Timed Trial

I was in some sort of contest. A trial by fire wherein I passed through dozens of rooms. Some of the rooms were the size of a football field, others the size of a small apartment. Each was of a different type, but they were all terrifying in one way or another. I cannot remember the first ones I passed through, just that there was lots of running. Some of the rooms were mentally challenging, in which I would have to figure my way around a trap or a puzzle of some kind before being allowed entrance to the next. Others were physically demanding, requiring the completion of an obstacle course or some other feat of strength.

At any moment, I knew the price of failure was death, so I was pushed on by a desperation borne of terror. None of the rooms had ceilings that I can remember, only blackness, and a feeling of being watched never left me. Some of the rooms had dark figures walking or limping around me, but they never interrupted my course or tried to communicate in any way. On entering each room, rules imposed themselves on me and I was made to know exactly what could and could not be done over the course of traveling through that particular room.

The first room that I can remember was the size of a small warehouse, with a main avenue running down the middle of it and heavy machinery lining each side. A door beckoned me on the other side. The machinery was new and shiny, but made the most awful noise. Bent over consoles next to each machine was a figure in a lab coat busily working. I walked down the avenue, trying to reach the far side of this room and trying not to make eye contact with anyone. A rule had imposed itself on me, do not talk to anyone.

In the center of the room, right in the middle of this main avenue was a contraption surrounded by floating orbs and spheres. The spheres were all multi-colored, the first color I'd seen in the mostly black and grey worlds of the rooms. The spheres were also moving terrifically fast, orbiting the contraption and blocking off any movement to the far side of it. As I walked towards it, time itself seemed to slow down and the spheres slowed their pace. My legs grew heavy and I found it hard to move at all. It was as if everything around me was stuck in the thickest honey. I realized that this would allow me to pass through the contraption to the other side, but it would take all my strength to move and at any moment, the laws governing the room could change and I could be caught in the middle of the swirling machinery. The perfectly round spheres colored in reds and blues and yellows gave the feeling of children's toys, but my mind saw them as sharp and dangerous and I was not eager to pass so closely to them.

I was suddenly aware that I'd been carrying a brown paper bag in my right hand. It had something inside of it, something resembling a book of some kind. As I made up my mind to pass through the contraption, I first threw the paper bag through and then guided my body through, avoiding the balls as I could. Just as my ankle came through after me and I regained my balance, time snapped back and the contraption grew back into a whirling death trap.

I walked towards the silvery metal door, passing more machinery and technicians in lab coats. As I raised my hand to grip the door handle and open it, one of the technicians told me not to in whispers. Her face was mostly hidden by the hood of her lab coat, but I could see that she was blonde and very beautiful. She told me that entrance to the other side would be decided momentarily. I was not to touch the door.

I ignored her and gripped the door handle.

Immediately I was filled with regret and terror as the atmosphere changed and everything became black. The room behind me disappeared in the darkness, leaving only the silvery metal door in front of me. After several minutes, the door opened and I was greeted with another woman, this one dressed as a receptionist.

She told me to follow her inside the next room and she looked terrified as well, as if she knew something bad was about to happen to me for breaking a rule of the trial. I followed her into what looked like a department store. Everything looked normal, though the lights seemed too bright. I followed her to a waiting man who stood with his arms crossed. He seemed to be at least three feet taller than me, and dressed in a dark suit. He guided me over to a wall of clothing and told me to pick all new clothes to wear.

Nothing fit me.


Alarm clock.