A plain white world.

A horizon of nothingness no matter where Callum looks.

"A...dream?"

He particularly felt ethereal, as if he exists in the middle between imagination and reality. He had no sense of touch here, but his sight seems to be working fine. Callum slapped himself a couple of times to wake himself up, but to no avail. Suddenly, he felt his hair stand on edge. Goosebumps appear on his body. Fear. Its source is emanating behind him. A quick turn reveals nothing, but he could feel its aura coming from that direction. No other choice.

It felt like an eternity. Walking towards the source of the aura seemed never-ending, the distance ever increasing. The closer he gets, the further it seems. Callum felt exhausted to continue. He bent down as he pant, but realizes that he emitted no sound. In fact, the whole time, there was no sound of footsteps, no sound of clothes ruffling, nothing. He looks down by instinct when he notices something else. He felt shorter. Younger. Weaker.

Noticed?

As if on cue, the voice read his mind. But he already IS in his mind, so why hasn't he seen it?

Continue. There is no point hesitating.

Callum felt that the voice was mocking him. He wants to show it that he will find out. Just as he took the step forward, he tumbles. What was once a flat plane became a stairwell to darkness. He tried to scream.

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Bright lights blind the boy as he wakes up. He could hear people crying, but he doesn't know anything. He felt like he was being lifted by something, before he was embraced by someone. He felt trapped. Cocooned. He could barely move. With no other option, he cries. As he did, the crying of the others stopped. He felt their gazes. The person holding him transferred him to the arms of another woman. This time, he felt warm. As he tries to look at the face, the bright lights blind him from seeing the face. That didn't stop him from seeing that there were 2 there. One was definitely a man, the other a woman. As the boy squinted, he was taken aback. The faces are blurred out. A black swirl masks their faces, before consuming the boy himself.

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The boy wakes up. This time, he felt the freedom of movement that was taken away from him previously. However, he still felt like small and weak. He looks around and notices that he is in a room, its walls painted pale white. The furniture blends in with the white walls. The only source of color seem to be the beds. The boy felt around and remembered the bed he was sleeping on. On the other side of the room, there was another bed, a blanket concealing the person in it. Again, as if on cue, the figure shifted, before rising and dropping the blanket. The person looked like the boy's age, but the long and silky hair suggest that it wasn't a boy. As the figure turns around, the boy's eyes widen in fear. The face is blurred out, the same black swirl censoring her face. Again, the black swirl jumps to the boy, consuming him.

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Done already?

Callum wakes up in the room he recognizes as his home in the Sanctuary. He looks around before staring out at the window. Its still dark out. He sighs. He turned on the lights and sees his mattress covered with sweat stains and a particularly pungent smell around the area where his privates lay. Realizing what it is, he quickly removed the sheets and tossed them into a basket nearby, where his clothing from his most recent outing also lay. He then sat down on the mattress, wondering what to do now. He lets his mind wander, trying to get his alter-ego to come out. Before he knew it, dawn breaks.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

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Callum is now in a laundromat. His apartment couldn't afford a washing machine, and he doesn't know how to wash his clothes by hand, so he decided to shell out some cash for the laundromat to do the work. An expense like this changes how much he could spend on other needs like food and gear, especially after the previous time where his knife and other gear went missing when he woke up, and without any leads on who stole it, meant that he has to go adventuring without a sense of safety. He sighs at this thought. As he does, the doors to the laundromat opens, and a woman Callum recognizes enter with a trash bag full of laundry. Her blonde hair with pink highlights caught the eye of the young man, clearly awestruck at her beauty now that he had a good look at her face.

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Angie felt the gaze of a young man as she entered the laundromat. Wanting to be as far away from weird perverts like him, she went to the other end of the laundromat, where she quickly deposited both hers and Anna's laundry in the machine. When she's done, she scans the place for any seats away from the young man, but there wasn't any. The only seating area provided was where the man is, and she isn't in the mood to deal with perverts. Not after yesterday. However, something caught her attention. As she focused on the man, something clicked in her head. She recalls a talk she had with Anna when she woke up at the hospital yesterday.

"So who saved you?"

"I'm unsure, but his hair was particularly, like, crazy, y'know. Like those anime protags."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Like, they had a crazy style and color! It was eye-catching, that neon green!"

"Pretty sure that crash had hit your head, huh?"

"I'm serious! He effortlessly opened the hatch by force!"

"Now now, she needs her rest. You can visit her tomorrow, dear." A nurse interrupted.

Coming back to the present, she thinks about the young man in front of her.

His hair matches the description, but seriously? Him? He looks scrawny as fuck!

She quickly left to tell Anna about him.

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"She just straight up left."

Disappointed at his cowardice, Callum slumped in his seat.

"Maybe I scared her off."

"My, you shouldn't be scaring off people like that."

Callum was startled at the voice. He looks at the source, to find a man sitting like a boss on the row of seats, his arms stretched to occupy his adjacent seats. Callum never noticed him there the whole time. For someone as flashy as him, to go unnoticed is simply impossible.

"Who are you?" He asks the man.

"Is it important?"

"No shit, Sherlock."

"That ain't my name."

"Do I care?"

"You did ask."

The man noticed Callum mouth "Fuck" as he smiles slyly. He stood up from his seat and pulled out a document from his black leather jacket and handed it to Callum.

"What's this?"

"Recruitment papers."

"Why?"

"You never watched last night's news?"

"I don't have a TV."

"Want to afford one?"

Callum pondered about the question. Having financial security was a goal he had set himself when he arrived here, and those words suggest that the job pays well. The only concern was that its essentially selling his soul for the military. He tears apart the paper.

"I'll take that as a 'No'."

"I'm not interested in being a dog for the military."

"Harsh."

"You barely look like a soldier as well."

"I am a pilot after all. A high-ranking one, to be exact."

"Then you should be enough."

"Not enough for him, however."

"Huh?"

"Ah. Slip of the tongue. In my world, speech is silver, but silence is golden."

"What the fuck are you on."

"This won't be our last encounter, I'm afraid. You interest me, after all."

"Huh?"

"May destiny let us cross paths again, Callum."

"HUH?"

With that, the laundromat went quiet of human noise. The rumbling of the washing machines can now be heard again. Callum stood there, trying to comprehend his conversation with that man.

He seems familiar...

Callum had no reason to be shocked at the sudden voice in his head. There are enough surprises for this morning.

You know him?

Silence.

He decided to shrug this morning off. He couldn't be bothered to think much of it right now. He sat back down to wait for his laundry to finish.