Natasha was famished. She hadn't eaten anything since after lunch. She had some crackers hidden in a secret compartment in her study table. Going without food was nothing new for her. Every time her mom was angry or irritated about something or someone, Natasha would be the one to bear the burn. Her mom would punish her by not giving her dinner or making her do chores at home like washing clothes, moping the floor, washing dishes.
Natasha was habituated to doing these works now. And going hungry taught her that she needed to keep some food, anything edible at hand to keep her hunger sustained if she was not allowed to have dinner or lunch.
Natasha took out a pack of crackers and slowly started munching on them to not make any noise. She didn't want to get caught with the food or she would face harsher punishments. After finishing the crackers she drank a mouthful of water from the water bottle kept on her table.
There wasn't much in the attic room she was given. The room was dingy when they moved here. But she cleaned the room herself and placed all the furniture carefully. There was an old wooden bed, a study table and a large plastic storage box to keep her clothes.
The largest and east facing beautiful room was given to her sister. The master bedroom was taken by her parents. The guest room was empty. But her parents didn't deem her worthy of even a dresser or clothes cabinet, let alone a bedroom. So she was allotted the attic.
Then she lay on the bed and slowly fell asleep.
Natasha woke up when she felt pressure on her bladder. She got up to go to the washroom. She was really lucky that the attic was the only room on the third floor and there was a washroom right next to it.
She went to find the door but found nothing except for a wall. She got confused and started searching for the light switch. But the switch board wasn't where it was supposed to be. Instead she bumped into something and made some noise because something fell down. 'Ouch! Oh shit! I hope mom doesn't wake up'
She finally found the light switch after gliding her hand on the wall for some moments.
Natasha was shocked when the lights turned on. This was not the attic room. This wasn't her room at all. This room was bigger and brighter than her room. There was a medium size bed, a dressing table, a closet, a study table and a nightstand. All those furnitures were white. There was a nice fur rug on the floor and a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. The room wasn't huge but bigger than the attic and beautiful too. This was the kind of room she wanted but never got.
But she was panicked. This wasn't her room. 'Where am I? Am I dreaming? What is this place?' She pinched herself and felt a little pain. 'I am not dreaming. But if I'm not dreaming then where am I? I was sleeping in my bed in the attic. This is definitely not the attic'
She found the door and got out of the room. Outside was a long corridor and stairs on the other end of it. She ran towards the stairs and climbed down the stairs. This looked like a villa with many room. She was on the second floor just now. All the furniture in this villa was meticulously chosen and things looked s bin different. She looked around and searched for any sign of people. But the house was empty. She went to the front door and got out of the house.
As soon as she got out of the house something like a screen popped up in front of her. The screen was holographic. There was a dialogue box. There was something written on it.
"IF YOU WANT TO FIND THE EXIT THEN YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS "
There was a little arrow pointing at the lower right corner where it said NEXT. She pressed next and the page changed. This page said "GO TO THE SQUARE AND GET ACQUAINTED TO YOUR PARTNER"
'Partner? I have a partner? And how am I supposed to go to the square? I don't know the route'
The dialogue box infront of her suddenly changed into a map and showed the route she should take. She followed the route.