~5.18~

It was time to be methodical, Laurie decided. She couldn’t manage to keep calm, she may or may not have been edging slowly away from rationality, but if she could be methodical about what she was doing, that would as good as faking those other things. She headed back through the arched and lantern-lit passage towards the first courtyard… or the courtyard that was very much like the first one, except for not having an outlet onto the street. She looked around it very carefully, verifying that there was no outlet except the one that led to the long courtyard with the lighted fountain and the balcony with the open door. There wasn’t. She looked very carefully around that courtyard, making sure there wasn’t another arched passageway with lanterns and a grate on the ground and a puddle. There wasn’t. So far, so good.

Except there should have been, there had to be, because she’d walked from the first courtyard to this one…

She pushed that thought away. Either her situation was irrational, or she was. All she could do was stay methodical. There were only two exits from where she was: the one she’d checked, and the far end. The courtyard it opened into had two exits, too, which she had not yet fully explored. All she had to do was pick a method and stick with it, like… take every right turn she came to, until she came to a dead end.

Dead end, her mind shrieked. Dead and ended. Ended in death.

If she came to one, of course, it was a simple matter of backtracking.

That had been real simple so far.

And if all else failed, she’d call for help from the people inside the balcony door.

If she was allowed to find her way back to it.

Or at any other window or door she found that showed sins of life.

Signs of habitation were not necessarily signs of life.

She could always consider a different method.