West Leyland, Azura, Easton.
The entire space was dark, void, and silent.
Then...
"Ugh...!" Code's eyes snapped open as he suddenly jerked up.
His eyes were wide, his heart beating nonstop.
Then he stopped to think for a moment.
"Where the hell am I?" he muttered, scanning the entire space: from the walls to the corners, to the ceiling, to the windows, where the setting sun cast its faint glow, and finally...
To the bed he was lying on.
"How did...?" he whispered, trying to remember how he got here. However, his memory was hazy, and all his mind could summon was...
The masked man's face.
"Van Ackerman!" Code's eyes widened in surprise. "He called himself Van Ackerman."
"The same Van Ackerman?!" Code asked himself, furrowing his brows as he gulped repeatedly.
Everything he could remember so far seemed impossible.
"This is too good to be true," Code whispered, shaking his head in disbelief.
Then his eyes slowly moved to the door. It was brown, made of premium Nefarian wood.
Everything in the room screamed expensive.
However, something still felt strange.
"Is this Hazen?" Code's eyes narrowed. His gaze shifted to the window, falling upon the city's terrain.
The striking thing was the vegetation that filled the city. Houses were arranged in perfect uniformity, with broad passageways bordered by trees between each of them.
Code brought a hand to his chin thoughtfully.
It couldn't be Hazen. Hazen had little to no forests, being the central city of Eldrid.
And neither was it Sylva. Sylva's vegetation density was far thicker than what he was seeing.
'So it comes down to two,' Code thought to himself.
"It's either I'm in Easton, or somewhere outside Eldrid... which isn't possible," he whispered.
And if he was in Easton...
Code's eyes widened.
"I have been kidnapped!" he almost screamed, jumping off the bed.
Sweat slid down his cheeks.
"Don't tell me that man ratted me out," his eyes widened in horror.
"I should've known he was lying," Code whispered aloud, clenching his fist.
'There's no way that bastard could've been Van Ackerman,' he thought.
"Arrrgh, good grief, see where my gullibility has taken me," Code hung his head in self-pity.
"Now my kidney's as good as gone," he muttered.
"Maybe they'll take my heart too... my brain's not worth much though," he sniffed.
Then, suddenly, amidst his grim thoughts...
Bam!!
A loud sound pierced the air.
"Eeek!" Code screamed, jumping back on the bed.
"What the hell was that?" he whispered, eyes darting around as he struggled to catch his breath.
Everywhere fell silent again, save for his ragged breathing.
'I should really find a way to escape from this place,' Code thought to himself, gulping.
With a swift motion, he jumped off the bed and landed in front of the door.
Carefully, he stretched a hand to the knob and twisted it, making the barest sound possible.
The door opened with a low creak, and Code carefully tiptoed out. He closed it behind him slowly and gently.
"Phew," he heaved, slowly raising his gaze.
Directly in front of him was another door. Same color, same premium Nefarian wood.
Code frantically turned his head left. Beside the door was another; same color, same wood, and beside that, another, and another.
"What?" Code's eyes widened. The corridor stretched endlessly, the perspective shrinking the further it went.
He turned right, and alas...
The same thing.
Doors. Same color, same premium wood, and the corridor stretching into infinity.
"Eeeh, this isn't funny at all," Code muttered, his voice shaking.
He turned left, then right again.
"Which way do I go now?" he asked himself. "Everything looks the same, no difference."
He was divided. A part of him wanted to go left, another screamed right, and yet another said stay.
"What a hassle," Code sighed. "I guess I'll just go left," he said, turning that way. The march began.
...
Twenty minutes later...
"Lord have mercy, where the hell is this place?!" Code exclaimed, collapsing to the ground.
'I've been walking for a while now, maybe even years, and jeez, the doors just continue on and on,' he wailed in his head.
"I even tried opening every door I encountered..." Code whispered as the memories flashed by.
It was a monotonous sequence of opening and closing. Every single door led only to the same room he saw earlier.
"This is like an eternal prison," Code groaned. Then he paused.
"Wait..." his eyes widened.
"...is this an illusion? Maybe someone is casting an illusion on me!" Code slowly stood up.
"Hehe," a smirk crept across his lips. "Idiot, you're dealing with the wrong guy," Code whispered, his grin widening.
"There's always a trick to things like this," he said, turning to swiftly open the door behind him.
"Open every single door, and the caster is probably in one of the rooms."
"Here we go!" Code smirked, kicking open the next door.
He instantly turned and...blam!
The next door was open. Then he started running, opening every single door on either side.
...
Thirty minutes later.
"Okay, this is no longer funny..." Code wheezed, holding his knees in exhaustion.
"I'm totally beat," he said, staggering toward the next door.
'I've been opening every single door, and yet, this corridor keeps stretching on?' Code sighed wearily.
Then he suddenly raised his head. His lips parted, his eyes glared, and...
"What the actual fuck!!!" he shouted, his voice echoing endlessly.
His gaze dropped to the door in front of him.
'Arrrgh...' he sighed in frustration, turning the doorknob slowly as he pushed the door open.
The door creaked, and...
Swooom!!
A mighty gust of wind blew against him.
His eyes widened as he stepped inside.
The room was like every other one: same bed, same color of paint, same outside view.
But something was different.
Code took a step in and gently closed the door behind him.
It was this room. The caster was here, lying on the bed.
Gruuuh...Gruuuh...!
And he was sleeping soundly without a single care in the world.
"This motherfucker," Code gritted his teeth, clenching his fists as he took another step forward.
This motherfucker (according to Code) was clad in white pajamas laced with intricate moonlight designs.
"And he's sleeping so soundly..." Code hissed.
'I'll just wake him up and ask him to undo this annoying spell or whatever this is,' Code thought, stepping closer.
But as he took another step...
WHAM!!!
The room fell silent again.
Code was gone.
Only the sleeping motherfucker remained.
Snore... snore...
And his snores.
...
Wham!!
Code suddenly materialized elsewhere.
He was back in the eternal corridor, and this time, all the doors he had opened earlier were now closed.
Code quickly turned, opening the door behind him, but nothing was different.
It was just like every other room.
Same as the one ahead.
He was back to square one.
"Ahhhhhh!!!" Code yelled, his face twisted in frustration.
"What the fucking hell!"
...
To be continued...