Chapter 16: Carriage?
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The shower is without a doubt one of the most peaceful places in the world.
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The carriage took a few seconds to stabilize.
"I think we must have turned around," said Patrick, straightening up.
"You have to take your shoes off before coming in, you can put them there," he continued, pointing to a shelf with a few pairs of shoes already on it.
'... before coming in?...'
Liu looked around her. There were a few shelves, a doormat, and a coat rack.
'...why so many doors...'
The room was rather full, but most notably there was a door on each wall.
"Follow me, I'll show you around."
After taking off and putting away his shoes, Patrick opened the door across from the entrance and stepped through.
"You'll see, it's incredibly big!"
He was visibly excited to be able to show the inside of the carriage to someone his age.
"Light!"
'...incredibly big...'
Though still a bit in a daze from the contrast between the inside and outside of the carriage, Liu took off her shoes and put them away the same way Patrick had, then she followed him through the door.
"The entrance hall is the only place where you feel the carriage move, the old man said it's because it's the only room directly connected to the outside."
Upon entering the second room, Liu was even more awestruck by what she saw than before. The room was at least ten square meters and looked more furnished than her entire chalet.
"Isn't it incredible? I stood there for a good two minutes without moving when I saw it for the first time."
'.....'
For once, Liu's thoughts were silent, the situation was so incomprehensible to her.
She looked around.
'... couch, weird thing, table...'
She unconsciously followed Patrick who was heading toward another door at the back of the room.
'... table, weird thing, shelf, weird thing, door...'
"You'll see, the two rooms behind this door are really great..." he opened the door just as Lumian entered the room.
Hearing him enter, Liu turned around.
'...Lumian...'
"Show her a room first so she can put her things down. You can show her around after."
Lumian said in a monotone voice while heading toward one of the corners of the room, behind what looked like a bar.
'...kitchen?...'
"Right, I had forgotten."
Patrick closed the door and opened another one on the opposite side of the same wall.
"I took the one closest to the entrance, so you can take the next one if you want."
He went through the door first, followed by Liu who cast one last glance at Lumian in what she thought was the kitchen.
"Light!"
They arrived in a long corridor that had just lit up. On both sides of the corridor there were about ten doors arranged diagonally across from one another.
'You have to say light to turn on the light?...'
Patrick stopped in front of the first door on the left, and pointed to it with his thumb.
"That's my room. And it's all bedrooms in this corridor, except for the door at the end, that's a sort of restaurant."
He looked at Liu.
"You can choose any room. I'm heading to the living room, you can join us when you're done. So I can show you the rest."
He headed toward the living room door, opened it and stopped.
"Oh right, and you can take a shower too if you want, there's a bathroom and a toilet in each room. See you."
Clack.
And finally, he left Liu alone in the corridor.
'Am I dreaming?... what is this madness...'
She stood there, in the middle of the corridor, staring at the door at the end, the restaurant one, apparently.
'Why is there a corridor in a carriage??...'
She was genuinely completely lost.
'How is this possible??...'
But her curiosity hadn't disappeared. On the contrary, it had even grown.
'... bathroom? Toilet? In the room...'
She looked at the doors on both sides of the corridor, and settled her gaze on the second one on the right wall.
'... how is this possible?... where am I??'
She headed straight for the door and opened it without waiting any longer...
'Massive!...'
Clack.
"Light!" she quickly called out.
"....."
A wave of excitement washed over her. Without paying much attention to the furniture and layout of the room, she headed straight for the door at the back of the room as soon as she spotted it.
Plaa!
She dropped her bag without much thought and abruptly opened the door.
'Incredible!...'
It was the biggest bathroom she had ever seen, with the most incredible bathtub she had ever seen, but...
'I really need to go!...'
... she rushed to the door on her right, opened it, pulled down her pants and abruptly sat down on the toilet in front of her to relieve herself.
"Hhaaa..."
'I almost had an accident the moment he mentioned the toilet...'
Once seated, she was able to look around her.
'... a sink in the toilet room?... it's dark...'
"Light!"
The light turned on in the toilet room and the bathroom.
After finishing, she flushed the toilet then went to her bag to get the soap she had put in there to wash her hands.
'Is this really real?...'
She washed her hands at the bathroom sink.
'... it's really big...'
She raised her head and looked at herself in the mirror above the sink.
'... whoa my hair...'
Her hair was a mess and her appearance wasn't really what one could consider clean, even after rinsing off in the river.
'... doesn't matter if it's real or not. I need to take a shower.'
Back at her bag, she took out a towel, something to change into, and undressed directly to get into the bathtub.
'How does this work?...'
There were quite a few things to take into account, so before getting under the water, she tried turning and pressing everything she could.
'... there's stuff written there, jets, bubbles, streams?... what is that?'
Sshhh...
She found it fairly easy to figure out how to turn on the water and change the temperature, and so went straight under the water.
'Wwaaa... that feels good...'
It was her first real moment of relaxation after all the chaos that had happened to her.
'... the soap...?'
"Damn!"
But it didn't last long. The soap was still on the sink, and she had to step out of the shower to reach it.
'... I should have thought of that!...'
So she did, and was hit by a wave of cold as she stepped out from under the water.
"So cold?... the doors!!"
All the doors were open!
'...shoot! Luckily no one came in.'
She rushed to quickly close the bathroom door, not forgetting to grab the towel from her bag on the way.
"Hhaa... what a mess."
Her dirty clothes were on the floor under her feet...
She closed the toilet door, grabbed the soap and quickly went back under the water.
'I'm not usually like this...'
The sound of the shower and the warmth of the water allowed her to relax and let her thoughts drift.
'... there are small windows... but it's all black... outside?...'
Looking carefully around the bathroom, she noticed a wardrobe, towel rails, two small windows near the ceiling, and other weird things she didn't recognize.
'... I don't understand where we are?... in the carriage? It doesn't seem like it.'
Taking a shower gave her the time to think about everything that was happening more clearly.
'By the way, who's driving the carriage?... why did we turn around?... where are we going?... it's really big here, but there are only three of us?... hhaa, we'll see later...'
Liu was asking herself more and more questions, but not wanting to ruin this moment of peace under the shower, she put off this reflection for later.
'... am I really going to live here for three years?... in any case, it seems nice?...'
She let herself drift into imagining the possibilities of her life in this place over the next three years for the rest of her shower.
...
After finishing washing, she dried herself quickly, wrapped herself in her towel and discreetly opened the bathroom door to grab her change of clothes.
Clack.
'Ok perfect... I'll unpack my things later?... after getting some answers...'
She dressed quickly, a light outfit: thin pants with another long-sleeved t-shirt.
"Mmh..."
She hung her towel on one of the towel rails, then went out, moved her bag closer to the bed in the room and took a quick look around.
'Incredible... it's at least twice the size of my room at the chalet...'
Holding herself back from unpacking her things and exploring her room, she stepped out into the corridor and finally closed the door.
'How long did I take?... turn around.'
She reopened the door, grabbed her watch that was on the floor in the bathroom and checked the time.
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03.42/10.00
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'I took my time?... or not, I don't know.'
Putting her watch in her pants pocket, she stepped back out, closed the door and made her way to the living room.
Clack.
'There's no lock or key?... how does that work?...'
"Hhaa..."
She caught her breath before opening the door, perhaps out of anxiety about the answers to her questions, or just out of apprehension about the future.
"...Ffou..."
Opening the door she found before her, Lumian lying on the couch tapping away at his piece of wood and Patrick rummaging through the cabinets behind the bar.
"...where are the chips?..."
Both turned their gaze toward Liu upon hearing her enter, making her slightly uncomfortable.
Lumian, true to himself, turned his head toward Patrick and replied in a monotone voice.
"You'll eat chips after you're done with the tour."
Patrick quickly nodded and stepped toward Liu.
"Okay, what do you want to see first?"
Without really answering, Liu stepped toward Lumian.
"I have a few questions before the tour... um... professor."
She stopped beside the couch, waiting for Lumian's response. But he didn't respond.
"I'll go look for the chips in the meantime."
"Uh... professor Lumian?"
Without taking his eyes off his piece of wood, he asked:
"Is it me you're calling professor? You don't have to, you can just call me Lumian for now. Go ahead, ask your questions."
Lumian's nonchalance irritated Liu somewhat.
'I'm going to have to get used to this?...'
"Uh... who's driving the carriage?"
That was the question that bothered Liu the most.
"Patrick."
Was Lumian's response.
'Huh...'
"What..."
Before Liu finished asking, Patrick interrupted her by sitting down at the table behind the couch.
"He calls everyone Patrick. Or almost everyone, except you."
'...seriously?'
Liu not quite knowing how to take that answer, continued in the same direction.
"Then what is it that drives the carriage? A man? A woman?"
Lumian, seeing that Liu genuinely wanted to know who was driving the carriage, replied this time more seriously.
"A physical projection of myself that follows my instructions."
'... physical projection?... so there really are only three of us here?...'
Although the answer wasn't really something Liu could understand, she accepted it, and asked directly the question that interested her the most.
"Are we... really inside the... carriage?"
A silence settled for a good ten seconds, before Lumian responded.
"Mmm, I'd say rather that we're inside something that is inside the carriage. This place isn't the carriage, but we're in some way inside the carriage."
The answer, though fairly clear and even somewhat logical, was absolutely incomprehensible from Liu's perspective.
'What are we inside then?...'
Before she could put her thoughts into words, Lumian interrupted her.
"I'm sure you still have plenty of questions, but I'm also sure that Patrick can answer most of them while he shows you around. If after the tour you still have questions, I'll answer them."
Lumian's arguments were always infallible for Liu.
She turned toward Patrick then, to find him eating, what she understood to be chips, as quietly as possible.
'It looks like he's learned his lesson.'
A discreet smile appeared on Liu's face.
"Alright, I'm ready for the tour."
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The shower is also one of the best places for deep introspection.
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