It was dark. Have you gone blind? Oh no… Oh wait, you see something. A small ray of light shining through under a door. You try to get to it but find you’re chained to the wall. You grab the metal around your neck. You notice it’s got needles inside as they inject pain into your body.
You whine.
But then you grow sick of it. “Pull yourself together, Alice!” you say “Crying won’t get you anywhere, you silly willy.”
You start to go through your options. You could only think of starving. You try not to let that get you down. Alice, you called yourself. Your name is pretty much the only thing you remember. You inspect yourself further. You wear a shabby dress, possibly black, it was hard to tell in this darkness. Your arms and legs were free at least. You hug your knees but flinch when they hit against the coil around your neck. It is really uncomfortable. It also seems too big for you. Like you’re supposed to grow into it. How old are you? You have no idea.
Damn, you’re thirsty. You lick your lips. Hold on, something’s wrong. You stick out your tongue again. Stick it out further and further until it piles up on the floor before you.
How cool is that?
You’re really happy about this development. This tongue is rooted in your mouth but goes down your throat and then comes back up. It is unclear how much of it was tucked away inside you. It is long enough to let you explore the room. To your disappointment it is empty.
You notice your sharp teeth next and wonder if you could bite through your chains. It is painful to wriggle around until the chain was between your teeth but it proves a worthy effort. The metal snapped pleasingly in your mouth and you happily stand up. You feel so damn cool.
Next you walk to the door. It has no handle and is made of thick metal. Damn. You sit down next to it, your tongue still lolling out of your mouth and sprawled out all over the room.
You notice the little ray of light again. Grinning, proud of yourself, you have your tongue glide through under the door and look for a door handle on the other side. After fumbling with it for a while you manage to open the door.
You are some damn good escape artist. Proudly you step out and slip your tongue back inside. It is damn cool but it wouldn’t be cool to trip over it. You explore this weird building and find a room that seems familiar, but you don’t remember it. In it you find a desk with a thick layer of dust on top. In front of the desk stands a chair and otherwise the room is filled with cabinets.
You go through the drawers of the desk and find something that piques your interest. A child’s drawing. It depicts a girl with very light hair and pale skin, which you recognize as you, holding hands with a tanned girl with black hair.
“Jackie.” You whisper. That was that girl’s name, right? How do you remember her? You wanted to keep the picture but your stupid dress had no pockets. Maybe you could find some new clothes around here. You leave the room and start hearing something. Scratching sounds. You go back to your prison room and walk up the other way of the corridor. There was another thick metal door. The scratching noise comes from behind it. It isn’t just scratching. It sounds like bits of the door being scraped off. For a moment you consider opening the door. But then you imagine the beast behind it. You decide it’d be best to keep that monstrosity in there. And also to get far, far away from here. You run up the corridor, up the stairs and through the door. Blinding sunlight greets you. You keep running with naked feet on hot sand.