“Rise and shine!” Steven opened the door, turned on the light, and opened the window curtain, flooding the room with light “I've already started making breakfast, it'll be ready in just a few minutes. Everyone else is already awake and ready to meet you.”

Arthur sat up, yawning.

“If you need 10 more minutes, that's fine.” Steven said, smiling.

“No, I'm fine. Just give me a minute to wake up and put some clothes on.”

“Okay, I'll be waiting outside your door.”

Steven walked out and closed the door behind him.

The door opened, and Arthur walked out of the room, wearing a hoodie and a pair of sweatpants, both of which seemed to be a size or two too big for him.

“Looks like we'll have to go shopping to get you some new clothes soon.” Steven said, chuckling.

Arthur looked down, inspecting the clothes, seemingly just realizing how big they were on him.

“Alright, are you ready to meet everyone?” Steven said, leading Arthur down the stairs.

“Yes.”

Steven led Arthur through a doorway, into a small room with a large, circular table in the center.

“This is the dining room. And those,” he gestured to the right, where a small group of children were standing “are your new siblings!”

“Hey hey, what happened to your parents?” A small boy with messy brown hair ran up to Arthur and started tugging on his hoodie.

“Hey, Albert, don't ask him that! That's very rude!” Steven scolded the child, pushing him away from Arthur.

“No no, it's alright. It's been a while, so I don't mind that much anymore.” Arthur smiled reassuringly, bending down to shake Albert's hand.

Steven sighed “well, this one is Albert. As you can tell, he's quite the troublemaker.”

Steven walked over to the rest of the children, placing his hands on the shoulder of a teenage girl. “This is Sofia. You met her yesterday at the front desk.”

“Nice to meet you!” She said, revealing a pair of braces on her teeth as she smiled wide.

“Nice to meet you too.” Arthur replied.

Steven walked over to the remaining two children, one of which quickly hid behind his back.

“This is Johnny. He's a little shy, as you can see. Come out and say hi, Johnny.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“H-hello…” Johnny peaked his head out from behind Steven's back cautiously.

“And finally,” Steven walked over to the last child, putting a hand on his shoulder “this is Charlie.”

What?!

Charlie was tall, and had dirty blond hair. He wore thick rimmed glasses, and was very thin, almost emaciated looking.

“Nice to meet you, Arthur.” Charlie smiled, walking over and holding his hand out.

“Ah, uh, yes. Nice to meet you too.” Arthur shook his hand, trying his best to prevent his body from shaking.

Charlie looked concerned “is everything okay?”

“Yes, everything is… everything is fine.” Arthur stared at Charlie, an obviously shocked look on his face.

Steven clasped his hands together “now that everyone has met Arthur, let's have breakfast!”

“Yeah!” Albert yelled excitedly, sprinting over towards the table and hurriedly sitting down in a chair.

After 30 minutes, almost everyone had finished eating and had already gone back to their rooms. The only ones left in the dining room were Steven, who was cleaning up, Charlie, who ate slowly, and Arthur, who had eaten 4 servings.

Charlie sat up and walked over to where Arthur was sitting.

“Hey Arthur. Do I… know you?”

“No, I don't think you do.”

“I see. Then… Do you know me?”

Arthur flinched.

“No, uh… I don't.” He began to sweat. “Why would I know you if you don't know me?”

“I see.” Charlie began to walk away. “If you ever need to talk to me, my room is the one right across the hall from yours. You can't miss it, we’re the only ones on that floor.”

Charlie left the room and walked up the stairs.

“I'm going back to my room now.” Arthur stood up and walked out, heading back up to his room.

So this is where Charlie grew up. I had no idea he was an orphan…

Arthur walked into his room, closing the door and locking it as he walked in.

Memories of his past life came flooding back to him as he laid down on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

“Nice to meet you sir, my name is Charlie. May I see the form you were given to fill out?”

“Hmm… I see.” He extended his hand outwards, inviting it to be shaken. “Welcome aboard, friend. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Arthur reached his hand out above his head, blocking the light with it.

I wonder what happened to him after I got sent back…

He clenched his hand into a fist.

I don't have time to waste.

He stood up, walking over to his desk and opening the old laptop that had been given to him.

In the future, information was heavily restricted. Really, the only thing I know is that a dystopia will come to be after the government is taken over. Apart from that, I have the knowledge of any other person from this time period. No, I probably know even less than other people do around this time. Thus, I must devote myself to researching and training, in order to prepare myself.

It was 12 pm, and Arthur had spent the last 6 hours on his computer, researching current and historical events.

This is gonna be harder than I thought.

He stood up, stretching.

I’ve narrowed down the possibilities a lot, but I still have no idea who's responsible for establishing the dystopia.

He began pacing back and forth.

I probably won't be able to know who it is for certain until they start to make clear pushes towards establishing their rule, but by that point it's probably already too late.

He stopped, turning towards the door.

I think I'm gonna need help after all.

He walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

And I think I know exactly the person to ask.