34 Room in infinity (1/2)

Sam stood mesmerized by the purple curtain and stared at the pattern of threads in the rough fabric. Almost shy, her hands touched the heavy lines. The curtain was divided in the middle. Sam pushed the two halves aside with a beating heart. The light behind her enabled her to reasonably appreciate what she had encountered here.

Sam frowned. Was she in the basement of the building that housed Summersby's shop?

She looked into a long room whose end she could not see in the dark. As much as Sam strained her eyes, she could not see anything specific.

Right and left were long plastic or glass surfaces that served Summersby as a storage place for discarded mannequins. The dark outlines of the juxtaposed, child-sized puppets seemed to be lost in the darkness of the room in infinity.

Sam took a hesitant step into the room.

First she felt for a possible light switch with her left hand. Sam heard a metallic click as she swallowed nervously. Sweat broke out of her pores and made a cold film on her skin, so she got goose bumps. Every moment she expected cold fingers to shoot out of the darkness and grab her.

She took a deep breath. 'Why the hell are you doing this? It's just a harmless storage room. '

Sam forced himself to search for a light switch with his right hand. On this site she was luckier. Sam's fingers pressed the toggle switch and suddenly the room in front of her was bathed in soft, golden light.

Sam frowned. Strange lighting for a storage room. Very atmospheric but unsuitable to make a decent storage.

Her nerves were still taut and it seemed as if a thousand tiny hands were plucking at the nerves along her spine.

Her eyes fell on the opposite wall. She was painted in the same purple hue as the curtain she had just stepped through. In front of this wall stood a white marble pillar, divided at the top into two marble wings. The pillar was high so that it could comfortably serve as a lectern to the visitor standing in front of it. On the huge stone wings rested a large open book.

Sam looked up. The ceiling arched to a high arch. It was painted a night blue and covered with tiny lights that poured over it like a cascade. A successful imitation of an atmospheric starry sky.

The strange room reminded her more of a cathedral than of a sober warehouse.