'Cold… It just all feels so cold…' Eliana's voice echoed within her mind, goosebumps forming all over her exposed body.
All she could see was darkness and all she could feel was a cold gale constantly slapping her in the face.
Eliana opened her eyes and found herself standing in the middle of a blizzard. The wind continued to slam into her and she could hardly keep her eyes open since snow kept blowing into her eyes.
There seemed to be nothing (again for the fourth time?) all around her and only after squinting, Eliana could see a black silhouette in the distance.
Her fingertips were already numb and they were starting to turn light blue. It was hard to even move forward because her feet and legs felt like large useless popsicles.
Even so, she continued to push through the storm.
As she trudged closer to it, the silhouette became larger and larger until it was revealed that it was a building. It seemed flat and rectangular like a motel and the exterior was peeling, which could be fixed with a new coat of deep blue-violet paint.
She was almost close to the door and she could imagine what sources of warmth might welcome her.
But then…
All of the sudden…
It…
Glitched?
One minute, she was reaching out for the door handle to the building. Then the next, she found herself sitting on a dining chair in the kitchen of her house and then she found herself back on the black side chair with her arm outstretched.
'Did I just… Glitch? Or teleport? Would that even be the word to describe it?' Eliana thought, completely dumbfounded on what she just experienced.
She stood up and after pushing the chair back, began to inspect her surroundings.
Nothing has been broken and are all in their places as if the 'white hole' never existed. It was…Oddly quiet and Eliana didn't feel any of the sensations she felt from the cold before.
She couldn't relax or let her guard down, not with all that happened to her, but she steeled herself and continued to explore.
Nothing.
There wasn't anything different as far as she could see.
The television was switched off and the remotes were placed in an organized manner. There on the white couch, navy blue Ikat Stripe pillows were neatly laid against the backrest.
Eliana moved on, turning around.
Then she gasped.
Everywhere, covered on the walls, there were some sort of writing that was in a deep and unsettling shade of red. The writing were mostly just random symbols that she has never seen before scattered across the wall such as, a sideways S with three lines vertically aligned in the middle and a circle with a square in the middle, which had an eye in the center of that. Eliana didn't like this eye at all because it seemed to follow her every motion.
Nonetheless, Eliana could make out some arrows and followed them. Although they weren't all in a straight direction and were confusing to follow at first, the arrows all pointed to each other in a connect the dots sort of way.
She followed them and they led to and up the stairway. The arrows led through the hallway and a group of arrows, all in different styles and sizes, circled around the closed bathroom door.
As she continued to follow the arrows, Eliana could hear a dripping sound coming from behind that door getting louder and louder…
Eliana sucked in her breath.
She didn't have the best encounter in this specific room and she wasn't too sure she was mentally prepared to experience something similar.
Her footsteps echoed in the hallway, piercing through the dead silence of the hallway. As she got closer to the door, Eliana could feel the apprehensiveness spreading throughout her every being; the fear she contained before growing with each footfall.
She reached out for the door knob, squeezing her eyes shut, and turned it.
As quick as she can, Eliana reached in and flicked on the light switch.
When she finally opened her eyes, the bathroom was the same as ever with it's navy blue tiles and white shower curtains.. That were closed.
'Aaaaaand now there seems to be something or someone behind it...' Eliana thought, trying (and failing) to make herself laugh while also trying hide her erratic breathing.
The dripping sound seemed to come from the faucet and she could hear something or someone sloshing around in the apparently filled bathtub.
Without caring anymore about shadows and writings on walls, Eliana, getting tired of these petty games, just abruptly grabbed the shower curtains and slid them open.
'Oh! Of course! There's nothing here.' Eliana rolled her eyes.
She stared at the shifting thick black liquid in the bathtub.
Eliana had seen something as nose wrinkling before... In a teacup.
for some reason, she felt the need to submerge herself into it. Eliana could hear whispers all around her, constantly telling her to let it consume her.
"I don't think I wanna..." Eliana mumbled in protest, but before she knew it, she wobbled and tumbled into the liquid and now she was sinking.
'For the fifth friggin' time, I'm surrounded by complete darkness...' Eliana scowled as she watched her golden yellow air bubbles rise to the surface.
She shifted herself to face the supposed bottom, but found she was getting to closer to some sort of light.
Eliana extended her fingertips out to the light and then caught something smooth and sturdy on the palm of her right hand. She followed it left and right with her hand and it seemed to stretch quite a distance on both sides before being abruptly blocked by what felt like a wall. She couldn't exactly see this 'bar' , much less tell what this whatever it is.
Regardless, she placed her other hand on it and tried to lift herself up.
When she was finally able to hook her arm around the 'bar', the liquid 'threw her up'.
Yes.
'Threw her up'.
She felt herself get pushed up and over and crashed onto a cement floor with familiar navy-blue tiles. Eliana gagged and coughed up some of this viscous liquid, feeling a slight sharp pain in her chest.
She watched as every last drop of the liquid around the bathroom gather together and rush up like an upside-down waterfall, which left her clothes and body completely dry. It then vanished into the ceiling, leaving a giant water stain. That same water stain grew smaller and smaller until it left no trace that it ever existed.
It took awhile for Eliana to recover from getting 'thrown up' and her chest was still just slightly in pain. When she did, Eliana stood herself up and dusted herself off.
"Huh? What's that on the mirror?"