~5.16~

Don’t panic, don’t panic, don’t panic…

Laurie thought these words to herself frantically over and over again, before realizing that doing this was pretty much a recipe for panic, if not a concise definition of it.

I went the wrong way, she thought. I got turned around and again and stumbled into an almost identical courtyard that’s exactly like the first one except for not having an exit to the street.

Of course that attempt to be reasonable struck her as being completely and ridiculously unreasonable as soon as she’d finished it. It was already weird that there were so many otherwise enclosed courtyards opening onto each other when they were each different, each showing individual styles and touches… the idea that two of them that weren’t directly connected to one another would be so very alike just made the whole thing even harder to credit.

It was strange to her that in her reading on the hidden courtyards of Jericho, she’d never heard about any of them linked together…. but she realized she wasn’t trapped. There were doors that opened into the buildings. They were probably locked, and even if they weren’t, most of them probably they led into place she had even less business being that were dark and probably run down, but not all the buildings were abandoned.

In fact, she realized to her profound relief, she knew one of them was occupied and that the occupants were very likely home and awake.

She headed back into the courtyard where the balcony had the open door, planning out what she would say: Hey, can someone help me? I’m afraid I’m a little lost…

Okay, it would sound weird, but when their backyard was a maze they were probably used to dealing with lost people, people who wandered in and couldn’t find the way out. People looking for a shortcut late at night, or people who were curious about what was behind an iron gate that was left unlocked.

Lost people…