I awake with a long yawn. "Ack, how long did I sleep?" I've slept for so long I have a terrible (but not unbearable) headache. I'm still quite groggy and not entirely lucid.
I feel like I had a very vivid dream, but I can remember only few details of it.
"And why was I sleeping on the floor? That must've been some night last night."
"If I could only remember what happened..."
I slowly rise and take a look around. It takes some effort as my body feels very heavy.
The room is rather blank and non-descript. The floor is composed of wood planks and the wall is a coarsely-textured drywall.
The walls and ceiling are an off-white, beige sort of color. The air feels thick and humid. It is almost difficult to breathe, and has a strange, subtly irritating quality.
I don't see any form of lighting, yet the room appears to be well-lit somehow.
Apart from that strange detail, the only aspect of the small room that seems worth noting is a painting hung on the wall with an ornate, bejeweled frame.
The painting appears to depict a fair-haired young man with a pipe in his mouth, sitting down and smiling smugly. He has a book in his hands, but he is looking directly into the "camera."
"What a stupid painting," I think to myself. It is as if the man is entertained by my struggles, watching from the shadows in his place of comfort, the solid, impenetrable picture frame.
I raised my hand in anticipation of punching the painting, but I decided I'd better not. I'd probably only get a fistful of glass out of it.
But what if the picture is actually behind plastic? What if it is not so fancy as it looks? I digress...
Anyway, it had quickly occurred to me that there is no room like this in my house. I must have ended up somewhere else, but where?
In search of answers, and hopefully a way home, I turned toward the only path the room provided me: a doorway (with no door).
I leave the room and continue walking around. I am first greeted by a long hallway. It is of much the same nature as the room I awoke in, though there is some decoration, such as the odd potted plant here or there.
I meditate for a moment on the subject of potted plants and lighting. There are no windows, seemingly no artificial lights, and no people to be found, yet the plants sparsely dotted around seem as healthy as could be.
I thought the plants might be fake, but upon closer inspection, they are real and alive. There are small herbs and aloe vera. Rubbing my fingers on the herbs gives me a spicy but fresh smell. They seem to be a type of mint.
I considered that the plants could be a small source of hydration if its necessary.
Then, I thought more about the lack of windows. I know nothing of my current vicinity. I don't know what time of day it is. This building could be in another state, another country, or, for all I know, underground, in the ocean, or space, or another dimension.
However, I must get a hold of myself, and press forward. There is no use in wondering about such things if I have no ideas as to how to proceed in this journey.
As I continued down the hallway, I eventually reached what seemed to be a dead-end, however, that wasn't my biggest concern for the time being, as I had also encountered an unusual entity.
An eye suspended in mid-air, undulating ominously.
I stared at it, it stared at me.
A voice emanated from the eye through some unknown mechanism. Its voice sounded cold and echoey.
"THEY ARE HERE"
"Who is they? Or what?"
"THEY HAVE ALREADY BEGUN"
"Begun what?"
"THERE IS LITTLE TIME"
"PREPARE FOR THE INEVITABLE"
"What are you? What is this place? How did I get here?"
It seems like the eyeball isn't much for conversation. Unfortunate. Sad, even.
After a moment of silence, the eyeball looked toward the dead-end, and fired a laser out of its pupil, cutting a door shape out of the wall.
The piece of the wall that was cut out instantly evaporates.
"YOU MUST GO"
I had hoped for someone to talk to, but at least I know that I'm not totally alone now.
I went through the newly made doorway, and found a complex, maze-like series of hallways.
As I walk through the halls, I find several dead-ends.
I just keep walking and walking. I feel like I'm going in a circle.
There is still nobody to be found. As I continue, I start to feel lonelier and lonelier.
Eventually, I find a straightforward path.
It seems strange. What was once quite convoluted has converged into a single hallway with no forks.
No matter how hard I try, however, I cannot see the end of the hallway.
After a certain distance, something obstructs my vision, like a fog, but pitch black, and always at a fixed distance away from me.
As I walk forward, the "fog" crawls back, but it is always there, preventing me from knowing what it is I am walking toward.
I walk so long down this path that my legs get sore.
I stop and decide to sit down for a moment.
I sit down and wonder how I'm going to get myself out of here. The situation seems kind of hopeless at the moment, but who knows.
I decide to look back to see how far I've gone. I find a wall directly behind me.
"Impossible..."
It seems like no matter what I choose to do, there's no turning back from here.
Still in disbelief at the idea that a wall has been following me, preventing my escape, I punch it.
A disturbing sound echoes from behind the wall, like the groaning or growling of some strange creature I've never heard before.
Lacking any other options, I keep moving forward.
After a while, I close my eyes while still walking for about half a minute.
When I open them, the fog is gone. I can see the end of the hallway. Excitedly, I run towards it.
I find a staircase going down. I go down it.
On the next floor down, I see something that seems far too normal for what I've experienced so far.
There is a desk with man sitting behind it. He is wearing formal clothing and glasses.
On the desk, there is a laptop, a phone, and a stack of important-looking documents.
On the wall, there is a calendar, a clock, and, to my amazement, windows.
There are also some potted plants, including a cactus, and something resembling a small palm tree.
The calendar has the current date checked off, but also has another date marked a couple weeks from now.
"Ominous..."
There are no doors or downward stairs anywhere in the room.
As I come down, the man at the desk greets me.
"Welcome!"
I rush to look out one of the windows.
The sky is an opaque red. There are no clouds, and no stars, moons, planets, or other objects can be seen.
I am not sure if its night or day.
I look at the clock, and it doesn't quite make sense.
"14:53 PM?"
There are a number of floating eyes in the sky.
Where the sun should be, there is now one massive eye, staring directly at me, pulsating.
Every time I look at it, it seems to be closer than before.
Looking down, there is a cityscape.
Nobody is walking on the sidewalk. There are parked cars, but none driving.
The buildings seem to have lights and signs on them, and there are multiple electronic billboards.
If it wasn't for the aforementioned peculiarities, this city would probably resemble Tokyo or Beijing.
I walk over to the person at the desk and start talking.
"Where am I?"
"You have reached the reception of Mr. Fujiwara's office. What is your business here?"
"Business?"
The man stares at me for a moment. Suddenly, I notice something isn't right about him.
There is no light in his eyes. His expression seems happy, yet empty. It is a most unnatural sight.
"How do I get out of this building?"
"It's simple. Just take the Gate, and our portalmaster will route you to your destination right away."