He gasped. A cold sensation ran down the front side of his body. He noticed that he was laying on something. It was sturdy, almost stone like. He groaned as he stood up.
Looking back down, he saw that he was resting on a marbled floor. It was clear white, tiles that seemed to spread all around him. It was definitely a floor.
The thing is, why did he wake up on the floor?
His head felt groggy, as expected of his usual feeling when waking from deep slumber. But his body was sore all over, as though he trained for a marathon right before going to sleep. He never did anything like that in his adult life.
His mind whirled as he took a look around. He should’ve been in his apartment’s room, resting on his twin-sized bed.
But he found himself in an entirely new place. The white tiled floor seemed to stretch on forever as he was somehow in the middle of a grand hallway fit for a castle. The walls were decorated with tapestries at separate intervals, the colors of gray, black and white being the main color scheme of the place.
The lamps in between each tapestry in the hallway gave off bright light behind rectangular-shaped glass. He saw through the light, but can’t make heads or tails of the source.
He stood up, realizing that he still wore his suit. Looking down, it was his ordinary gray suit jacket and pants with a dress shirt underneath, tied around with a black necktie that always strangled him at all hours. His dress shoes squeaked uncomfortably in his ears, especially as that was the only sound outside of his panicked breathing.
He patted his shirt, then the rest of his body to find that other than the soreness, he was completely fine.
He remembered now. During the night, he swore that after working a late night shift in his company’s office, he went straight to sleep without bothering to take off his clothes. He was forced to take on a senior’s workload due to him getting off early with no warning, and being the next guy in charge, he had to take it on himself.
He was so tired, considering that the senior didn’t even do a good job, so he kept ironing out the mistakes and only got out in the early hours of the morning before heading straight to bed. And that’s the thing; he was supposed to be in his bed.
So again–why is he here?
He never remembered taking any medicine before going to bed. Nor was he the type to have any recreational drugs for fun. He was always so tired from work, so he ended up just napping. Even then, he certainly would’ve remembered having strange dreams like this that felt so… vivid.
He walked towards the wall of the hallway, feeling the tile with his hand. It was cold, unlike his apartment’s walls.
It definitely feels real…
He shook his head.
That didn’t work. The hallway continued to exist in his head.
Did it exist? He can’t tell anymore. Having no other choice, he knocked on the wall. Hard.
It hurt. He hissed as he held his middle finger, the one that did the most knocking, along the rest of his fingers as pain coursed through the knuckles. Looking back at his whitish skin, he saw it reddening like usual.
Normally, pain would result in bringing himself back to the real world, right? But in the end, he was still there.
I definitely don’t want to test out by hitting my head… He shivered at the thought. He knew he wasn't the sort to hallucinate like this. He had enough problems as it is with his current lifestyle.
It’s not like he lived healthily, but he was certain that any problem that would come across would’ve been physical, like a broken back or even carpal tunnel from constantly typing on his keyboard, but this was an entirely different thing.
If anything, it felt like being in those castles in his usual video game sprees. But he never had dreams of playing those games while sleeping. If pain didn’t work, and he knew himself well enough that he wasn’t hallucinating… then what was going on?
He walked forward, his squeaking shoes annoying him greatly as it transcended beyond the hallway, reverberating throughout the silence. His footsteps soon bellowed out, beating the squeaking as he continued onward.
The corridors were big, almost gigantuan, like visiting a stadium. The ceiling was high, almost three stories up without any floors in between. Almost as if giants roamed the halls instead of mere humans.
He noticed there was a turn to the right in the next corner. It became L-shaped as he continued forward, but somehow he felt afraid of what he might find.
Would he find himself in some horror movie cliche where he would meet a monster that would end his life? His heart beat faster, the unknown mystery of his situation along with the possible danger that would soon come for him making it worse for his anxiety.
Soon, he slowly turned over, facing whatever it was that was about to appear.
Something bumped into him, causing him to make a very unmanly yelp.
“Aah!”
“Aaah!”
“Aaaah!”
Strangely, three voices echoed out, not just the one. Looking back, he saw two people cowering in front of him, kneeling down and hugging each other tightly.
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One was a young woman, possibly in her early twenties. Another was even younger, a literal child in her hands. She couldn’t be any older than nine or ten years old. And from the looks of it, they arrived here the same as he did in the same attire that they came with.
The young woman sported a T-shirt with a black tank top over it. Ripped jeans and toughened boots made it obvious she was traveling. Meanwhile, the little girl wore a simple yellow dress. Dark shorts shown underneath with crocks for footwear.
The man couldn’t even say anything, just stunned by what he saw. It’s one thing to be trapped here in a strange dream, but it’s another to meet someone else who was possibly in the same situation. But before he could say anything, the young woman quickly wrapped her arms around the child, screaming.
“Please, let us go!” She shouted at the man, her eyes beginning to tear up. “Please! If not, then at least my little sister go!”
“S-Sissy…!” The little girl cried out, her eyes beginning to tear up the same way.
The man panicked, his eyes widening. They thought he was responsible for taking them? Somehow that was worse than being taken away by himself. He held his hands up.
“W-Wait! You’re making a mistake. I’m not doing any of this!” He shouted, trying to back away at the same time. The worst he can do is appearing to be threatening. “I don’t even know where I am!”
“What?”
That got the young woman’s attention, squinting at the man now through her long brown hair. She had bangs covering the majority of her forehead, but her brown eyes were almost piercing him.
“I swear, it’s true!” The man pleaded, placing his hands over his chest. “Please believe me when I say that I literally just woke up a few minutes ago.”
“That’s the same as us…” The woman said, her tone trailing off to sound dampened.
The man could only let out a breath of relief. As long as the woman doesn’t see him as a kidnapper of some kind, they can figure out a way out of here. Or rather, find out how on earth they managed to find themselves here.
He glanced at the little girl, noticing that she was staring hard at him. It didn’t seem out of fear, but he wouldn’t put past a little girl being afraid of a strange man.
He can understand why these two would be kidnapped. They live in a horrible world where young women can get taken away and be forced into horrible situations, including children. but he was more confused as to why he, a single man in his twenties, was also taken.
He didn’t even have cash to take from, much less any valuables. Other than that, only his life has any worth.
Then he realized that the young woman was still clutching onto the little girl on the floor. She seemed utterly confused and lost as she thought about what to do.
He held out his hand to her. “A-Anyways, let me help you up. Better to think on your feet than on the floor.”
“Y-Yeah…” The young woman realized it herself, looking a bit embarrassed as she took the man’s hand. She held her sister’s torso, unwilling to let her go despite it all.
The man nodded as he met her face to face. “I’m not sure what’s going on here, but at least let’s make a truce for now. My name’s Zeke. Zeke Parlow. What’s yours?”
“M-My name’s Mikella Ashton,” The young woman replied, then glanced at the little girl she hugged in her arms. “This is Clara, my little sister.”
The young girl, Clara, only stared at him. She tried to hide herself behind her sister, trying her hardest to be unseen by him.
“Umm…” The woman, Mikella, uttered. “Did you happen to see anybody else here? Perhaps the one in charge…?”
“No,” Zeke shook his head. The young woman instantly wilted after he answered. He would be too if he asked too. “Like I said–I just woke up after that turn over there. On the floor even…”
“That’s the same as us,” Mikella’s tone dampened further, somehow. “All of a sudden, I found myself on the floor sleeping with Clara on my side. My body felt so sore too…do you remember what happened before you came here?”
“All I know is that I was sleeping on my bed after working overtime. I even slept in my suit–and you?”
“We were taking a subway to another city at the time,” Mikella explained, putting her hand on Clara for comfort. She still refused to see him eye to eye. He didn’t mind as the woman continued. “We were sleeping since it was a long run… but now we’re here.”
Mikella took a glance around again, noticing the great estate of the building. He remembered seeing one of those documentaries about long-lived castles from medieval times. One of the tours showed some hallways that looked exactly like this.
But none of them looked this clean, almost disturbingly so. It felt off, like not of this world.
“So… we weren’t kidnapped,” Zeke mentioned, rubbing his chin. “And so far, we only found each other.”
“W-What do we do?” Mikella asked. Even if she did, Zeke couldn’t respond right away. “Who the hell could have taken us from where we were? We were on a train for god’s sake.”
She was right on that. That didn’t make sense at all. There was no way that anyone could just take a young woman and child from a running train even if she fell asleep. The only reason why she could is possibly due to other people being on the train.
So unless everyone turned a blind eye to some strange kidnapper that took the two sisters away, it was impossible to suddenly be taken to some strange castle, possibly even out of the country.
“Sissy… I’m scared…” The little girl said, tears beginning to well. Mikella shushed her softly, kneeling down to her level.
“I know. Don’t worry; we’ll be home soon.” The young woman replied to her ear. Zeke knows that she’s just trying to console the poor girl, but he had a strong doubt that was the case.
Still, seeing this, how could he just leave the girls alone like this? Even if he didn’t have any sort of combat experience, the least he could do is help these two find a way out of here. If he were by himself, he would probably be too scared stiff and trying to find answers to his multiple questions.
But right now, what’s important is to at least help the woman and child. He didn’t know them at all, but he knew that he would regret it if he left them be.
“Umm… I may not know my place around here, but I think we should stay together till we find someone that can help us. How about it?”
He asked Mikella, the only one capable of giving consent. She turned back at him with a doubtful stare. He almost faltered at that. He hoped that she didn’t think he was trying to take advantage of her in this situation.
He couldn’t even think of anything strange at the moment. Sure, the young woman was pretty to look at, but right now their safety wasn't even assured.
“I promise to stay a few feet away if it makes you uncomfortable,” The man first said, raising his hands to help console her. But Mikella shook her head.
“No, you’re right,” She said, looking at him now in earnest. “Sorry. I know you’re just trying to help. I think that’s a good idea.”
Zeke nodded in understanding. “Alright. Then, for now, will you follow my lead?” He turned to the side, noticing another hallway that they apparently came from. In another few feet, they saw another turn way beyond. “This way, whatever happens, everything will start from the front. You can take care of your little sister all the while. If something happens, you run. Is that okay with you?”
Mikella nodded in agreement. Zeke didn’t mind at all to be a target for some weirdo. After all, the first thing on anyone’s mind is to bring the child away from danger.
If he could use his body to protect the child, what would be a better way to go? Not that he would consider dying as a first choice. If he could, he would run too–once the girls get away in time. He wasn’t so brave as to die for someone he doesn’t even know.
With that, the impromptu group of a man, a woman, and a child headed towards the corner to explore the castle to find people–or at least, a way out of here.