The darkness was everywhere. Matilda scrambled off of the floor and onto her feet, and started a fumbled attempt to find a light switch by feeling along the side of the closest wall, adjacent to her. Eventually she concluded that it would be a less futile hope to attempt to open the door, maybe it wasn't locked, maybe she was hearing things. The door seemed a different texture then the other oak panelled doors in the institute, and the handle was in a strange place, being in the centre of the door instead of off to one side. As Matilda twisted the handle she heard a click, but the door still wouldn't budge, the next second, the room became illuminated with a faint homey yellow light, originating from a stained glass chandelier containing a single bulb at the centre of the room.
The light showed the room to be significantly larger than to be expected, second only to the size of the institutes ballroom. A domed ceiling stretched far overhead, decorated with wood carved into twirling shapes and delicate panels, the sides of the room were lined with tall shelves filled with large leather bound books, and the walls were papered with a delicate design of pink flowers, on a creme background.
It was the rest of the room that was the most shocking, and beautiful, in the centre there lay a large round table, dwarfed in the massive expanse around it, yet bigger then any of the tables boasted in the refectory. The table had long groves carved into it forming a beautiful, yet unrecognisable shape, resting on top of it was a blank leather bound notebook, a pen and a large dish holding a strange red liquid, that gave off the enticing aroma of cinnamon and cloves, with strange metallic undertones.
Matilda hadn't realised that she had wandered all the way to the table during her observations of the room, and stroked the delicate crevices that lined it with the tip of her finger. She touched the bowel and found it to be made of the same wood of the table. Gently, Matilda lifted the wooden bowel to her lips, and slowly, began to gently sip on the liquid. The aroma of fresh herbs filled her nostrils and the taste similar to the cooks best soup flooded her mouth.
"DON'T DRINK THAT" a smooth voice called from the other side of the room, and at the same moment a hole opened up between two books on the shelf opposite Matilda, and a long mechanical claw emerged, violently jerking the bowel from Matilda's hands, spilling some of the liquid on her dress and hands, and steeling the bowel back into the wall with it.
"Argh" Matilda accidentally let the sound escape her lips.
Outrage overtook her, Matilda was unsure as to why she felt she needed to drink that strange red liquid, but she knew that she should. Frustration and anger clouded her vision, and she banged her fist violently against the ornate table.
"Please don't break my table…" the same voice called.
Looking closer at the still open hole between the books, Matilda could make out a pair of dark eyes reflecting the yellow light of the room. She considers the leather bound notebook for a moment before picking it up, along with the pen, and walking towards the book hole.
'Give it back' she wrote, observing the pair of eyes squint to make out the words,
" It isn't yours" the smooth voice replied " I beg of you, just leave" with that the eyes glanced down and to the side in a look of surrender.
'Please' Matilda wrote, she needed to finish drinking it, she must.She saw the eyes close, and move from side to side, whoever they belonged to was clearly shaking their head.
" The painting between those two bookshelves, with the ladder leading up to it, please, pull on the left side, it will take you to the left wing of the building, leave." Matilda hadn't previously noticed the painting, or the ladder, but decided it was her only option at that moment, though resigned herself to return later for that strange red liquid.
So she made her way over there, climbed the ladder, and with a final glance towards the strange eyes in the bookshelf, slipped through the painting, and out into the same hallway she came from.
Looking back behind her, Matilda saw that she had came out the other side from the most eerily beautiful portrait she had ever seen, a large image of a tall, curvy woman with Raven black hair and bright blue eyes wearing a long sapphire gown, standing in the great ballroom, it was painted in great detail, but somehow looked twisted and unnatural in places.
The subject of the painting was the complete opposite to Matilda herself, who was seemingly fully grown, yet still the height of some of the inmates who were almost 3 years younger then her, and as slim as them as well, with wispy hair that was almost white and eyes so dark they looked black, though despite that, the woman's face was almost identical to her own, with a sloping button nose, soft jaw and a full mouth, with contrastingly sharp eyes, and arched brows.
The uncanny resemblance was disturbing and frightening, yet, Matilda couldn't help to continue to study the woman face until she head the shrill voice of Granny Betts calling once again "MATILDA".
She flinched automatically, as threatened previously, Matilda was surely going to spend the next day in isolation.