Chapter de Second

Reality and confusion

She had been left there unconscious and she had traveled the same way. Unbearable pain covered her body and the cold wind of winter began to blow traveling unmercifully through her spine.

Her senses awakened slowly, she was aware of the increasing pain on of her ribs and head. She opened her eyes slowly and founded her sight was clouded, without moving her torso she motioned one hand and caressed her head, she could feel the dried blood mixed with hair and dirt, but the real surprise came when her hand met the floor. The cold touch of the ground below her made her eyes go wide and the clouds become vapid... she was not mistaken she was laying on a marble floor.

She trembled as she tried to incorporate and then fell soundly. Lisa took a deep breath and tried again and achieved it barely, the action made her dizzy and her legs threatened to let her fall.

Her clothes were dirty, her hands were covered with dried blood and she stood at the middle of a dark hallway of which she was only able to see a few tiles and the poorly lit walls. Her eyes scrutinized the obscure corridor and discovered the source of the little light. There was a little window which would have allowed moonlight to enter had there been any, instead the sky was dark an empty... not even the stars shone in the black veil.

Lisa Nelsen moved slowly towards the window and gasped at the sight that met her eyes, she was not familiar with the view but something in the deeps of her mind was yelling at her that she was not in New York. Lisa rubbed her eyes, her surroundings could be part of a hallucination, a concussion or a dream... yet she did not remember being so aware of herself in any of those.

She risked a few steps, her legs quivered with the weight of her damaged body. Lisa caressed her arms with her hands and realized her jacket was missing. She was now more aware of how cold her body was, her upper lip shivered slightly and her sense of self-preservation made her legs carry on as she looked for a place were she could find shelter.

Much to her regret she had to move away from the little light onto the dark corridor, her steps echoed by the marble floor and the solid walls. With time her eyes got used to the dark enough so that she could easily distinguish statues and portraits from their background, she could not yet tell what they resembled but she was aware that she they were there, something that made her more uncomfortable.

Lisa felt uneasy, which made her quicken her pace; she opened the first door she founded and looked for something that resembled a switch but was unable to find one. The room held a window through which she could see a poorly lit stone street, Lisa observed snow beginning to fall covering the street and her heart seemed to stop when she saw a stranger covered from shoulders to feet with a black cloak, but it was not the cloak that caught her attention... it was the white mask that he wore under the black hat.