't a bad person. She lay awake in the darkness for hours wondering how someone like her could end up here. She couldn't remember anything past a couple of days ago.
What do you do when trapped in a pitch-black room? Liza decided to explore, to see if there is anything that could help her remember the past couple of days or maybe get her out of this room. She felt jagged rocks on the wall and floor. Ugh, there was some sort of sticky liquid that Liza came across when exploring. That was enough for the time being. How did she get here? What happened?
There was someone… who was it? Why couldn’t she remember? As Liza was trying to remember, she heard footsteps echoing on concrete. At least someone else was here, but was it really a good thing? The footsteps got closer and closer until finally, BOOM, what a weird way to knock. Whatever was on the other side didn’t wait for an answer, they just let themselves in. She heard something metal hit the concrete floor and some other items bang upon impact. As soon as the unidentified object hit the floor, the door closed.
Liza scrambled as fast as she could to determine what new items were in her cell. That’s the only way she could define the area. Why else would she be here? She finally came upon the tray. She felt all over it. She felt something that was spongy like bread and decided that she may as well risk eating it, she’s going to die in here anyways. After she finished eating what passed for food there, Liza continued feeling the items that were on the tray. There was a screwdriver? Liza couldn’t understand why there would be a screwdriver. As she came across the next item, she cut herself. A knife? Where the f was she? What could she possibly need a screwdriver and a knife for? That appeared to be everything that came on the tray.
Liza then decided to continue feeling around her cell. She came upon some holes. They nearly formed a grid. Interesting, Liza thought. She grabbed the screwdriver and tried sticking it in one of the holes. A hissing sound started. Liza was concerned but decided that waiting for whatever that hissing noise was, wasn’t a good way to spend her time. She decided to test out another hole. She heard a *shwoop*. It sounded like something coming out of the wall. Liza walked towards the sound with her hands outstretched. As she did this she felt something pointy. After her inspection, her only conclusion was that a spike came out of the wall. Why was she here and where was here?? She still couldn’t remember, why couldn’t she remember.
While Liza was contemplating her existence in this darkened cell, she started to giggle. Oh no, that hissing noise was laughing gas. In a panic, Liza rushed to the other side of the room and started pushing all the holes. A costly mistake as fire severely burned her left thigh and hand. She finally found one hole that had a button to push. When she pushed that button a door opened up.
There was another room that was barely lit, but so bright after being in that darkened room. It was vaguely familiar. Why did Liza recognize the things in this room? When she went to investigate she understood why she recognized things, this was her dining room. There was a picture of her and someone else standing side by side in front of the CN tower. She didn’t recognize that man. Why couldn’t she remember anything?
Liza continued to scan the room, she spent quite a few minutes staring at a decorative plate. She recognized this plate and she remembered something. It was given to her by someone she has been best friends with for over 20 years. Anna, Annie, Amber? Something that started with an A. Maybe there was someone out there worried about her. Maybe she wouldn’t be stuck in here forever. This place is worse than she could have ever imagined. People who have survived didn’t do it justice. But why was she here? She wasn’t a bad person and only bad people go here.
Instead of focusing on why, Liza decided to search the room to find a way out. Anything that could be helpful. There was a bookcase against one wall and what looked like a window on the other wall. She walked across to the window, it was locked, and she couldn't see outside. Liza didn’t risk breaking the window because she didn’t know what terrors lied outside, if any. She started searching the bookshelf. She found engineering books, psychology books, criminology books, and so many other texts. Finally, she came across one called “escaping”. When she opened the book, there was a gun and a stick of gum. How odd.
Upon further inspection of the room, Liza found a crack in the wall. She pushed all around that crack and found a hidden door. She opened it. Great, another unfamiliar room… or was it? There were pictures of her and other people she didn’t recognize all over the walls. Ok, what the hell was going on? Sure, Liza had heard of these places before, but this is turning out way worse than what she had heard.
Liza came across another picture of the man that she was with at the CN tower. This time something in her mind clicked and she recognized him. His name is Dave, they have known each other for a little over 4 years now. He was one of the ones who told stories about this place. His story went a little different than it’s going for her now. He had been unknowingly kidnapped and ended up in a place like this after stealing a pineapple from a grocery store and pleading not guilty and winning that trial. Liza supposed it was some sort of justice by people outside of the justice system. He was locked in a room similar to Liza’s. He didn’t have to go through this maze though, so why did Liza? He served his time in that dark room and then was released approximately 30 days later. It was hard to tell, but going off of the daily newspaper, that appeared to be the amount of time he spent in what some people have labeled “the house of horrors”.
Liza didn't know how long she'd been here or why, but she had to get out. She continued searching this room until she came across a photo in a different frame. Liza picked it up to inspect it further. As soon as she picked it up a video started playing. Liza saw a room covered in blood, whoever had the camera moved to the next room in which it looked like a struggle occurred. Finally, the camera came upon her, Liza, covered in blood on the floor wailing. She appeared so sad, but she didn’t remember this at all. The video cut out after that.
Liza, confused, continued to walk around the room and inspect the pictures. She found another one that seemed out of place. She couldn’t place what about it that seemed off, but there was something. She took it off the wall and heard something shift. She looked around the room and saw that the bottom half of one of the bookshelves had opened up. Curious and hopeful to get out of this hellhole, she decided to crawl through this passage. She crawled for what seemed like hours. Finally, she emerged on the other side. What the….
This room looked exactly like the one from the video, blood and all. Off in the corner she saw what looked like people standing there. Upon further inspection, the statues were made of wax. Liza gasped as she saw that the statues were of her, a person with a video camera, but she didn’t recognize the face of that person, and finally there was someone on the floor, clearly dead. She thought she recognized the dead individual, but couldn’t place their face. The person on the floor had been stabbed several times in what looked like a brutal fashion. Whoever did this clearly had no inkling of what it was like to feel human emotions. Just seeing the wax body made Liza break down into tears.
Then Liza heard a thump and scuffle, then some steps. The steps sounded like they were coming towards her. As Liza got up and scanned the room she screamed. Right in front of the wax statue of the person with a video camera was that person.
“Hello Liza” said the stranger.
Liza looked at the stranger with confusion. She had never seen this person in her life, had she? She still couldn’t remember everything. After staring at the stranger for a minute, Liza managed to get out the words “who are you?”.
“Now, now, Liza, is that a proper way to greet someone?”
What the hell? She knew that smug tone, but couldn’t place it.
The stranger continued, “well, it makes sense that you wouldn’t remember me. We did pump you full of so many drugs that you would forget everything.”
“We?” Liza managed to squeak.
“Oh Liza, this is so much bigger than just you or I. There are multiple people in place that will do whatever we ask as long as we can pay for it.”
Oh no, Liza realized who this was. Her abusive ex-boyfriend. Not in the classical sense of abuse. Rather, it was verbal abuse from a smug narcissistic sociopath. After a few years she finally had the sense to get out of that relationship and truly see how badly she had been treated. What did Sam want now? Why was he doing this to her? Who was that poor soul on the floor?
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