BANG! BANG! BANG!
I could hear the door rattle and shudder with the aftermath of each furious hit.
Still, I did not get up from where I lay sprawled on my bed.
'Hey! Have you finallyfuckingdied in there?'
BANG! BANG!
I shut my eyes with a sigh. It did nothing to help with the persistent throbbing in my head. The apartment was already in pitch darkness, without even a sliver of the nighttime city lights being allowed in through the heavy drapes.
'That's it! Fine! Don't answer the door! Don't pay your rent!'
BANG! BANG!
'I've given you more than enough time! Enough chances! No more!'
BANG!
'Pack up your things. I'll be here again tomorrow, with the apartment manager and security. You're being evicted! Evicted!'
BANG!
And with that final, angry slam, the man at the door seemed to be done.
…Was he gone?
It didn't matter. I couldn't bring myself to really care.
I didn't move from where I lay.
…
Was this it, then?
Was it finally time for me to give up?
No. Something… I'd figure something out. I could still figure something out.
I wasn't going to just… let go. Not like this –
BEEP-beep! BEEP-beep! BEEP-beep!
I started at the sudden noise, then groaned when I registered what it was.
I hadn't realized my phone still had any power left.
Reluctantly, I pushed my upper body off the mattress, squinting slightly at the brightly lit screen. There was a familiar name flashing on the call display.
Aria. My older sister.
I flipped the phone over, cutting off the mechanical melody. I flopped down onto my back again.
I'd have to look for a new place tomorrow. Fair enough, considering I hadn't made rent for a couple of months already. It'd probably be easier on my dwindling savings to find a cheaper motel for the next few…
…Weeks? Months?
How long, exactly?
How much longer would I spend chasing an impossibility?
No! Shut up!
SHUT UP!
I kneaded my forehead as the throbbing worsened.
Part of me wanted to slam my head against the wall and just end everything right there and then.
Maybe that would be kinder.
That way, I might actually have a better chance. I might finally be able to see –
Ding~
…
I sighed.
My stupid, needy phone was chiming for attention again.
Even though I knew I wouldn't be responding to whatever the notification was for, I found myself glancing towards the screen.
A strange, red light emanated from the sides of the small rectangle. It took me a moment to remember that the screen was still facing downwards.
…
But… Red light? And the color was taking up the whole screen?
Despite myself, I sat up and reached out to pick up the phone.
A weird, blood-red color covered the whole screen, its eerie light strangely bright as it washed over my hand.
Uh...
What the hell?
Straightening my back, I drew the device close to my face. I tried swiping to find the brightness controls.
Nothing.
There was no change to the screen. No quick control, no notification bar, no time. Even the power button didn't work.
The whole screen was just… red.
'The fuck's going on?' I muttered, lightly hitting its side with the flat of my palm.
Was it broken? Had Aria managed to somehow hack into it?
What was wrong with the damn thing!?
I shook it slightly, then hit it again, a little harder this time.
In the next moment, the pixels at the very center of the screen seemed to move and morph.
Into an eye.
A large, staring eye that fixed its gaze straight onto my face the moment it appeared.
My heart thudded in my chest. A sudden chill ran down my spine.
The eye… It looked so… real…
It felt like someone was really in the room with me.
Looking. Right. At. Me.
But that wasn't possible, of course.
It was just an image on my phone. Pixels on a screen. Probably some stupid malware from one of those shady websites I'd been frequenting lately.
My heart was still racing.
For some reason, I couldn't bring it back under my control no matter how hard I tried to rationalize things in my mind.
The air in the room, and in my lungs, seemed to have turned to ice.
My skin prickled.
I was afraid.
…
…
…I was afraid?
No. This was ridiculous.
I wasn't afraid. I hadn't been sleeping well. I'd barely been eating. I'd been spending all day locked away in this dark apartment, reading and researching and trying ritual after ritual.
And the rational part of my mind knew that none of it was healthy.
I wasn't afraid. I was just tired and jumpy.
I was being stupid again.
The eye continued staring at me.
I decided I'd deal with whatever the problem was tomorrow, when I left to look for another place. I made as if to toss the phone away.
Then, I froze.
When the phone moved, the eyeball moved too.
The eye was following my movements.
Before I could do anything else, a line of black text suddenly appeared in the space above the eye.
TESTING PHASE: INITIATED
The blood-red light from the screen started growing brighter and brighter. Within moments, the whole room was red.
Painfully red.
Impossibly red.
'What the hell?' I gasped.
I tried covering the screen, but it didn't work.
I couldn't even see the room anymore. The walls, the furniture, the bed I was sitting on. Nothing at all.
Everything was red.
And then, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped.
The red disappeared.
And there I was, sitting… on a completely different bed, in a completely different room.
The phone was gone too.
I stared wordlessly at the slightly trembling fingers of my empty hand, still held up in front of me.
It wasn't even my own hand.
The slender, smooth hand belonged to someone younger, probably still in their mid-teens. More startling was the lack of half-healed slits and cuts on the palm and along the fingers.
Oh. Shit.
I was somewhere else. I was someone else.
My heart was still racing, but after I acknowledged what had just happened, my mind went strangely quiet.
I put my hand down and took in my environment.
I was sitting on a much smaller bed now. The ceiling was inches from my head.
There were some faint, discolored stains on it, visible only because of how harsh the white fluorescent lighting was. It was almost like something had been… dragged? Across the top of the room?
...huh.
I returned my attention to where I sat; it was clearly the upper bunk… in a… dormitory of some kind.
There was a small window on the wall to the right, by the head of the bed.
Across from me was another bunk bed with the same window set-up. The upper and lower bunks were both empty.
Before I could lean over to examine the bed below my own, there was a soft creak.
Then, another teenaged boy suddenly appeared in my line of sight. He'd just jumped off the lower bunk to stand up.
Almost immediately, he turned to look at me. There was an odd, wary look in his eyes as he took in my appearance.
'I…' I blinked. 'Can you tell me what's going on here? Who are you? Where are we right now?'
The other boy frowned slightly at my words. He seemed to think for a moment.
Then, his brows relaxed.
'Newbie, huh?' he said, a small smile appearing on his face. 'You're a lucky one.'
'Newbie…?' I shook my head slightly. Locating the ladder, I climbed off the bed somewhat awkwardly. My limbs were currently shorter than I was used to.
My bare feet met the cold floor, and I whipped around to face the other boy.
'Can you tell me what's going on?' I repeated.
'What's going on is, you're lucky to have met me first,' the boy said. He stepped closer, and lowered his voice a little before continuing. 'Listen, I know you have a lot of questions. I'll answer them tomorrow. But for tonight, just go back to bed. Try to sleep through the night.'
'Dude… what?' I raised my brows. 'Why wait? Just say it now, please.'
The guy shook his head, his eyes darting to the door of the room. 'Remember. You cannot speak of what has happened, who you are, and where you've come from, to anyone else in this world. Not unless you are sure that they're like us. For now, don't let the others pick up on anything strange.'
'In… this world? The others? What are you -?'
He slammed a hand over my mouth to stop my questions. He leaned in closer and hissed, 'Just nod along to whatever they say. Pretend you're tired. Then shut your trap, and go to bed. Sleep through the night.'
The next moment, he leaped away and sat back down in his bed, casually fluffing up his pillow. At the same time, the door to the room was thrown open, and two other boys walked in.
'Still up?' one of them asked, his eyes sliding from my bunkmate to me.
There was something off about his tone. His voice was dull.
Upon closer examination, both of the new guys had pronounced dark circles, and a haggard, defeated air about them.
'We were just about to turn in,' my bunkmate said after a small pause.
The boy who had spoken looked at him for a moment, then nodded.
The two newcomers started trudging towards their own beds. The guy who hadn't spoken yet reached the lower bunk, and wordlessly flopped down in it face-first. The other one started climbing up the ladder, then stopped to turn his head and look at me.
There was an odd look in his eyes.
'Have you…' he paused.
His voice dropped to a hoarse whisper.
'Have you already given up?'
I blinked.
Then, instead of answering, I simply said, 'I was just about to go to bed too.'
I broke off my gaze and started climbing up the ladder.
The moment I settled in again, the harsh fluorescent light on the ceiling was turned off. I stared at the dimming orange glow where the light had been until it disappeared.
…The light switch must've been within the reach of one of the other guys.
There was a chill in the air that seemed to penetrate through layers of skin and muscle, until it settled in the deepest parts of my bones. The flimsy blanket I'd pulled over my supine form did nothing to alleviate it.
I didn't know where I was, nor why I had ended up here.
I didn't know, but…
I had a guess.
Still, there was something terribly wrong with all this. And rather than forging ahead blind, I decided I would try trusting my new bunkmate just this once. Just for tonight.
With a small sigh, I shut my eyes.