I woke up to sunlight streaming across my face. Apparently, I'd forgotten to draw the curtains last night. Were there even curtains? I dared a peek through slitted eyes, to minimize bright light damage. Yes, there were curtains. They were a lovely deep red that would have done an excellent job of darkening the room so that I could sleep. I shut my eyes again, rolled over, and tugged the comforter over my head in an attempt to shut out that irritating sunlight. Which didn't work, because now I couldn't breathe. Muttering angrily to myself, I threw aside the blanket and rid myself of any notion of getting more sleep. I found my clothes from last night and tugged them on, then flung open the door – which I had forgotten to lock last night – and stomped off downstairs.
Which was a lot harder to do than it sounded. Stomping off was easy, and something I was quite adept at prior to my first cup of coffee. But managing to do it on the way downstairs was where the problems came up. At first I just stomped down corridor after corridor, then after a while I began to simply walk, then finally I had to admit to myself that this was the fifth time I'd passed the door marked “Women's Bathroom”. I was lost.
It was remarkably easy to retrace my steps to the room I'd came from, so I went back there and knocked on William's door. He was reasonably competent with directions, and a morning person besides. He'd be able to help. That is, if he ever answered his door. After a few minutes I came to the frustrating conclusion that he was either dead or out. I sighed, and tried to remember how we'd come in last night. We came down the hall, I recalled, and the room I stayed in was on our right. I turned around so that my door was on my left, and looked down the hallway. Astonishingly enough, it happened to look just like every other hallway I'd seen that morning.
Maybe it would help if I approached the problem from the same angle I had last night. I turned around so that I was facing the opposite direction – the same view I'd seen coming down the hallway last night – and began to walk backwards. This wasn't much better than my previous attempts, but being the stubborn person I am I was determined to find my way downstairs. I reached a corner, walked backwards around it, and slammed into someone. We both fell to the ground.
“Augh!” I yelled.
“Augh!” She yelled too. “What are you doing?”
“I'm looking for coffee!” Then a thought hit me. “Wait, you do have coffee here, right?”
“Yes, of course we have coffee here!” she said, standing up and straightening her skirt. “But why were you walking around backwards?”
“I was lost,” I explained pathetically.
“I don't understand,” she said, giving me a very confused look.
“Er,” I said, waving my hand around vaguely. “It's like...just never mind, it's a bit complicated.” I got to my feet awkwardly. “Can you take me to where you guys have the coffee?”
“The kitchen? Sure, follow me.”
She led me down a hallway I could have sworn that I'd traversed already, and then down the spiral staircase. We went into the busy dining room, and then through a wooden door into a kitchen area. I smelled coffee.
“Thanks,” I said to the girl who I'd collided with, but she was already gone. Not that I blamed her. If I were me I wouldn't stick around myself in the morning either.
“Eric!” A familiar voice came from the other side of the kitchen. “Want some coffee?”
“Yes, please,” I said to Lynne, and took the proffered mug. “Mmm, that's good.”
“Anything else you need?”
“Have you seen William?”
“Your friend? I think he's in the library. Want me to take you there?”
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