No windows, nothing on the walls as far I could tell. I had woken in this gray-whitewashed room minutes or hours before--time seemed to have stalled-- and hadn’t heard a sound. If this was a dream, it wasn’t like any dream I’d had before. No, this was very real. All at once, the door swung open. A portly, stout man with keys jangling from hips stood in my view.
“Let’s go,” he called.
I stood up. The ringing in my ears crested into a crescendo before breaking like a wave as my surroundings crashed into my understanding all at once. The sharp metal bed, the heavy steel door, and somewhere in the distance a lock buzzing as doors opened and then slammed shut.
Trying to gather myself to make sense of the situation, my escort, his name tag not quite decipherable from across the room grumbled again.
“Let’s go,” he repeated.
I made my way through the doorway of my cell, handcuffed now, and was shuffled off to somewhere I didn’t know.
Why was I here?
How did I get here?
Where was I?
How long had I been asleep? ...passed out? ...drugged?
I couldn’t make sense of time. I couldn’t have told you what day of the week it was or whether it was pitch dark or sunny outside.
The more questions I asked, the more agitated my escort became, so I decided against pressing the issue.
After what felt like walking quite some distance, down long corridors with more twists and turns than I could count or keep track of, we arrived at another door. My new companion unlocked the door, uncuffed my wrists.
“Wait here,” was his parting remark as the door slammed closed. Looking around me, this room was as bare the first. Two metal chairs sat across from each other, between them a metal table placed squarely in the middle of the room.
I sat, trying to make sense of any of this, racking my mind for any memory or clue. I couldn’t say how much time had passed. It startled me to hear motion at the door once again.
The door opened, a tall woman, chestnut hair falling to her shoulders entered the room and sat across from me.
“Hello,” she said.
And when she looked into my eyes, I knew.
I was never going home.