My mouth went dry. The path in front of me narrowed slightly even though I had not moved. I looked up. More clouds. I swallowed, but my mouth still felt dry.
“Why you telling me this?” I demanded.
“Because I told you the exercise was designed for people like you.”
“That don’t answer shit.”
“It does.”
The doctor’s voice remained calm.Toocalm.
I backed up and took another turn. The corridor widened, but not as much as before. The ceiling overhead brightened only halfway, the blue fighting against gray.
“One of the things that I love about her is her eyes. She has honey-colored eyes.”
I stopped.No. I was being stupid. Lots of women had brown eyes. Lots of women wrote. Lots of women came from big families. My mind was reaching because I was trapped in a weird room listening to this man talk in riddles.
I started walking faster. The panels shifted. One rose in front of me. I cursed and turned. Another panel lowered from the ceiling, blocking the way. The path narrowed.
“Slow down,” the doctor advised.
“Stop talking.”
“No.”
I glared toward where I thought the nearest camera would be. There had to be cameras. Places like this always had cameras.
“She survived a man who told her loving her means that he owned her.”
My heart thudded. The walls moved. A panel slid closer to my right shoulder. I moved left. Another panel moved there too.
“Man, I'm done. Open this shit up.”
“What do you notice?”
“I notice you fucking with me.”
“What else?”
I looked up. Clouds everywhere now. No blue. The path behind me had narrowed too.
“Chauncey.”
The sound of my name in his mouth sounded different. Somehow, Iknewthat voice, but not how I thought I knew it. But no, I didn’t. Couldn’t. I had been meeting with this doctor for six weeks. He had sat across from me. Talked to me. Helped me. He wore glasses sometimes. Kept the lights low. Had that trimmed beard, that calm mouth, a voice that?—
My stomach dropped.
No.
No.
“She needed to heal. She learned to do that without me,” he was saying. “That was the part that hurt, I think. Coming back and realizing she had done what was almost impossible. She had survived him. Then, she survived losing me. And she was doing good, looking good.”
The maze shifted faster. Panels rose and lowered around me with heavy sounds. I turned once, twice, trying to find the light. It was gone.
The exit was gone.
“Who the fuck are you?” I asked, hating the nerves I heard in my own voice.
