White. All I saw was white. Where am I? Sprawled on the ground, I turned my head, noticing an arched ceiling embedded with clear crystals and a black line running down its center. I was in a hallway of some sort. I attempted to get up several times, but my body was stiff. It felt like ages before I could get off the grainy floor.

The hallway seemed to extend forever in either direction, which made me doubt I would be able to find a way out. After a few moments of consideration, I decided to do the only thing I could: walk. I moved with unsteady steps; all that guided me was the black line running on the ceiling. The monotonous appearance of the hallway lulled my mind into an unthinking state. After some time, the walls darkened and the black line turned white. Now, instead of being a guideline, it was a beacon urging me forward.

After what felt like hours, my legs gave out beneath me. Oddly familiar aches and pains throbbed throughout my body. I sagged against the wall, wishing for rest. I must have blinked, for when I opened my eyes, a door had appeared in front of me. The blue coloring on its surface incited a calm feeling within me.

Shocked, I looked both ways, only to see the same unchanging walls. I scrambled to my feet and carefully moved in closer to the door. I didn’t know what was behind it, but I didn’t have anything to lose. I opened the door to a heavy thunk. Inside the doorway, the white walls from earlier surrounded a simple wooden bed. It was the only thing in the mysterious room.

“A bed…” I whispered. I didn’t want to look this gift horse in the mouth, but I did wonder. Did the hallway somehow know what I needed? Did it really just grant my wish?

My aching body decided not to bother investigating further and I collapsed on the bed. I began to drift off almost immediately, but as I was falling asleep, I noticed a girl standing at the foot of the bed. Before I had a chance to speak, the total darkness of sleep embraced me. When I awoke hours later, the room was the same bright white. The girl, if she had truly existed, was gone.

The door to the Hall - what I had decided to call that seemingly infinite expanse of white - was still there. Refreshed, I examined the door closely. It was a plain shade of blue with a symbol resembling a Y on top of a W, carved into it at eye level. I opened the door and stepped back out into the familiar long corridor. I pulled the door shut behind me, turning to face the Hall. When I didn’t hear an accompanying sound, I turned to find the same unchanging surface.

That was surprising, but I had bigger problems to worry about. As if on cue, my stomach growled horribly and I wondered how long it had been since I ate. I heard a shifting sound, like sand being swept off of a wooden surface, and I turned to find a plain blue drawer at hip level. It bore the same YW inscription. I opened the drawer and, to my surprise, there was a generic burger- bread, beef and a slice of good old cheese. Hesitant but increasingly hungry, I picked it up and took a bite. The juices from the meat dripped down my chin as I inhaled the delicious protein.

I looked down at my now burger-stained clothes. I had failed to notice that my clothes were only a shade away from rags. Testing the capabilities of the Hall, I wished. This time I spoke aloud, asking for a new change of clothes and, sure enough, I heard shifting and another blue drawer appeared in the wall. Inside it was a matching set to my plain white shirt, jeans, and brown sandals. For some reason, there was also a blue-black bracelet that had no detailed features, simply a band with a round black plate.

Making use of the Hall’s capabilities, I wished for something to clean myself with. As soon as I’d spoken the words, a door opened up next to the burger drawer. I opened it, and found a… washroom. The walls were made of white porcelain tile and the furnishings were of Victorian design. My brain was filling in information as I stumbled upon things.

I walked into the pristine room, leaving a trail of sweaty moisture with my bare feet. There was a large tub, a sink and a mirror hanging from the wall above the sink. As I moved closer to the tub, I noticed my reflection in the mirror. It looked like the face of a stranger. The face had sharp features, black hair, and the scruff of a beard beginning to show. The grime that covered my face suggested that I had taken a mud bath in the recent past. It took a minute for me to accept myself in the stranger’s face, but no memories about the past surfaced.

I made faces at myself, just to confirm my identity. After a few minutes of familiarizing myself with myself, I was ready to take my shower.

I left the door open, just for peace of mind in case the Hall decided to disappear. I washed myself thoroughly, dirtying the pristine tub. Once I was done, I stepped out of the tub. I had put my dirty outfit down on the ground, but it had vanished while I was showering. Instead there was a clean towel in place of the rags. Now clean and dry, I walked out of the bathroom towards the clothes drawer. I dressed and wished for a way to store my clothes. Seconds later another drawer opened, revealing a rucksack.

It was a one-pocket jet-black leather bag. I stowed my still wet towel into it, never knowing when it might come in handy. A saying, “Always know where your towel is”, bubbled up from somewhere in my memory. Still hungry and not knowing if or when the Hall would stop granting my wishes, I asked for two burgers.

However, no new drawer appeared. Perplexed, I checked the drawers, but all were empty. The one where the burger had originally appeared was now closed, but still visible. I opened it and was relieved to find, two burgers as well as a bowl full of clean water.. One burger was wrapped in a waxy paper, while the other just laid there. I didn’t understand how the Hall knew I meant to take one of those burgers with me. It had clearly read my thoughts somehow. I drank the water from the bowl and tossed it in my rucksack. Stowing the burger away, I threw the bag over my shoulder.

Entering the bathroom, I washed my hands. When I finished, I returned to find the Hall empty once again. I frowned at the prospect of the open drawers disappearing, as I gazed down the length of the Hall.

“Will open doors do that too?” I wondered out loud.

I turned and continued my endless journey. As I walked, I tried to piece together what had happened to me, but the more I tried to recall my past, the more my fresh Hall memories clouded my brain. While I could not make connections to my memories, there was still a subtle itch in the back of my mind that kept my focus while I walked, pushing me to retrieve them. Accepting the fact that the Hall still held many secrets I did not understand, I walked numbly forward. I still could not tell the time, but there was a definite pattern to the color scheme changes of the room. The white walls started to gray and then turn black. The white line on the ceiling was the only thing left to guide me in the darkness.

My thoughts turned to the girl I had seen the previous night. Had it been a dream? Were there other people here? All of these questions tumbled through my mind. Consumed in thought, I bumped into a column. It was the first feature I had seen since the doors and drawers so I inspected it closely. After pacing and running my hands all around it, the only noticeable features were that the column did not reach the ceiling and that it had a spiral construction, with notches at about three foot intervals.

After a second look, I realized that there were two symbols engraved into the stone. One was the familiar YW symbol and was located on the side facing the direction I had come from. On the other side though, the symbol was different, resembling a sharp pair of wings. Although I searched the column for more details, the fully darkened walls made it difficult to see any additional clues. Deciding to wait out the night, I wished for a bed like the previous night and an identical room opened up.

I ate the burger I had packed, sitting on the bed, and soon felt tired enough to lay down and try to sleep. Some time later, as I was starting to drift off, I blinked and saw that the girl from before was there. This time I forced myself to stay awake and observe her through the crack of my eyes. She was wearing a blue button dress, had jet black hair that reached her hips and startling silver eyes. She stared at me piercingly, as if she was wishing I would go away and never come back.

As I continued to watch her watch me, I noticed a red gash on her right shoulder. She had been injured somehow, as the blood stain on her dress grew even while I watched. I tried to think of a way to “wake up” and not scare her. However, for lack of a better plan, I used a direct approach, opening my eyes slowly to say “Hello”.

Her eyes widened, and I couldn’t help thinking of our little satellite, the moon, as I looked into her silver eyes. Wait...the moon? What was that?

She was already turning away, so I said “No wait, you’re hurt. Let me help you.”

She replied once I sat up in the rigid bed.

“Hello…” she said in a voice that sounded like a well tuned violin.

My mouth sagged. Hearing the first words from another person after the silence of the Hall gave me a relief I hadn't realized I needed. I jumped off the bed and walked past her out into the Hall, wishing for a bandage, alcohol, a new dress and a bathroom. The girl visibly recoiled at my energetic approach, but I paid it no mind. While the door and drawers for all of those began to appear in the Hall, her expression grew progressively more alarmed and she started looking around the room, peering under the bed and touching the walls, as if she were searching for something. Apparently not finding what she was afraid of, she breathed a sigh of relief.

When I motioned at the wound with the supplies, she relaxed and relented. She pulled down the blood soaked section of her dress to reveal a nasty bleeding gash.

I cleaned and bandaged the wound. It was a straight three inch cut on her shoulder, but the skin looked jagged along the edges. I wondered where I had learned to clean and dress wounds. I studied it closely to see if it required stitches. I opened my mouth to wish for a bed for her, but she slammed her hand over my mouth with surprising strength and shook her head vigorously. With her hand still on my mouth she stared intensely at me for a couple of seconds, got up, took the identical dress and ran off through the night, like a cat scared of a storm. Before I was able to pursue her, she faded into the distant walls.

*****

Perplexed and worried by the events of the previous night, I decided it was time to speed up my progress and see if I could catch the girl on this never ending road. Still, I wondered specifically why she had been so skittish when I made those wishes. There were already so many mysteries, adding another seemed par for the course. Giving up on figuring out the mysteries of the Hall, I decided to pursue the only clue I had, the girl. Keeping it simple, I wished for the Hall to give me a way to move faster, but while I said that part aloud, I thought of running super quickly or jumping really high.

A garage door opened up to my left. The door retracted upwards, revealing a square space about ten feet by ten feet. Hanging from some hooks attached to the ceiling was a black, smooth trapezoidal shaped tube. I looked around the room with confusion. After a minute of searching and seeing nothing else of interest, I approached the hanging frame. I ran my hand over the surface of the trapezoid. It felt like a smoothed metallic mesh. As I continued to move my hand along its upper length, I heard a humming. The moment I lifted my hand from the metal, the humming got louder and louder. After a couple seconds it stopped abruptly. A wave of energy exploded out from the frame, pushing me back into the Hall, knocking the wind out of me.

Disoriented, I rose to my feet and moved back towards the garage. The sleek frame remained there in the air, but shimmering green light streamed from the front and back. The light shaped itself into two swirling disks of mist and light. My curiosity reaching an all time high, I ran up to the garage door and cautiously approached the glowing and swirling contraption. I knew that explosions were fun but not when directed at myself. Slowly, I placed my hands on the frame, which pulsed green and roared to life, like a lion awakened from his nap. An ethereal seat formed, as well as a pair of handles on the front of the trapezoid, right above one of the swirling disks. I placed my hands on the handles and felt a surge of power and a sudden understanding.

This was a speed construct, and it could be ridden to move beyond the walking speed of a regular person. With more than my fair share of trepidation, I pulled the frame down from the hook that held it up. Nothing explosive happened when I tried to set it down. The frame was much heavier than I had expected, but the mist disks caught it and held it up. I wheeled it out into the Hall, and the garage door slid closed behind me. As I looked around, all the doors I had opened shut suddenly; the Hall itself seemed to encourage me to go. I got on the bike and looked back at the column one last time. Finding no other markings or signs, I placed my hands on the handles. With the knowledge that had flooded my mind, I knew all I needed to move was a thought. Without even finishing the word “Go”, the construct sped off deeper into the Hall. Despite my tremendous speed, the same question haunted me.

“Just where the hell am I?”