“Ugh, shit” I woke up with a splitting headache. When I opened my eyes, I immediately regretted the decision as the light from the ceiling felt like it burned my eyeballs. To defend from this unbeatable foe, I closed my eyes back and moved my head under the pillow, using it as a makeshift shield. It worked like magic.

My mind felt hazy. Words barely connected themselves in coherent thoughts. What in the heck did I do last night? Nothing came to mind. Finding some willpower in myself, I extended my hand to my night table to take my phone. It was not there. Neither the phone nor the night table.

“Huh?” I groaned in confusion. My brain took a few extra seconds to process this new information and come to the conclusion that this is not good. And if it's not good, then this is bad. The realization sent a small shock through my body and I jerked upwards, the drowsiness momentarily forgotten. I regretted my decisions for the second time today since the light, unsurprisingly, wasn’t more merciful this time around.

“Ugh, fuck.” I cursed and put a hand over my eyes while trying not to look at the ceiling directly. I blinked and squinted severely while trying to understand where in the heck I am.

I was sitting in a wooden one person bed with white bedding. In front of me, connected to my bed and touching the stone wall was a simple table and 2 chairs. A simple wooden door followed shortly after. I turned my head to the right and the surprise caused another shot of adrenaline to be released in my bloodstream. I felt my muscles tense up throughout my body. The heart rate spiked up and I found myself feeling breathing in more air. Thankfully no girlish squeaks or other embarrassing reactions were shown.

On the opposite side of the room, in a bed just like mine, was sitting a guy with his back to the wall and facing me. He had his right leg bent to support his hand which in turn supported his head. His eyes were closed but it didn’t look like he was sleeping if his irregular breaths were anything to go by. The guy looked to be in his early 20’s and wearing a pair of very simplistic grey pants and a basic short-sleeved tunic with a large neck opening-- just like myself now that I took a look.

“Yo!” I said in a deep morning voice and raised my hand in a greeting gesture.

The guy briefly opened his left eye (I couldn’t see the other one since it was obscured by his hand) and looked at me for a few seconds. He nodded his head in acknowledgment, briefly lifted his left hand from the bed before letting it slump back down as if in greeting and growling something similar to an ‘uh-huh’.

I looked at him silently for a few seconds trying to remember if I knew this guy somehow. My mind came blank. Seeing that I have nothing to say, he closed his eye, adjusted his head a little, and let his fingers dig back into his long blonde hair.

Feeling that it would be somewhat awkward to start asking questions now when he clearly wasn’t interested and most likely feeling just as shity as me, I didn’t say anything. Instead, I looked around the room once again trying to find out where the off switch is for this damnable light. It was getting rather tiring to protect my eyes with my hand.

I didn’t see the switch. What I did see though, was the last object in the room, which was a small wardrobe. Besides the aforementioned objects, the room was barren with the floor, ceiling, and walls being made of polished grey stone. There was not even a window. All in all, rather spartan.

Deciding to go and see if the switch was hidden near the wardrobe where I couldn’t see, I moved myself to the edge of the bed and put my bare feet on the floor. Right away I felt a chill ran through my feet and up my legs. It was damn cold. Embracing the suck, I put some effort and rose up on my feet. I came to regret the decision right away. My vision started to go dark and I began to feel lightheaded as the world started spinning around. There was nothing under hand to support myself with so I sat my ass back down on the bed before I managed to faceplant on the rocky floor.

“Fuck” the curse came out involuntarily out of my mind for the second time. To my ears, my voice sounded something like a mix between waking up from the world's worst hangover ever and incoherently as a drunk 10 minutes earlier before falling asleep.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“There is no switch. I checked.” the guy opposite me said in a voice very similar to mine. I smiled at that. Good to know that someone is sharing my misery.

Seeing that the guy is in pretty much the same situation as me and probably has no idea what’s happening, I decided not to start interrogating him and simply asked:

“Do you know something that I don’t? Which is to say, anything at all?”

The guy opened his eye(s) and leveled his head to look directly at me. We stood like this for a few seconds.

“Aliens.” he finally said.

I raised an eyebrow at that, he, however, continued to look nonchalant at me.

“...Riiiight.” I drooled. Looks like I’ve got quite the luck to end up with someone like him as a roommate.

Just as I started to complain about my luck, the guy’s mouth split into a full-blown grin, teeth and all.

“Oh, fuck off!"

“Couldn’t resist. Seemed like a shame not to use it” he said while still maintaining his grin. It didn’t look like it would go away any time soon.

“Fair enough I guess.” I found myself smiling too. “I am Edward by the way. You?”

“Arthur.” he simply supplied.

“Sooo… You feel like panicking, screaming that we will all die and running around in circles like headless chickens?” I proposed with a raised eyebrow.

“Nah, I am busy nurturing my headache. Maybe after. What about you?”

“Well, it’s too embarrassing doing it alone, plus I’ve tried it before, 3/10, will not recommend it.”

Arthur smiled at me. I smiled back.

“I think we will get along just fine”

“You don’t say. “ I once again checked everything in the room once again and not finding anything new, I settled my eyes on the door. “Did you check it?” I asked while nudging my head towards the door.

“Nah, I woke up like 3 minutes ago, checked for the off switch then felt like I will splatter on the floor if I will not sit down. That's about it.“

So he too huh? We must’ve slept for quite a long time for the reaction to be so severe. Now that I think about this, I am hungry and thirsty too, though strangely enough, no morning wood.

I bent and took a look under the bed in hope of finding some sort of footwear only to get immediately disappointed. Worth the try.

Smirking at my disappointed face, Arthur finally moved from his position on the bed and stood up. “Let’s go check out what’s with this place.”

I resisted the desire to roll my eyes and stood up after him. Footwear be damned. Thankfully this time around I didn’t find it hard to hold myself on my own two feet. I moved after Arthur as he approached the door. I was almost convinced that the door would be closed but then he put his hand on the doorknob and the door opened without any resistance. There wasn’t even the expected sound of unoiled hinges. As Arthur stepped forward, I did likewise.

The corridor that we found ourselves in gave me the impression that I was back in my student dormitory except that it was a medieval dormitory with doors out of wood, all identical to one another, walls out of the same grey polished rock and illuminated just as damn brightly as the room behind us. Lengths wise it was also similar.

You’d think that with so many rooms this corridor will be somewhat busy and noisy, but nope, besides us, there was not even a soul in sight and it was deadly quiet. Pretty damn creepy if you ask me. Arthur frowned and moved to the room next to us and knocked on it 3 times.

No answer.

He then tried opening the door--except it didn’t budge. Seeing that, I moved to the door across our and tried to directly open it-- it was closed.

I turned around to see Arthur looking at me. He opened his mouth to say something only to close it back up when some sounds were heard at the start of the corridor. I jerked my heart in that direction. Steps. Soft, unhurried, one pair. I was able to hear them only thanks to how damn quiet this place is.

Run? Hide? The situation doesn't seem threatening though. Better safe than sorry? Do you even have any idea where to run? Confront? Can you even fight? I turned to Arthur. He looked completely relaxed. I raised an eyebrow at that. The guy’s pretty damn chill.

Before my brain managed to settle on either the fight or run instinct, it froze for a second because I saw an honest to goodness, full-blown maid. Seeing us, the maid smiled and started walking in our direction. Her steps just as unhurried and soft as before, thou maybe with an extra spring in it. She was a woman in her early 30's with light brownish hair. The maid outfit looked rather… simplistic. Actually, that’s probably not the correct way of describing it. It simply didn’t have any extra ‘extra’. As is in, no puffed up bottom part, no frillies, and sure as heck it wasn't of the sexy variety. It was simply a working uniform.

The woman approached while we stood and watched her. She made a small bow in front of us.

“Good morning Heroes. The breakfast is ready. Allow me to escort you to the dining hall.” The maid looked at us, waiting for a response.

Heroes, huh? I definitely like the sound of that.

“Sure.” Arthur answered.

“Great!” The maid beamed a smile at him. “Please follow me then.” She turned around and started walking before we even managed to say something. We soon followed after her.

“Hey, can you tell us-”

“All of your questions will be answered very soon. Please have some patience.” the maid, without even turning around, cut Arthur off before he managed to finish his sentence. There was even some edge in her voice.

Judging from the frown on Artur’s face, he wasn't pleased with those words. He didn’t voice his displeasure though and we silently followed her to the dining room.