Reader fiction: The Sad Music Of Humanity

Hello? Is anyone out there?" 

The woman's words were answered only by echoes of her own voice. She rose gingerly from the bare dirty bed and looked around. The room she was in resembled a hospital, if one had been abandoned for a good couple of years. Rubble was strewn across the grimy filthy floor. It was dark, but with just enough light to see. The woman crept towards the doorway at the far end of the room. The door was hanging haphazardly on one hinge, and the corridor beyond was pitch black.

Edging out into the corridor, the woman was nearly overcome with foreboding. She could have sworn she saw a shape move at the end of the wall. With growing fear, she continued down the corridor. It turned at a corner into another pitch black hall. Again,the terrible dread came crashing into her mind and stopped the woman in her tracks. Sweat was pouring down her face, her breath came quick and ragged with fear.

Silence reigned as she very slowly walked down the corridor. With hesitant, irregular steps she made her way towards the next turn. The darkness was oppressive, but when she glanced around the next corner she was greeted by light. It's source was an immense lamp, displayed on a gaudy pedestal worked with precious stones and metals. It was as grand a thing as she had ever seen, and ran straight for the artificial light. Her footsteps echoed off the walls as she ran up the huge steps to the lamp. Extravagant decorations surrounded her as she pressed her face up against it, thankful for the comfort of the light.

However when she stepped back she noticed the light only stretched a few inches out into the darkness. It illuminated only the pedestal and steps, nothing more. She wanted to stay, but the fear of this terrible place was beginning to work on her mind. She walked back down the pedestal, slightly more confident, and continued on her way. When she looked back again, the pedestal, and it's light, were out of sight.

As she crept down the narrow, winding corridors,the utter silence began to take its toll. The only sound in this desolate place was her own breathing, and she was to terrified to begin talking. She continued on her way. Then, through the darkness of another corridor, shone a small shaft of light, breaking through a boarded up window. She ran as fast as she could to this true light, breaking through the darkness. It was beautiful,bright and warm, so unlike the light displayed on the pedestal.

She saw that a vine had cracked one of the boards,letting this ray of sunshine in. She tried to pull back the boards, but could not budge them.however, she was content to press up against the crack in the board to see the outside world. She couldn't. It was just a blinding light,the human eye unable to correlate to. Disappointed, but thankful for this fulfilling ray of hope, she walked on, much more confident. 

That confidence began failing as soon as the light vanished out of sight. The darkness and silence began working on her mind again. The silence was now absolute, oppressive, deafening. Nothing made a sound not even her footsteps. The only sound was again, her breathing, the only thing linking her to sanity. Time passed, how long she didn't know, just that the silence never let up. No sound pierced it. Her horror came to a peak when she tried running down another, lifeless steel corridor. No sound came from her heavy footfalls.

She continued to run, nearly crying with fear. She stopped, getting her breath back after her panic-struck flight. Still there was no sound. The building was totally dead. She was the only thing living in it. Nobody knew she was here. She had to find a way out. But where?The only doors she had seen led into yet more steel, characterless corridors. She had no stairs. There was no way out. Still the silence worked horrors upon her mind.

Then out of nowhere, she heard a tune.

It was faint, barely audible, but the direction it was coming from was unmistakable. Nearly crying out with joy, she began sprinting towards the merry little tune.

It got darker the louder the music got. She didn't care anymore, the silence was gone and she wanted to be as close to the music as she could. The corridors grew more haphazard, some with holes with no bottoms to them, some where the ceilings and the floors were switched. She passed through a doorway and the steel corridors gave way to a cave. Huge, empty caves with rock walls. But no plants or animals. Still the music played, ever louder as ran towards it.

Finally, she passed into a gargantuan cavern, bigger than anything she had ever seen. And there, in the middle, was a beam of light shining down from above, illuminating the source of the music: A small, pink, music-box, with a little porcelain ballerina eternally spinning in a dancer like pose. The woman strode up to it and hugged it close, loving every note.

What seemed like an eternity passed. An eternity of blissful sound, coming from that angelic music-box. She looked up, and there, waiting, was a pair of doors with light shining through the small windows in them. That the doors were out of place in an underground cavern didn't cross her mind, overflowing with relief. She crashed through the doors, clutching the music-box, into the sunlight. She caught a glimpse of a beautiful forest, teeming with life. She cried out with joy right before everything went white. 

Back in the hospital, the woman's family cried out in horror as her heartbeat stopped.