Chapter 3: The room

Nive suddenly regained her breath and opened her eyes. But instead of the sidewalk she was just on, she was suddenly in another room. She was on the floor. She quickly got up and stood up. She looked around and saw that the room was shaped like a hexagon, with six equal corners and walls. The room was not very big. About the same size as Nive's bedroom. The ceiling was decorated with paintings of cherubs. Just like the ones you see in those unbelievably expensive palaces. The room felt cold, but not damp. Nive heard a muffled sound. It came from outside, wherever that was. It sounded like a big blizzard was blowing outside. There were two chairs right in the middle of the room. Both were upholstered in beautiful red velvet. The railings were gold or at least painted gold. The rest of the room was almost empty. There was one plant in each corner and they were the same. Nive was annoyed by this. She never liked perfect things. And this room was the pinnacle of that. She looked around again and searched along the wall for a door. There wasn't one against any of the six walls. Nive started to get scared and walked towards a wall. She began to feel the walls with her hands. Her heart started to beat faster and her breathing got faster and faster. After scanning two walls, Nive still couldn't find anything. She didn't know what she was looking for, probably a secret door that opened when you pressed a special button. She recognized them all too well from films and series that she liked to watch. She just couldn't find it. Nive was starting to get scared now. She felt tears welling up and began to walk faster. At some point, she arrived at the last wall. Here, the center of the wall felt different. Somehow Nive felt relieved. It must have been a door and that meant she could get out of there, but she didn't know what came next either. When she thought about that, this empty perfect room felt comfortable.

Nive felt with her fingers to see if she could find an edge on a button somewhere. She had to bend down far to find the edge. When she found it she tried to pull it. Nive soon learned that this door was probably not used very often. He was stuck wall to wall. Nive bent even further now so that she could put her shoulder under it. She pushed against the edge with all the strength she had. Her shoulder hurt incredibly, but she persevered. With a click, something opened. Nive got up and felt her shoulder. When she tried to touch him, she quickly withdrew her hand. It hurt too much. Only after a few seconds did she realize what had happened. The door that was supposed to be a door had become a window. There was a white roller blind in front of the window. Slowly and warily, Nive walked to the window. Of course, she didn't know what was behind the window. A cord hung from the window. Carefully, Nive grabbed the cord and tugged it. Slowly and with a lot of squeaking, the roller blind went up. The beeping felt odd because all she'd heard for the past five minutes was her breathing, footsteps, and the click of the secret hatch.

When the blinds were finally up, Nive could see out. She pressed her forehead as far against the window as she could, so she couldn't see her reflection. Through the window, Nive saw a courtyard. The storm she thought she heard was not there. "Strange," Nive said. The ground was far from her. This meant that she was not on the ground floor, but a few floors up. The sky was blue. Not as blue as normal, but slightly darker. The sun was visible, but Nive didn't think it gave much light here. This was because she soon noticed that there was a kind of large lantern in the middle of the square. It gave so much light that it became difficult to keep looking at it. No one walked on the square, which was decorated with bushes and trees. Or rather, it was empty. The only things in the square were the bushes and trees, which reminded Nive of a palace garden. The houses and buildings around the square also seemed empty and deserted. Not a single burning light was to be seen anywhere.