For a few moments, there is darkness.

Nothing but darkness.

I can't really feel anything, I can't hear anything, I can't see anything.

I hear a sound - that of something heavy being dropped against metal.

Multiple of something heavy.

After a moment...I can just barely see it.

Even though I can't see any source of light around me, for some reason I can still see, if only barely.

The sounds were people. Others like me tossed in this small room.

...I can feel the floor.

My legs.

I wiggle my toes.

It's weird.

Wiggling my toes feels weird.

I've never wiggled my toes in a dream before.

Someone screams.

The weird thing is...I don't know if it's me doing the screaming, or someone else. Their mouths are open, maybe we're all screaming.

Trapped.

We-

I'm trapped.

It's me.

I'm the one screaming. There aren't many of us in here, but in such a cramped space, it feels like I'm swimming in people, fighting to get to the spot on the wall that I'm certain is a door. Others are already there, pounding their fists and trying to claw at the metal to escape.

But maybe-

If enough of us try then maybe-

Something heavy slams into me from behind.

For a moment my feet no longer touch the ground, and then I slam hard into the wall, not with my fists but with my head.

What little light I perceive vanishes into darkness and dizziness.

...Warm sunlight tickles my skin, blue skies stretch out into the distance around me.

I blink and look around myself. The grass is cool and wet beneath my feet. A regal unicorn with a sleek, white coat approaches me. It takes my shoulder in its mouth and begins to shake me.

Back and forth.

I gasp, cool air with a faint metallic taste filling my lungs.

A young woman - about my age, I think - leans over me with a small smile. Her hand is settled on my shoulder. She gives a relieved sounding sigh then and shakes her head. "...Hey. I was starting to worry you weren't ever going to wake up. Are you okay?"

I blink slowly.

The room around me doesn't melt back into Earth. Or my bedroom. Or that unicorn place.

My head aches. A dull, throbbing pain, but nothing I haven't felt before.

I reach up and run my fingers through my short blonde hair, pulling them away cautiously - just in case I see red on those fingertips. But, no. Whatever I hit my head on must not have hurt me too badly.

I still...

I shake my head, trying to dispel that lingering grogginess. The room around me - us - is just as dark as the last, but I can see inside it better. Maybe my eyes have adjusted to whatever that strange faint grayish ambient light is. I think that's what it is. It's so faint it's hard to tell.

The room is smaller than before, which is saying something given how small the other one had felt.

Besides the girl leaning over me there's also another figure sitting against the far wall. They're far enough away it's too hard to make anything out about them.

"I'm Mia." The girl said, finally. "Don't know what his name is over there. He's not handling the whole...abducted by aliens thing very well. Hasn't said a single word this whole time."

Another slow blink.

I finally manage to look at the girl properly. I can tell she's about my age. She has longer hair than me. It's hard to see much more.

"You're..." My voice is a little hoarse from ....probably from the screams earlier. "You're handling it well."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

She shrugged and smiled. "Uncle Joe was abducted when he was a kid. Guess it runs in the family."

A snarky response about crazy stories bubbles up, but I'm able to hold it back. How can I really say something like that when I'm living through such a story right now?

If these stories are signs of a psychotic break or something, then that's exactly what I'm going through right now. And honestly? I don't know if recognizing I might be crazy is a good sign or a bad one. What's normal for a person experiencing a vivid psychotic break?

That's yet another thing I've never bothered to learn, because I never assumed it'd matter to know.

Finally, I come up with a different response. "Where are we?"

It's probably just as stupid as the one I resisted, but it's what I can come up with on the spot.

I struggle up to my feet just because...the ground is hard and uncomfortable. I'd rather not be laying on it.

"Don't know." She shrugs again. "Some kind of holding cell I'd guess. Suppose we're more manageable and less likely to stampede in pairs of three. Or it's some kind of interaction experiment. When they come to collect us it'll probably make sense."

I groan.

My muscles are sore like I've walked the whole way from school home and then back again. Maybe it's because of that hallway, or maybe that stampede mosh pit bruised me more than I realized. "Collect us...?"

"Yeah. For...a medical once-over or something." Mia shakes her head. Apparently her abduction expertise doesn't extend much beyond the abduction part, despite knowing a past victim.

I suppose that tracks with most stories.

She offers me another smile, apparently determined not to let silence fill the darkness. "So what's your name? Where are you from?"

"I..." I blink. For a moment I almost can't remember.

Stress really is crazy, isn't it...?

"Sarah. From Oregon."

"Yeah? I'm from Wisconsin. Guess they just made a sweep." She waves an arm to indicate that very thing.

"...But it was daylight." I say. It sounds ridiculous as I say it but. "They're supposed to come at night."

"There's no day or night in space. Definitely no seasons, either." She hums and places a hand on her hip. "The night time thing is just a misconception because people mistake planes for UFOs at night."

I...

Don't know if I was expecting my statement to be...

Like just saying it will dispel this madness with the power of reason.

But Mia's response. It doesn't fill me with joy.

I glance over at the male who's still silent and...I kind of...understand. Maybe he's not talking because if he deigns to acknowledge this is real enough to discuss, he'll go crazy.

Maybe I'll go crazy, too.

If I already am, it'd explain quite a bit.

"So you're from Oregon?" Mia's voice cuts through my thoughts. "Always wanted to visit. The forests over there look amazing. Love Wisconsin's too, of course, but...actually I want to try to visit every forest."

I blink at her. "That's your goal...?"

That's.

So weirdly specific.

She doesn't seem ashamed. "Mm. Planning to take a trip up to that rainforest in Washington, too. Oregon's got some too right?"

It's my turn to shrug.

It's not like I'm unaware of our beautiful forests and logging industry or whatever but...

That's just one of those many things I didn't find worth my time.

"I guess?"

I finally lean back against that wall nearest to me. Standing around feels awkward, but laying down and sitting is uncomfortable.

The metal of the wall feels cool to the touch, but there's a faint humming vibration just barely detectable inside it. Perhaps some kind of engine in the distance. It's the only sign that I might not just be stuck in some metal box in a parking lot for some kind of sick Youtube prank.

"Sounds like a lot of traveling."

I stare down at the ground because...

Where else do you look in the dark?

Mia moves to lean against the wall next to me. From this close, I can see she has some kind of Skate sneakers on. It's impossible to decipher the colors or details but...

Something so familiar and normal is a welcome comfort in this crazy place.

"That's only the start!" Mia says with enthusiasm I can't hope to match. "I love traveling and there's so many forests in the world to see! And greenery! Really any kind of lush greenery is something I adore. Maybe after I'm done with our planet's forests I'll go see other planets forests!"

She laughs then. "Or I'll stick to being a forest ranger or something fun. Depends if these guys like me."

I give a small smile at her...big goals.

I don't think it's very convincing but. It's also dark, so I'm sure it's fine. "Don't care for traveling. Always makes me sick and I end up wanting to go home as soon as I get anywhere."

"Well. Soon as we get back I'll have to come find you and convince you otherwise." She smiles back, and I'm not sure if she actually believes that or if she's just way better at fake smiles than me, but it looks way more real than mine felt. "So. It was daylight for you too, right? Was anyone around?"

"I was...walking. Home from the bus stop. No one was there."

"Then you might even get back before anyone knows you're gone." Mia nods, and leans her head back against the wall with a far more sardonic smile than before. "I was in a parking lot. Guess my parents will believe my uncle now."

"They were there?"

She hums. "A little while ahead."

"I'm not sure mine would notice even if they were looking when it happened. They'll...probably think I've wandered off somewhere."

They wouldn't be wrong to think so. I'd been planning just that, after all.

"Maybe that's best? That way they don't have to worry and you have less to worry about, too."

I shrug once more. My parents...

They can be pretty oblivious. Especially if it's inconvenient to notice something.

Maybe if it happened right in front of them like with Mia they'd be forced to acknowledge it, but I'm sure they'll wait several hours yet before they even start to worry about it when they don't see me home on time.

It's just how they are.

"I'm nineteen, by the way." Mia leans forward, closer to my face, as if trying to guess my age just by looking. "How about you?"

"Seventeen."

...That's the first time I've said that without spending half a second thinking 'sixteen' first.

Man.

What a waste of a time to be used to my age.

She smiles and nods in a knowing sort of way, as if she'd really guessed it by looking. "Well. Let's stick together then. We'll be like glue until we make it out of here, and then we can be abductee friends when we get back!"

That man on the far wall makes a sound that might be a scoff.

Mia whips her head toward him. "What, now you want to talk?"

Before he can respond even if he might want to, the wall between our two groups splits open.

Blinding blue light pours into our little cavity. Three of those tall gray men walk into the room, features obscured by their own shadow.

Mia takes my hand, though I'm not sure if it's to calm me down her her.

Long fingers are ice cold as they wrap around my shoulder and yank me away from the wall and Mia.

I don't fight them.

I don't struggle at all.

It's hard to think now that they're here again.

But-

I'm not calm. Or weightless. Or numb.

I'm terrified.