- Hidden

And then, I heard a creaking sound. I turned back and flashed the light towards the charging counter to see it slowly moving out of the wall.

As the entire counter was slowly coming out with a continued creaking sound , I noticed that it was semi circular in shape to exactly fit it the charging platform. It must have taken another five minutes for it to finally come out and then it started turning around and moving towards the wall . As the charging counter moved inside the wall another similar semi - circular hidden counter which was inside the wall could be seen moving outside.

The charging counter finally moved inside the wall with the circular platform neatly packed inside it. The hidden counter which was inside the wall was now visible outside.

This counter just had two shelves. A upper small one which seemed to contain lot of closed tiny containers which was made of some unknown material. And a lower bigger shelf which had similar containers a little bigger in size. I slowly pulled out one of the bigger containers from the lower shelf.

In the last few days I had consciously trained my brain that everything out here was weird and opposite. So my hands turned the lid in the clockwise direction to open it and it worked. I did feel certain similarities with how things worked here and on earth but at the same time I was awed thinking about it. May be that's why it's called parallel universe.

I sniffed the powdery content inside the container and I felt that I had come across this smell. I just took a pinch of it and tasted it. And I immediately knew what it was. This was the same guey stuff from that pot I had on one of the first days I was here. My joy knew no bounds. Although I did not know how to cook it I was happy that I had a substitute.

I started pulling out all the other containers one after the other and started sniffing and tasting all of the powders in it. And god must have shown mercy on me, I found one small container and one big container containing the grey powder. I took a pinch of the powder and put it in my mouth to help neutralise the scent I was emitting.

As I continued sniffing and tasting the rest of them , I put the ones I liked on the counter and rest which I had not liked I put them back on the shelf while in parallel planning how best I could make something out of it.

Now that the food part was settled for today and tomorrow, Ethan should not get a clue about what's happening behind his back. So I just paused for a second before deciding to retain only some amount of noodles as I now had the grey powder to neutralise the affect.

Now that I was not sure how much grey powder was required to neutralise the entire noodles, I planned to throw away most of it and make some food with the guey stuff. I also had to be careful to make sure that Ethan would not realise the grey powder was used so I decided to just use only a tiny bit.

I opened the lid of the bowl which had the noodles in it and then placed a small portion of the noodles on the lid. I then mixed this separated portion of the noodles on the lid with a tiny pinch of grey powder hoping that it would neutralise most of the scent effect and may be retain only a little of the effect. And this portion I planned to have it for dinner next day.

I wished that I still emitted some bit of scent while Ethan was here while planning to act sick and pale that would keep him at a bay for a while and push any plans he had. This way I could easily trick him and get some more time.

Having completed mixing the noodles with the grey powder, I carried the rest of the noodles in the bowl towards the water sink to empty it. Once the noodles were sucked by the sink I cleaned the bowl as I had to use it for making the guey food.

As my immediate goal was just to survive and ward off Ethan, I did not want to take an effort of cooking the guey food on fire as I had to spend additional time checking the pattern for it. Time was precious now. I recalled Charles Darwin's theory of "Survival of the fittest" and gave a quick pat on my back to keep myself motivated.

I poured the guey powder into the bowl, just sufficient to last until tomorrow evening, added a pinch of the powders I had liked and gave a quick mix. I then took the bowl it to the sink to add some water and mixed into a semi solid consistency. Once done I put back all the containers into the shelf, went back to the wall to retrace the pattern to hide the counter back. And the charging counter was back in its original place.

I pulled out the counter and turned it on. As my phone battery was running out, I charged it for few seconds and then to increase the protection level I planned to leave the counter on. I was just not bothered about any consequences of leaving it on for long hours, I could always say that I heard noises outside and felt safe keeping it on.

After pouring a sufficient amount of guey food into the smaller bowl I carried it to the cot to eat. I felt drained out, and I was not happy with how the day had not gone by. This noodles had cost me lot of time. I was now worried if I'll be able to complete the rest of the tasks I had planned, before he is back.

As I started eating the guey food which was not that great but edible, I felt happy that at least it was not as risky as the noodles. I just remembered my mums food and was nostalgic.

I looked at the phone to check the time and see that almost 5 hours had passed , since the time I woke up. And I still had lots of information to gather. Also now that I had used up sufficient quantity of guey powder I had to plan something to fill it up with. May be something like I did with the grey powder.

More than all these I wanted to find ways to get out of this place. But at the moment due to the extreme fatigue, my body was not willing to support me in any further of my plans and I decided to rest for 2 hours once after I finished eating. Once done eating I walked up to the sink, cleaned the bowl , came back, set the alarm for 2 hours before dozing off to sleep