Part 55: Last Night- Page 53

Numb.

You float slowly to consciousness like a bubble rising to the surface of some warm, thick oil. You are numb.

For several minutes, that is as much as your battered mind can handle, that one thought: you are numb.

Then your head becomes a bit clearer, and you connect the thought with the sensations trying to make their way through your foggy brain. You are numb. Your arms. You can't feel your arms at all.

You try to get up but you can't move; you merely flop over onto your stomach like a struggling worm. You roll back over and sit up, and at last your vision clears and you finally get a good look around, and the horror of your situation finally slams home...

Padded Cell
You are in a padded cell, the kind typically reserved for raving lunatics. The room is barely eight feet by eight feet square, with walls and floor of concrete covered with thick, quilted padding. The door in the west wall is also covered with padding, except for a tiny observation window about five feet up, from which a feeble light trickles in.

Well, it wouldn't be a Lovecraft story without someone in the insane asylum.

>look at padding
The dingy white padding is made of thick, quilted canvas, stuffed with cotton. You could probably beat yourself against it all day and not hurt yourself, although you would end up awfully sore.

>look at door
It's a sturdy-looking wooden door, padded on the inside. There is a tiny observation window about five feet up. The door is closed.

It looks like the door might be hanging a bit crooked on its hinges.

>look out window
You can see an empty hallway outside. Across the hall is another door.

There isn't much to look at.
There IS this new fashion statement forced onto Miranda, however.

>i


You are wearing a strait jacket, your clothes and your wedding ring.

An eerie, flickering glow momentarily illuminates the hall outside the cell.

>look at jacket
It's a canvas strait jacket, the kind used to immobilize violent or spastic mental patients. It fastens up the back with a complex series of buckles and straps, while the sleeves cross the chest and fasten around back, making it quite impossible to escape.

*** ka-WHAM!!! ***

A monstrous clap of thunder rolls across the sky, shaking the whole town to its foundations.

Cripes! That was loud!

>open door
Unfortunately, that would require the use of your arms.

Maybe we can make some noise?

>scream
Come now; you're not that frightened.

>laugh
That's not a verb I recognise.

>giggle
That's not a verb I recognise.

>go mad
You can't see any such thing.

>

Hmmm... Miranda needs to get out of here. If she's right, her husband needs her.
I'm open to any bold suggestions.

Items