There is a long passage. A little light seeps from the tulip lamps screwed into the powdery mortar between the bricks. A thin carpet in a dark colour does not deaden your footsteps. You scrape your knuckles along the brick and draw blood. Why do you do that?
- I don't know.
You bring your knuckles to your lips and run your tongue over the ripped white ridges of skin. You keep walking, your eyes on the door at the end of the passage. What does your blood taste of?
- Strawberries. Sour strawberries. Its too early in the season and theres no sugar.
You are approaching the door. It is red. What shade of red?
- Scarlet...
What made you say that?
- The long passageway, like a secret passageway in Cluedo. Miss Scarlet.
What else is scarlet?
- I don't know. Scarlet woman.
Thats an interesting phrase.
- I heard it somewhere. You said it yesterday. You said it in conversation, out on the drive. You were talking to a middle-aged woman with brown hair, and you called her scarlet. Or was it brazen? I was leaning out of the window, and your voice floated up.
This window doesn't open.
- But Im sure
This window doesn't open. Its designed that way. Ive told you before. Youre in an icy cave. Everything is white. The cave is large. Its very cold and youre naked. Why are you naked?
- I burned my clothes to keep warm.
Was that an intelligent thing to do?
- If I was intelligent I would have thought of a way out of this place. So the cave is large, Im cold, Im naked, Im shivering. Im thinking of hot cross buns, and deserted beaches, and roaring fireplaces.
You think of escape. Naturally. But do you have a plan? How will you escape?
- I don't understand.
There are four exits to the cave. North, south, east, west. Each exit is an archway, cut from the ice, and you cannot see anything through them except more snow. Above each exit is a sign, carved and polished from a piece of dark red wood. The sign above the north arch says Yes. The sign above the south arch says Girl. What do the signs above the east and west arches say?
- Do they have to say different things?
Thats up to you. Don't think too much. Just reply. First thing that comes into your head.
- The east onethat says Stop, and the west one says Watch. I walk through the archway to the east. It opens out into a living room with a patterned green carpet, brown leather armchairs, and an enormous fireplace, ablaze. The room is so hot, and Im dressed in a suit, with a tie pulled tight and a high shirt collar that scratches my neck. The mantelpiece and every wall is covered with clocks cuckoo clocks and carriage clocks, and there is a grandfather clock behind me where the archway used to be, and it chimes the hour, and the others join in, all at once, everything chiming and clattering at once, its midnight, but they don't stop at twelve, they go on, and I see the axe for the wood next to the fireplace and I cut the grandfather down in two tight strokes
Is there blood?
- What?
Is the clock bleeding?
- No. I don't know. I cant see it any more. Theres glass. Sharp glass on the floor.
Have you cut your feet?
- No. No. I told you, Im wearing a suit. Who wears a suit without shoes? Youre obsessed with blood, do you know that?
Is there a way out of the room?
- Yes. Theres a door. In front of the door is a girl.
What is she doing?
- Shes lying on the floor. Shes staring at me. Her eyes are open but shes not moving. No. Her neck is not connected to her shoulders. Theres a gap between them, like a clean slice, it would be impossible to make a cut that clean? I look from the sharp edges of her neck, past the gap, to the collarbones. They are much too thick for a young girl, and there are large breasts under a purple velvet dress, the breasts pushed apart by gravity into the curves of the armpits. Its a womans body. A girls head on a womans body.
And what do you ?
- My mother, my mother and my sister. Dead, on the floor, the clocks chiming. Im not meant to be here.
Why not?
- No. Somebody is saying, Youre not meant to be here. He is standing next to the fireplace and he steps forward.
Who is it, Mathew?
- Its you. I don't know I don't know how you could I
Calm down. Take deep breaths.
- In one hand youre holding a long curved sword, like a scimitar, holding it with the tip downwards so that the blade runs between your legs. And in your other hand you have a ball of matted brown hair, tangled in your fingers. It drips blood on the floor in a pattern. Its forming a word
Tell me about the blood.
- Are you my father?
Tell me about the blood, Mathew.
- You called her a scarlet woman and you killed them. You killed them both and you brought me here. Why? Did you tell them I was ill? That I killed them?
I think youre getting confused.
- I don't know who you are. I don't know where I am.
Maybe thats for the best. Our time is nearly up. But Ill come back next week. I only wish visiting hours were a little longer.
- If I draw a door in blood, will you let me go?
Thats an interesting thought, Mathew. Why don't you hold it until next week?