She struggled to clear her mind, feeling as if she had awoken from a heavy slumber. Despite the constant ache that seemed to envelop her entire body, she desperately tried to remain calm. She struggled to get a sense of where she was, tears of pain blotting her vision.
Where was she?
She rested on a bare bed frame. There was a strange cord on the ceiling, along with a lantern. The was a phonograph in the corner. There was a heavy iron gate.
Her head pounded, her aching limbs twitched as she tried to lift herself up off the bed, and she felt almost blinded, despite the lack of light. It was a strange sensation to her; she wasn't used to pain. Or was she? She searched her mind for clues or memories, but none arose.
Fear spiked inside of her mind, adrenaline suddenly erasing the pain she felt. Her breathing was harsh and ragged, her heartbeat racing. She couldn't remember. She couldn't remember anything.
The surge of energy didn't help; her limbs simply seemed incapable of working. When her arms collapsed under her weight once more, she laid back down on the hard wooden bed frame in defeat. Before she finally lost consciousness from the fear and pain, her eyes rested on the rusted iron gate that seemed to keep her in. Someone was there.
She blacked out before she could call for help.
When she awoke once more in the dreary cell, she felt herself lacking the pain and disorientation from the last time. What was more, she could finally remember some details of her life and herself. Her name was Justine and she lived in France. Even these two small things were enough to bolster her confidence.
She stood easily and gazed sullenly at the cell gate, willing it to open. She tugged and pushed at it, but despite it's apparent bad condition, it stayed stubbornly in place. She tugged at her hair in frustration, her foot flying out in anger and striking the phonograph.
It was only then that she realized how ridiculous it was to have a phonograph of all things in a cell. Earlier when she had first made note of it, she had to have been delirious to not think of it as strange. After that conclusion she wondered whether or not the figure she had seen was also a part of her delirium.
She walked up to it and cranked it, foolishly startled when it started up and a woman's voice began talking.
"Bienvenue, you are now listening to the sound of my disembodied voice. It will serve you no purpose to look for me, for this is a voice from the past. I bid you welcome to my cabinet of perturbation. It is my study of the human psyche – specifically yours. A set of recordings have been prepared to chaperone you through the chambers ahead.
"There are a few parts to this study, and it is up to you – not only to pass, but to figure out what elements are important. Please go on, move into the next chamber. Just remember they can all be saved, there is always a way."
Justine reflected briefly on this strange and omniscient message. The woman's voice had been high and girlish and, Justine thought, very superficial. But something the woman had said bothered her, 'They can all be saved.' A dim feeling of hope welled up inside of her; there were others here as well!
Proceeding to the next chamber was a surprisingly easy task. All she had had to do was to take the oil lantern from above her head before the cord on the ceiling was cranked and the door pulled open.
Stepping out into the darkened hallway she looked at the lantern, frowning in disgust when she realized how useless it was to her – the lantern was empty! She held on to it tightly despite it's lack of use; she might find an oil potion to use on it later.
She turned around and went further down the hallway until she spotted a grate on the wall. She crouched and peered into it, feeling her heart thump loudly as she saw what could only be described as a monster. What an aberration it was! Chains clung to it, rattling with every step it took, a wheel placed around it's neck, and lacerations covered it. The beast walked with a limp and gasped harshly for air.
Justine spun away from the wall, clutching at her chest trying to calm herself. It's down there and it can't hurt you, she thought to soothe herself, but it didn't work. It's humanoid appearance frightened her. She sat stock still against the wall for a long time until she finally felt ready to continue.
She turned left at the first turn, ignoring the path to the right for the time being. The area she had chosen to go down ended abruptly with a cave in. There was rubble blocking the entire pathway, rocks littering the ground in front of her. On top of some of the rocks was a piece of a ladder. She gazed at the ladder for a second, before turning back to the hallway she had previously ignored.
She sped up upon spotting a door at the end of the dark corridor. Beyond the doorway were more cells but something was different. She could hear... breathing.
She walked forward while trying to identify the source, almost breaking her ankle in between to gaps of the floorboards. The man who was there in the room with her heard the creaking and called out to her.
"Help me, please, help me!"
Justine walked up to the second cell on the left and saw him. He was behind a padlocked door, strapped onto a table with some sort of spike above him. To the right of the door was a lever.
"Whoever you are, if you could help me, I would be much obliged."
She stared at him and at the lever, a sick feeling welling up in her. 'They can all be saved.' This was part of her task, saving this man. She rubbed fiercely at her eyes, trying to focus. Tugging at the gate did nothing and she was afraid to pull the lever.
There was nothing she could do for him yet.
She turned her attention to the cell on the right of the man in hopes of finding a key. The door yielded to her and she went inside, staggering from a sudden flooding of memories and sensations that were not her own.
Church bells were ringing in her ears, making her feel sick and light-headed. A man murmured and sobbed, quoting the bible. Her eyes were drawn to the book labeled, 'Biblia' on the overturned bed. The jumbled words and clanging bells mixed into a horrible cacophony until –
It stopped suddenly and she was able to breathe again. She stumbled out of the cell and subsequently vomited.
"Can you hear me? It's not to late to set things right!"
She glared at the door she knew the man to be behind. Hadn't he heard the bells?
After regaining her composure she entered the doorway to her left. There was a cave-in here as well. She exited the room and continued in her clockwise direction.
The next room she entered also unlocked alien memories and thoughts; there was a crowd cheering and a repetitive thumping sound. According to the broken racket on the ground, all that she was hearing was a tennis match. But that was not all. On the table was a letter. She picked it up and was briefly horrified at what she saw underneath.
'Forgive me,' was written in blood on the table. Who had written that?
She shook off the fear and read the letter. It was from someone named Aloïs, talking to his lover. He spoke about how he would cut himself to appease her, and how he would soon joyfully murder another of her suitors, one named Basile. She turned to leave, only to spot another message written in blood.
'I am so sorry.'
She left the room, and while heading towards the next room something the chained man said stopped her dead in her tracks.
"Have you seen Justine?"
This man knew her? It had to be a coincidence...
She shook it off and continued in the clockwise pattern. She opened the door and was bombarded with a loud, grating sound of sawing. The table that was once in the room was cut into pieces, but there was little else of interest.
Justine began losing hope of finding a key to free the man with only two room left to go.
There was a table just outside the next room she was going to search, sitting upon it was a small blue and green bottle. She grinned and felt some relief flood into her. If that thing with the wheel around it's neck ever happened to find her, or hurt her, she had this. Laudanum soothed the mind and the body, something she felt would be imperative.
Into the next cell she went and her mind ached with the sounds of a violin. She curled up into a corner, wishing to be swallowed up so she could escape that sound. The violin no longer sounded beautiful or delicate. It seemed as though the player was scraping the bow across the strings.
The sound stopped and left her with tears in her eyes from the dissonance she had been subjected to. She struggled to get up briefly and stumbled out of the room.
The man spoke to her again, asking her how she'd escaped.
Justine kept her silence, feeling no urge to speak to either the man or herself. For a moment she wondered if she even had the ability to speak any more. She had made sounds since she had woken up, but she hadn't said any words.
She walked to the last room, the world seemingly shaking and twisting the moment she opened it. A roar sounded behind her and she fell face-first into the room and backed into one of the dark corners.
The chains on the monsters limbs rattled as it made its way jerkily through the room. Her breath caught in her throat when she heard it speak.
"Is that you I hear? Oh, why did this happen? Come back!"
Its voice was a mans, but it echoed strangely. She curled up into a ball, her hand accidentally knocking into the table and pushing it over. Her mind froze in fear. The monster stopped rattling and it's breathing halted.
"Is that you, my love?"
It started towards her, she could hear it's jilted footsteps coming her way. She would die if she stayed here, she needed to run! She bolted out of the cell and, without looking, exited the room, slamming the heavy door behind her.
She could hear it speak once again to her, "You came for me!"
It seemed to relieved and overjoyed to see her! She ran to where the rubble had littered her path before and hid in an indent in the wall. If luck was on her side, it would go the wrong way.
She sat motionless against the wall, horrified when she heard the hefty, iron gate being smashed open. What kind of terrible strength did this monster have?
It came around the corner and stood, looking at the rubble. Justine stared at it with bated breath, waiting for it to turn around. The close quarters she was forced to be in with this things lead her to examining the monsters body.
It's eyes seemed to be gone, bloody holes were the only things that remained. Ugly gouges seeped blood and pus all over it's body. She felt her mind slipping watching this disgusting creature, but it left in defeat quickly.
"Where did you go? Come back! Please, come back!"
She felt something akin to pity at the desperation in it's voice, the way it talked awakening some dim recollections she could rightfully call her own. She vaguely remembered a man she had once known intimately... But the sensation was gone. She couldn't recall exactly who it was.
She stood up and crawled quietly around the corner and reentered the room with all of the cells.
"Anyone there?"
Justine could feel irrational anger and feel well up in her. This man didn't know anything! It was her out here with monsters and memories that invaded her mind! How could anyone expect her to save him? The woman had lied to her! She couldn't save him!
In her rage she pulled down the lever until the strange spike above him came down and pierced his chest.
"Argh, why? I was just trying to help!"
Blood pooled around him and dripped slowly off the table. Justine swallowed thickly. What kind of person was she? How could she have done this? Was this who she was?
She turn around dizzily and walked over to the ladder that had dropped down after her violent outburst. The woman had said that they could all be saved... How could she do it? The woman couldn't say those things and reward her when she murdered them!
'Them'... There were more people that she was going to be tested with.
Justine climbed up the ladder in a daze, still with a sick feeling deep in the pit of her stomach.
She crouched in the upper confines she had risen to and tried to get rid of the light-headedness she felt. She couldn't have saved him, besides, what she'd done... It was human nature. With these thoughts in mind she crawled through the tight space.
Her heart jumped into her throat when she heard an unearthly roar behind her. She continued crawling as fast as she could, bumping her head and limbs into the walls and ceiling.
Suddenly the floor beneath her disappeared and she fell to the ground below, hearing the light crunch of her kneecaps smacking the floor. Her head whipped up towards the hole she'd came though but there was nothing there.