Nathan's eyes fluttered open, still heavy with the remnants of sleep. At first, he didn't notice anything amiss in the familiar act of waking up. Yet, as his gaze drifted to the ceiling above, a sense of uneasiness began bubbling up his consciousness.

The ceiling was stark white, deviod of the familiar hexagonal patterns that adorned his own bedroom ceiling. As he blinked away the remnants of sleep, his gaze wandered further, taking in the bare white walls that lacked the familiar figurines of okabe and shiina, which usually adorned his room. Absent, too, was his well-loved desk, adorned with it's flashing keyboard and the latest and greatest hardware available to a 12 year old with an admittedly low budget. The absence of the humming CPUs only added to the disconcerting emptiness of the unfamiliar place he now found himself in.

A sinking feeling settled in the pit of his stomach as he realised he wasn't in his own room. The bed beneath him felt too large, the sheets unfamiliar against his skin. Nathan pushed himself upright, the weight of uncertainty pressing down on him.

Panic began to claw at the edges of his mind as he tried to piece back together how he had ended up in this strange place. The image of his familiar surroundings, the comforting embrace of his chair as he watched Eren choose the worst possible plan to fulfill his dreams. He recalled the frustrated attempts at differential calculus. With a sigh of defeat, he had given up and given in to the embrace of sleep.

But how had he gone from the warmth of his bed to this unfamiliar white walled room?

With a trembling voice, Nathan called out to his mother and father, the words trembling on his lips as he slowly made his way out of the room and down the stairs. Each step felt unnaturally silent, the absence of familiar sounds amplifying his growing sense of unease.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

"No response," he muttered to himself, his voice wavering with uncertainty. "This.. This isn't funny if it is some kind of prank."

But still, there was no reply, no sign of his parents or any other presence in the house. As he descended the stairs, he couldn't shake the feeling of deja vu that washed over him. The structure of the house seemed oddly reminiscent of the the cliched houses he had seen in animes, with it's quaint layouts and sterile cleanliness. However, in his state of disorientation, he failed to recognize the significance of this similarity.

As he reached downstairs, the scent of fish and rice wafted through his nose, drawing him towards the door at the end of the hallway. Summoning his courage he pushed open the door and stepped inside, his eyes widening in suprise at the sight before him. In the room, he was met with the peculiar sight of two unfamiliar figures. The first was a japanese woman, her expression blank as she ate her steaming hot rice, her movements almost seeming robotic. Beside her sat another person, their attention fully absorbed by the newspaper spread out before them. A piece of fish sat untouched on their plate, signifying their sheer focus of the words on the page. The scene was eerie, their lack of reaction leaving Nathan unsettled.

"Hello?," Nathan called out, but still, there was no reaction. With frustation plain on his face, he approached the woman and gently tugged on her sleeve.

"Ma'am, where am I?"

But, with it's growing familiarity, there was still a stone cold silence in the room.

Feeling a surge of fear, Nathan tore himself away from the unresponsive figures and feld from the room, his heart pounding with each frantic step. As he rushed through the unfamiliar corridors of the house, his mind was filled with confusion and fear at how he had reached this situation.

But it was when he stumbled upon the open door of a bathroom and caught sight of his reflection in the mirror that the true horror of the situation dawned on him. Staring back at him was not the familiar face he knew, but the face of a stranger.