“I was in… my room sleeping,” Eisai answered with a croaky voice.

“Where did you leave? What happened to you?” Jien asked.

Eisai got nervous. “I didn’t leave my room since yesterday,” — he eyed everyone — “What’s wrong?”

The oldest monk took a step back and his face turned yellow. “Eisai! you disappeared a year ago!”

Eisai looked at the monks, waiting for anyone to explain what happened, but everyone seemed nervous and lost for words. “We heard you scream painfully from your room… when we went there; the room was empty with blood on the floor,” Jien said, took a deep breath, and continued, “We kept looking for you for months.” he looked at the other monks. “You disappeared from the entire kingdom.”

“Where have you been?” another monk asked. Eisai didn’t know what to say. He looked at the ground, trying to think of an answer, but couldn’t. He lifted his head and glimpsed their terrified and worried faces.

He didn’t have an answer to their only question; for him, it was hours ago that felt more like a few seconds passed slowly, yet for them it was an entire year with many obvious changes. Some lost weight, some gained weight, and the younger students grew much taller. It sounded surreal and felt like a long, super-realistic dream.

Stolen story; please report.

He shifted his body and walked to the main gate exiting the temple, leaving everyone whispering in worry.

He strolled, with no destination in mind. His eyes fixed on the ground beneath his shaking legs, his mind was fighting itself to understand what happened.

The noise increased around him. He moved his sight and found himself in the middle of the local market. It was flooded with people talking, laughing, and arguing. He looked around, feeling lost, he never felt anxious around people.

A strong pain suddenly reached his head, making him dizzy and disoriented, and an image emerged in his head, stopping his movements.— Standing alone in a white void, his soul filled with emptiness and loneliness — he pressed on his temples with his shaky fingertips, clenching his head with a hoarse low scream escaping his lips followed by his body collapsing in the middle of the market.

Later.

The fresh garden smell filled his nostrils, waking him up. He opened his eyes slowly and found himself in an old shop filled with herbs and colorful flowers.

Eisai lifted his head a little and felt a wet piece of fabric on his forehead. He tried to sit up but stopped when he heard footsteps coming closer. “You’re up,” an old lady said. Eisai looked at her, she was a pretty woman.

Unbelievably, pretty.

She looked old, yet her skin was glowing; she had long silky silver hair laying on her back and she was wearing a fiery red kimono. His eyes trickled from the very end of her kimono to her face where he found her smiling at him. “Does your head still hurt?”

“What happened to me?” Eisai sat straight and removed the wet fabric. He was confused; the woman looked different from anyone from the market like she didn’t belong to their world.

With bold red eyeliner and lips. Sharp yet angelic features. Her shop also looked different from the rest; it was colorful and filled with a unique smell that felt foreign yet soothing his soul.