The entity awoke from a deep sleep. Gazing at the snow-white ceiling, it knew that it remained as solid as ever. A long time passed in this manner, as the events that had happened before the figure had come here ran through its mind. Every time it woke up so that such incidents would not take their precious time. Despite the fact that it had as much time as its heart desired, the being did not want to sacrifice what it had in time for escapes from subsequent prisons, it preferred to wander the world. It always enjoyed this feeling, even though it had been doing this for a millennia. Then the being got out of bed, revealing itself from a thick, soft-feather duvet. It looked around the small room. Its gaze fell on the floor, which was covered almost entirely with a red, Persian carpet interspersed with gold patterns. Then it transferred itself to an unremarkable mirror framed with simple wood. It looked around at the empty desk and the chair next to it with comfortable armrests. This room was no different from the others in which it had been forced to spend the night before.
The entity slowly walked to the door. Before opening it, it listened intently. No disturbing sounds were heard from a distance. The being pressed lightly on the doorknob and cracked the door ajar. It slipped through the opening and moved to another room.
This one was much larger than the previous one. It seemed to be boundless. The room was crisscrossed by numerous ceiling-high bookshelves full of similar tomes. Their spines had no titles engraved on them, but had two thin golden lines crossing them, one at the top and the other at the bottom. The copies differed from each other only in the color of the leather in which they were bound. Some flared crimson, others the depth of the sea, others the green of summer forests. Among the various shades of these colors, brown had also found a place, less often black, white and yellow. All the books were of the same average size and thickness, which meant that none of them stood out from the rest. The being rejoiced, because if it were to look for a way out for eternity, at least it would not be weary of this stay.
Then it heard a subtle murmur. It turned abruptly and at the last moment saw the door blend into the wall. Irritated by this fact, it shifted its gaze to the ceiling-high bookcase and walked on. The entity stopped at the next piece of furniture and looked carefully both ways, looking for doors to other rooms, but found no such thing. It held out its hand. It took one of the books with extreme delicacy, carefully opening it. The old book had no title like the others, but the entity did not care. It flipped the page and looked at the next page, waiting for any text in any language, but was disappointed as no black lines crossed the slightly yellowed soft-touch paper. The page turned out to be blank. It turned to another page and another, but saw no text. Disappointed and interested at the same time, it looked through the entire empty book. After a while, the being put it back in its place and checked another one that also had no text.
Intrigued, it looked through them all in search of content. When finished looking through the books on the shared shelf, it knew that they would rather not enjoy the time spent here reading. The entity put down the last of them. It walked over to the other side of the bookshelf, also full of books. This time it did not undertake checking them. It walked through the long rows of shelves until it found an interesting spot.
A cozy nook was situated against the wall, not far from a corridor that led to even more rooms. Nearby was a mirror framed by intricately decorated wood. There were also leather armchairs and sofas arranged in a horseshoe. In the center of the room stood a small round table covered with a white square cloth, with a vase of red flowers on it. If the being were in a normal home of an ordinary mortal, it would assume that someone was living there. The freshly picked flowers flaunted their delicate petals, exuding a sweet fragrance around them. The water filled the blue vase to the brim. It indicated someone’s presence, but the entity knew no one lived here. This building was unlike any other building the entity had encountered. It seemed to have self-awareness, intelligence and, worst of all, moods. More than once it seemed to believe that it had nothing else to do than to make its existence more complicated, because it was difficult to call this life. This scenario, however, seemed extremely probable.
The mirror was hung over the fireplace, which aroused hope in the creature. Walking over to it, he noticed with a little irritation that it had been bricked up and sighed angrily. There was a soft murmur in its ears, and the floor beneath its feet shifted slightly. It laughed. It was used to the building’s similar mischief, but it still irritated it. It turned and looked at the table. During this time, the petals managed to change their color to white, not blood red, and the vase no longer had the shades of the sea, but the color of snow. Next to it, on the edge of a round wooden table, there was a small plate of cookies arranged in a pyramid and a glass of milk from which steam was still rising.
The entity came closer and examined them carefully. The food was not enriched with poison or elixir, like every meal that appears in this building. It vexed the creature that there was always something distracting it, and food suddenly appeared behind its back. Usually, the guard, who was also a prisoner, offered desserts, fruit, or less often, the figure received soup or a main course. Sometimes it felt as if something that was going to stop it from running cares too much about it. When it felt weary, they soon appeared beside the bedroom door. It also received meals at regular times, which it did not sample anyway. The same also happened this time. The being examined the gift for various unwanted substances that it did not detect. It put the cookie that it had picked up from the plate back in place untouched. It glanced at the milk, but did not pay it much attention. Instead of examining the drink, it went to the mirror. As it did so, it looked away from the mirror as far as it could. Without looking at its reflection, it carefully tilted it. It looked at the wall. There was nothing special about it, but it preferred to check, just in case there was a secret passage or something like that. It loosened its grip, and the mirror slipped from its fingers. It saw its reflection in it.
The figure struck it in blind fury, and the glass shattered into several hundred sharp pieces that fell with a soft clink onto the red-carpeted floor. Breathing heavily, numerous unpleasant memories were awakened in the entity’s head. However, it quickly shook off the sudden surge of negative emotions. It looked at the broken glass, turned and continued down the hall. It chose the first door and entered a small room. It looked almost identical to the prior one, except that there was a door to the right of the room leading to an adjoining room. It entered: the room looked the same. Again to its right was a door that it assumed led into the corridor. It carefully opened it and froze. It led to another room, which was impossible. It stepped back and returned to the first room, opening a door that would lead to the corridor. To its frustration, it saw another identical room on the other side. It slammed the door and sat down on the bed, lost in thought.
Finally it had an idea of how to get out of this prison. It would smile if it could.
