6

I opened the next door fully expecting to see a weird room. There wasn’t a room, but a wall of red ooze. I jumped back trying to avoid getting covered in this substance, but it stayed in place.

“The Red Sea?” I mumbled aloud.

I stuck my finger out to touch the liquid, fully expecting to lose a finger. Instead, the wall shifted, as if it didn’t want to be touched. I poked further, but the liquid kept shifting around my hand, and then around my arm. Once I had my whole arm in, I tried to reach in more, but without anything to hold me back, I fell inside, without getting any of the red liquid on me.

Instead, a bubble formed around my body. I stood up, and walked into the room. It was difficult to see anything, but I could pick out the vague silhouettes of a bed and a chair. There was the bright spot of a desk lamp. As I stepped toward the bed, the person laying in it became visible. I reached out, and connected to the person’s bubble. I put my hand near the person’s face so I could see them. It was an old woman.

“Do you have the towel I asked for?” she spoke through her breath.

“Yes.”

“Can you soak it in warm water and bring it back to me?”

“Of course.”

I went to the bathroom and turned on the faucet, towel close to the faucet so that it didn’t get covered in red goo. I brought it back to the old woman. She looked at me with a frail smile.

“Go back, dear.”

I stepped away from the old woman. The moment my bubble disconnected from hers, her bubble seemed to collapse into nothingness. It pulled me in, like a suction.

Walking out of the room, I noticed a very large blue spot on the grey wall in the lobby. It wasn’t there before, I was sure of it.