“That guy, he … he was blue. What the fuck!?”

Said whoever, knocking us all out of our stupor. For the next few moments I’m glad I’m in the corner because suddenly everyone’s moving, talking, getting up and trying to do something, anything, to get a grasp on the situation. Through the commotion all I hear a smattering of words.

“... the fuck?”

“... the hell is this…”

“... lue, blue, the guy was blue!”

Eventually I retreated back into myself, not something that was difficult for me to do. I sucked in a few deep breaths … then a few more and started organising everything I knew.

One, I am not where I was before. Safe to say given what I’ve seen. So that means I am not where I was anymore and with the information I have, my brain can only narrow things down to two possibilities as to why that is.

A: I, and everyone else, have been abducted by aliens. But given the stone cells and the guy wearing the armor that doesn’t seem likely. But who knows? I’m not an expert on alien fashion trends or interior design and anything is possible at this point.

B: We’ve all been transported to another world. I’ll admit I’m an avid fantasy reader and I’m familiar with isekai’s but there’s no fucking way right. Right?

Thinking back, I fell through something in that water and though my denial is up now at 200%, I realise it with a cold, dark clarity.

That was a portal.

That first man looked like some sort of wizard. And despite the fact that he was blue, the second man dressed in armor like some sort of knight.

I’ve been transported to a fantasy world.

Fuck.

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Okay, Okay, Okay. Let’s calm down a bit. Putting aside that it could still be aliens, I suppose they would possibly use portals as well, the odds are leaning towards the fantasy world alternative.

So let’s reexamine things.

If this is a supposed “fantasy” world then it’s safe to assume that magic being a thing here is within the realms of possibility. That being said, from this point it can be deduced that the portal everyone came in from was a magical portal and the fact that we ended up in the purple room with the “wizard” and that he was smiling so dandily means it was by no means an accident.

So, given we were all summoned to another world by design it means that the “wizard” wants us all for something. All of us. Not just one person or a handful but a whole batch.

Jerking up, I realise what this all seems like. This seems like a fishing boat casting down a net and then pulling up a school of fish out of the water onto its deck. A look around at the cell again shows that we're all men of the same age, and I realise that all the fish that the fisherman has caught have been catalogued and sorted into different containers so that they can be more easily accessed.

This is not good. I’m a fish in a barrel pulled out of the ocean, sailing to a world I have no concept of, completely at the mercy of the fisherman.

This is really not good.

I suddenly hear the movement around me and I see that most of everyone here has grouped up around Clubby. It seems he is trying to rally everyone together to attack whenever the door opens again. They’ve left me out of it but I guess that makes sense. Doubtful that the guy hugging his knees, muttering to himself while cowering in the corner of the room, isn’t going to be too good in a fight.

Everyone’s sick of resting and now, they’re getting antsy. They were hurt, then they were confused, then they were scared, then their whole worldview was shattered. Now, they’re terrified. Fight or flight is kicking in and there’s nowhere to run in here. Everyones angry, and they want to hurt something.

CRRREEEEEEEAAAAAKKKKK

Suddenly, the door’s opening again and it’s the same blue guy with something in his hands - but it’s not the guy from before. It’s a sack of something in his right hand and a big bucket in his left.

Everyone pauses as he walks in before Clubby does, what Clubby does.

“GET HIM!”

Clubby runs at him with everyone else soon behind him. I turn back to the blue guy just in time to see the look on his face. He doesn’t look scared, he doesn’t look shocked, he doesn’t even look amused.

He looks affronted.

Affronted in the way that the most popular and prettiest girl in high school looks affronted when they’re seated next to the chubby guy in class who has terrible acne.

Trust me, I know.

Clubby leads the charge and is almost on him when it happens.

They were right on top of him.

Then, they weren’t.

Now, they’re all piled up against the wall on the other side of the room.

I didn’t even see it happen. Within not even a blink it was already done.

The blue guy dropped his sack and bucket and turned to leave. But not before he looked over everyone who rallied against him, memorising their faces. He walked out and closed the door behind him.

And then everyone else started groaning.

...Shit.

Definitely a fantasy world.