Page 35 of Locked in Wonderland

Chapter Thirteen

I stood motionless for the best part of a minute, maybe two, hoping my eyes would adjust enough to the darkness for me to make out something.

Anything.

But despite it being such a damn cliché, I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face when I lifted it. The brief glimpse of the corridor before the lights went out had shown it to be empty.

Was it still?

“Hello?” I called experimentally.

No answer.

I reached out for the wall on my right and used it to guide me forward. I guessed there was more than one way to blindfold someone. What was it with this place and its determination that I shouldn’t see anything?

I slowed when I reached where I thought the stairs might begin, unwilling to risk tumbling down them. Eventually, after a series of painfully cautious steps, I found the top one and paused to listen. It was hard to hear anything over the rapid staccato of blood pounding in my ears.

“Whoever you are,” I called, “this isn’t funny.”

Same result as before.

The stairs were never-ending. More than one flight. At the bottom lay another corridor. I followed it to a bend.

Then another.

And another.

Was it a maze?

Could you even have a maze inside a building?

I didn’t think so, but it sure as hell felt like one. After everything I’d witnessed and experienced in Wonderland, I couldn’t rule anything out. More turns. More dead ends. All the while, darkness pressed down on me.

If it was a maze, how were you supposed to find your way out blind when they were enough of a challenge when you could see?

What if I wandered around in here forever?

Not forever. Eventually, I’d starve.

That reminded me I hadn’t eaten a single thing since arriving. Food would incur another debt, though.

The thought almost made me laugh.

What had Tom Cheshire said about the people he’d labeled the unfortunates? That they’d never left. Maybe they all owed debts they could never repay. Maybe I’d become one of them if I didn’t learn to beat this place at its own game. The idea filled me with a desperate determination to pay off this damn debt, no matter what it took.

“Hey!” I shouted.

My voice echoed away into the darkness.

“You wanted me, so come and get me.”

Something in the air shifted.

Not physically. Instinctively.

The prickling certainty that someone else was nearby.

I turned in a slow circle, trying to use senses other than my eyes.