Page 44 of Crazy Like a Fox

"Where can we find these answers?"

"W—"

"Don’t answer out loud. Whatever comes up, go with it. Just follow wherever you’re led."

“Okay.”

"Where are you?"

The mental landscape around me showed…. Nothing. A white empty void, the same one Frost discovered. Just great. When the Broker’s magic wiped me clean, they really wiped me clean.

"Look around, tell us what you see."

"There’s nothing, only white nothingness. The same place Frost found. What if there’s nothing here?"

"Don’t worry about that. Keep moving. Explore your surroundings."

With nothing to explore, I kept walking into the white void, not sure I got anywhere at all. When I tried to turn left, I couldn’t, like an invisible wall blocked the path. The same happened when going right. Okay then. I walked forward. Hazy dimensions began to form.

“There are walls around me, white walls, a white floor. I’m walking down… a hallway.”

"Do you know where you are?"

"No, there’s nothing else, oh.” Faint markings appeared at odd places on the walls. “There are numbers, they’re room numbers. Oh, there are the doors. I’m at the rehab center, except the whole floor is empty. No furniture, no people, and the floor just goes on and on. I can’t find the middle with the elevators and nurses station."

"That’s fine. What about the doors?"

Reaching out, the nearest handle felt cool under my fingertips, how the fixtures felt in the morning before the sun came out. “It’s locked.”

“They’re all locked?”

“You want me to try an endless line of doors?” A note of my familiar attitude crept into my robotic responses. Even if I didn’t have better things to do that sounded—huh.

The never-ending hallway suddenly parted, the nurse’s station and elevator bay there in plain view, like they’d been there all along. And before reaching them was the special room. On the other side of the hallway, the designated supernatural room caught my attention. A blue light came from under the door.

"Max, what happened?"

"One of the doors is different."

"Can you go inside?"

"Uh…” Hell of a question. I couldn’t find out if I couldn’t get my feet to move. I stayed rooted to the spot. “Something’s there,” I said, feeling the weight of it press down on me. “Something important."

"Do you want to go inside?"

“Yes,” I said instantly. Huh. Yet my feet became unlocked. “I want to go in, but I’m scared.”

Whoa. I looked down and saw my hands hanging at my sides, yet at the same time, I felt Lysander take one of my hands in his. I squeezed his hand and moved towards the door. With a deep breath, I grabbed the handle and opened the door.

From bright blinding whiteness to pitch black, the change startled me as I plunged into the darkness.

"Max are you there?"

"I think so."

"What did you find?”

"I can’t, I can’t see. Hold on. Ah!"