Prologue: Ejected From Reality

Some days start off being markedly worse than others. For example, you lock yourself out of your house by forgetting your keys, meaning you can't drive to work. Then, when you go to call your boss, you realize that you've also forgotten your phone.

That isn't what is happening to me, but today is a day like that for me. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, angrier than I've been in a while for what felt like no reason. I had a feeling of forgetting something since before I left my house, but checking my pockets, I had everything I needed for my day.

The air is clean enough to take a deep breath and not cough, with allergy season finally coming to a close. Unfortunately, I'm not in a mood to smell the beautiful red roses my mother had planted earlier in the spring. The green grass was nice to look at, but was marred by the brown path of trampled and dead grass straight to the sidewalk that everyone used instead of the cobbled pathway that led to a much farther driveway.

The hard sidewalk felt awful with my old, worn shoes. I was expecting something nice today, as the forecast looked good, but nature had other plans. There was supposed to be scattered clouds today, but not a single one was in sight, causing the unbearable heat from the summer sun to blast down my neck. It would also wonderfully blind me as I walked past reflective surfaces like cars and house windows.

Today, I had the displeasure of heading to an outing with some old friends who I tried to cut contact with peacefully. When they finally found me again, I said that a bunch of things happened and lied to them so I would feel better about myself. To my great displeasure, that meant they wanted to reconnect after the five years we had disconnected.

I had sold my phone, destroyed my SIM card after canceling the plan, deleted all of my internet accounts all at the same time as my parents wanted to move to a different city. It was a perfect getaway plan, completely cutting ties with friends that I couldn't stand anymore. We all met during school and, well don't get me wrong, we had many good memories together.

One such memory was us raiding Lucas' house for him when he was struggling with school. A good time that was, rushing his house and breaking in through the front door all dressed up in fake police gear. Almost took a few swings from his dad, but after a lot, and I mean a LOT of explaining, we were allowed to steal Lucas to cheer him up from a deep depression.

After so many years together though… we drifted apart. Our hobbies changed, they all went one direction while I fell deeper into different things. Our meetups felt boring, I got invited out less and less, and I lost interest in the lies to do things I liked that kept baiting me to leave the safe haven I had created in my home.

Alas, I had dug my own grave by trying to hide instead of acting like a reasonable adult. I was now forced to walk in shame towards my destination of a local coffee shop. Even knowing full well I never liked even the smell of coffee, they chose this as the meetup location without once consulting my opinion. I wasn't angry, how could I be when I'm definitely in the wrong in this whole mess.

If only someone could save me from this hell I was about to endure. In reality though, it isn't going to be all that bad I guess. We were still friends for a while, so I am sure I can fight back if there are any arguments. I'll even do my best not to start any arguments as long as they act like adults, which they struggled with five years ago, but things can change in that amount of time.

I can admit that I am very much in the wrong for a lot of things. Like, it's not that they're childish, I just take some things more seriously than I should. I have always had a serious streak when it comes to my passions. Back when we all played the same game, I would always spend more time practicing solo, so it hurt even more when they just suddenly moved on to the next big thing.

Arriving at my destination, a feeling of something being wrong flashes through me. A feeling so strong it's as if a tsunami just crashed directly into me. Abject horror running through me, I wrongfully ignored it, pushing open the door to the coffee shop. As soon as I hear the ringing of the bell that signifies a customer entering, everything starts to blur in my eyes.

I hear my old friends I once knew call out to me, followed immediately by screaming of horror from everyone glancing my direction. My left foot steps down through the entryway, only to find it landing on nothing, slipping through the brown tiled floor. I look down as my body lurches forwards, moving towards the floor at high speed, I raise my arms, closing my eyes as I wait for an impact.

No impact comes, but something more bizarre happens when my eyes open. I am free falling through what I can only describe as nothing. There is nothing to see here, and turning to look up I can see through the floor of the coffee shop. I can see the bottom of cars fade away as I fall below the world.

As the world above me fades into nothing while I fall faster and faster, I begin to think to myself; I should really learn when asking to be saved is too much. The absurdity of the situation barely being able to be processed in my brain, let me remain calm for a short time. Although, I know it won't last long.

Falling through the ground? Seeing things from below as if I clipped out of bounds, like a video game?

My brain is struggling to put together what I am feeling along with what I am seeing. I am falling away from the world above me, yet I do not have the feeling of falling at all. No wind blowing on my face or back, no feeling of movement, but my eyes clearly see an outline above that is receding.

As the world completely fades, I am unlucky enough to have time to start to believe that this isn't fake. Not an elaborate joke with a movie crew, not some head injury that has turned me into a barely thinking vegetable. I'm stuck out here, in complete nothingness. I try to look in every direction, only to find I can't tell which way is the way I came from anymore.

It isn't dark… It's hard to explain what I am seeing, but it's like an absence of everything. I can faintly see something way off in the distance, an almost glow. The glow is a color I cannot define with words, it is something so otherworldly that calling it nothing feels like a better description than calling it something.

Suddenly I find myself landing on something. Most of my senses are immediately assaulted as I force myself to sit up in the dark I now find myself in. The smell of must and rot assail my nose while I feel a wet and damp carpet beneath me, almost soaking my clothes.

I pulled out my phone to use as a flashlight, suddenly realizing I had lost control of my limbs while I was floating through the void. Unlocking it with only a swipe and turning on the flashlight, I see a brown carpet beneath me with stains of mold and rot. Walls with mostly the same stains, each with an awful yellow wallpaper with a striped pattern on one wall and polka dots on another.

Suddenly there is a loud click as the lights above me turn on, then the ones father away. A cascade of light illuminating the hallway I find myself in. I immediately notice the buzz and hum of the fluorescent lighting.

"Fuck." I whisper the only thought that enters my reeling mind.