He stood there in shock, staring blindly at the words in front of him. He could feel his body’s control returning to him as his legs started shaking, but his right hand, with the marker tight in its grasp, did not budge at the movement of the other body parts, staying eerily still as if it is not a part of his body.

“What?” He felt his mouth loosened to make the sound of the word.

The marker proceeded to circle the “FRIEND” part.

“Who are you?” He asked tentatively, staring at the marker. Maybe he was indeed losing it, resorting to asking a marker.

The marker yet again circled the “FRIEND” part.

“Oh. Right.” He was losing it, it seemed. Somehow he was starting to believe in the marker in his hand.

“So, do you know anything about this place?” He asked the marker.

I CAN BRING YOU OUT OF HERE

“How?” He questioned, unable to hide the excitement in his voice.

PUSH HERE

The marker wrote these words on a spot on the wall.

Without hesitation, he immediately pushed the spot. The wall in which he pushed craved in at his touch, and all of a sudden, the wall beneath the opening started to shift around, finally taking the shape of a set of stairs.

“I’ll go up here?” He asked the marker. The marker replied to him with a buzz. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

He carefully stepped onto the stairs, shifted his weight over, then ran up as soon as he was certain that the stairs would not crash under his weight.

As he reached the height of the opening, he could finally see what’s in there, which is nothing. It was nothing but a long and narrow corridor with white blank walls surrounding it. But maybe, he thought, he would be able to find the exit as he reached the end of this corridor.

Cheering up himself with the thought of leaving, with the marker grasp tightly in his hand, he started to walk through the corridor.

There was nothing at first. The walls were still blank as always, and the white colour is starting to become irritating to his eyes. But then, as he turned to the right along the corridor, everything suddenly changed.

He was still in that corridor, but at the same time, he felt like he was in many different places. He was at a park, smiling as children holding balloons passed by; he was at the side of a table, standing solemnly as people talked with a serious tone in languages he cannot comprehend; he was on the ocean, with only the blue sky and the blue water accompanying him; he was in a closet, watching as people tried to muffle their voices while loud footsteps can be heard clearly outside of the closet.

And the buzz in his hand brought him back to the corridor he was standing on.

“What is that?” He gasped as he tried to regain himself. He looked up onto the walls of the corridor. There seemed to be multiple screens embedded into them. Each screen, around the size of an A4 paper, featured different locations of the world, all ongoing scenes with people walking around, chatting, shouting, or even hundreds screaming together, but as if the volume was switched to mute, nothing could be heard in the silent corridor.

Uncontrollably, he let out a small voice while rubbing his fingers next to his ears. Luckily, his ears were still functioning.

“What is that?” He once again asked, this time looking pointedly to the marker in his hand.

DIFFERENT WORLDS

DON’T WORRY ABOUT THEM

JUST GO ON

The marker wrote on the floor. There was no longer enough space on the walls to write on them.

Reading the words written by the marker, he nodded as he stood up, once again walking forwards, this time at a much quicker pace. He wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible.

The journey seemed to be endless. By the time he once saw the familiar white walls, he almost cried out tears of relief. While his consciousness told him it was not that long a route, he couldn’t stand staying in there another second.

Breathing in and out to calm his nerves, he gathered himself as he sat down on the floor, leaning his back against the white walls.

“Is it going to be like that for the whole route?”

THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES TO GO BACK TO YOUR REALITY

Reading the answer the marker gave, he sighed. Seems that there's no easier way to escape this place.

Standing back up, he gave himself a small cheer before grasping the marker in his hand and entering the chamber at the end of the corridor.

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Nothing was there at first. The white walls look the same as ever, and the only opening of the round chamber is the one he came from.

Then, all of a sudden, a loud screeching sound emitted from the room, and the size of the opening shrank quickly, shutting the chamber completely.

Alarmed, he tried to squeeze out of the chamber before it was too late, but the shrinking of the opening was too quick for him. Unsure and nervous of what would be happening, he slowly surveyed the room. Just the same white walls like the cube, except that this chamber was much more rounded.

“Hello.” A voice rang in the room. Mixed out of multiple voices, including male, female, children and elderly, the voice was muffled yet loud enough to be heard, albeit a bit shrill and unsettling.

“Who's there?” He demanded while clutching the marker tighter. The sudden introduction of somebody else in places he cannot see frightened him.

“Here.” The voice rang out again on his right, but as he turned around, nothing can be seen.

“Who are you? Show yourself!” The extreme fear he was feeling lead to a boost of courage in him, or maybe it was the safety he felt from the marker in his hand.

“I am here, just in your hand.”

Narrowing his eyes, he looked down. There was nothing but the marker in his right hand.

“I mean it, I am here. I am the marker.” The marker moved as it spoke out.

At this revelation, he almost dropped down the marker, before remembering he couldn't exactly do that since the marker was controlling his right hand.

“You can speak?” He exclaimed out. A marker that can control one's movements seems supernatural enough, but a talking marker was another thing. Or maybe it wasn't. A talking marker made much more sense than one that can control your movements.

“Do you seriously think I am really just a marker?” The marker said teasingly, “Children know better than believing in living markers.”

“Well, this place alone is out of my imagination, I feel like everything can happen here,” He replied, giving an embarrassed laugh, “But if you are not a marker, who are you?”

“Somebody from an organisation aiming to rescue those who falls into supernatural situations. You don't need to know anything else, knowing more means more danger in this world.”

“Then why are you only able to speak just now? You do know a talking marker is much more acceptable than one that controls you?”

“Of course. But the problem here is, I couldn't actually speak through the marker when you were still lost in the cube. However, now you are a few steps closer to reality, I can finally use a much better way to talk with you.”

“So I did made a process in going back home, did I?”

“Definitely, I will guide you out of here and you will be back home in no time. Now walk over to the wall and knock on it three times. It will open.”

Following the marker's command, he knocked on the wall. Just as it stated, an opening suddenly appeared from the spot he knocked on.

He walked out of the chamber from the opening. This time, rather than being plain white, a spiral of colours were splashed upon the walls. He took that as a good sign.

As he walked on, the marker spoke out again, “Be careful, you will be going through different worlds again, and while the scenarios might be stranger, they will be a lot less in amount and you should be able to pass through in a shorter time. Now go on.”

Gulping, he glimpse at the walls in front of him before breaking into a run. Even if he shut his eyes, the scenes were still pouring into his mind, but he urged his legs to run on no matter what he saw.

Sometimes, he was in an aquarium, with an elephant floating in the water. Sometimes, he was holding a monkey's paw, where rapid knockings seemed to echo around the room. Sometimes, he saw a mirror in front of him, and the image of himself moved transformed into another person's face. He ran forward, not caring what he saw, not caring if there were anything in front of him.

Finally, with a screech of a siren in his ears, the world turned back to normal. He leaned on the wall as he regained his breath.

“Congratulations, you made it.” The marker said to him.

“That was indeed better than the last,” He replied, still panting, “Now, where should I head to?”

In front of him, for the first time, were two roads, one to the left and the other to the right.

“To the left.” The marker replied. As he looked up, he saw that the walls on the left were colorful, while the ones on the right were plain white.

“Sorry, can I rest for a minute?” He asked as he kneeled down at the foot of the left corridor. Receiving a yes from the marker, he shut his eyes and rest for a while.

When he opened his eyes again, he realise that there were a few tiny words written on the wall, just about as high as his eye level.

“Don't head forward. Go back. To the right.” He read out under his breath.

“What?” The marker asked.

“There are a few words written here. Were there somebody else that came through this path before?”

“What words?” The marker replied, as distorted as ever, but he felt like he could hear a slight nervousness out of it.

“Just saying that we should be taking the right route,” he replied, “Are you sure that you didn't mess up the directions?”

“Absolutely sure about it. Maybe those words are left by the one behind this whole scene to lure others into the right route. Get up and start walking then, you are almost there.”

He stood up, feeling a bit dizzy. The rapid running had surely affected him, he thought.

Walking on wobbly, he blinked the black spots out of his vision, as he breathed in quickly, eager to take in more air to fight the unsettling feeling in his stomach.

“Here is the last chamber. You've done a great job.” The marker said as he stepped inside a room. The chamber is made out of a large and continuous piece of wall, where bright colours splattered around it, spiralling into different strange patterns.

Relieved, he felt his legs gave out, as he fell onto the ground. The murkiness of his brain grew ever stronger, and ringing started to sound in his ears, while his mind could no longer think straightly.

Maybe running this long without any food and water is too much for him, a much-too rational voice for his current state told him.

“Go through that door,” The marker commanded.

He obeyed, collecting himself from the floor and moving slowly towards the door. Black and heavy-looking, the door looked nothing like the cube or corridor he saw before. Like a trapdoor keeping something in, his mind commented on the first-ever door he saw since entering the cube.

Contrary to its looks, when he pushed the door softly, it swung wide open at his touch. Black was all that was behind the door, black that covered everything else.

Slowly walking in, he plunged into the darkness, with dripping sounds of water around him, until he heard a loud “bang” from the door.

Then, all the lights in the room were on.

At this last moment, a flash of thought went through his mind. Maybe he should have taken the right route.

He saw layers of gigantic blood-stained teeth in front of him, and a great drop of water dripped down from above.