Where is the world when you close your eyes? Does the world pause? Does it disappear? For me, it does… 

Hi, my name is Davis. I was what I thought of as an ordinary person. At almost 6 feet tall, with sandy-blond hair and a blue washed-out color for my eyes, I never particularly stood out. That is, until one day, I woke up in my room to be surrounded by crying family.

"Ugh, that was a long shift last night. Maybe I should sleep longer; actually, now that I think about it, why is it so quiet in my room? I usually have a fan going." Opening my eyes, I was assaulted not only by light but also by sound, and what was revealed was one of my worst nightmares: my room in utter chaos. Books were thrown on the ground, and everything that had a home in a box or drawer was scattered on the floor, but what really drew my attention was the mess in the middle of the room.

There in a heap of tools, toys, and clothes were my sister, mom, and dad, but something was wrong; my mom had tears in her eyes. I blinked a few times, sitting up to try and understand if what I was seeing was real or still just a bad dream, but the image of my room and family didn't leave. 

Rubbing my eyes, I got a better look at the situation; my mom definitely had fresh tears on her face, but her cheeks were also stained red from what must have been crying. My dad had what looked like a combination of an angry and scared look on his face. Lastly, my sister looked distraught as she went through my old books, flipping through them as if looking for something.

I watched the scene for only a moment before deciding to ask what they were doing. "What's going on?"

My dad was the first to respond, and with a head turn and reaction time that would have beaten some of the best athletes, he turned and stared right at me; the rest did the same, and all had a similar ghostly look on their faces.

My mom was the first to break out of this weird starring contest and rushed over, pulling me into a hug tight enough that I thought my ribs would give out, and that is when the questions started pouring. "Where were you? Where did you go? I was so scared. Are you hurt?"

Not knowing what was happening, I closed my eyes as she slowly relented. I enjoyed the feeling of knowing my family cared for me.

"WHERE DID YOU GO?!?" ripped through the silence as my mom screamed in terror.

Still being held, I looked around, seeing everyone's eyes lock with mine. "I'm still right here. What do you mean?"

My dad looked thoughtful but walked over, tapping my mom on the shoulder until she released me from this bear hug she had me trapped in. "I think I see what is happening here, but just to be sure, can I see your palm?"

When he mentioned my hand, I looked down at it and saw something odd. There was something there on my skin, almost like a tattoo. The thing there was shaped like a curtain, semi-transparent light blue in color and waving in what was a nonexistent wind. "Wow," I said as I showed my dad.

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"So it is a scar," he said, looking sad, curious, and relieved before talking again. "Well, you know what happens now. Get ready so we can go."

My dad pulled everyone out of my room, leaving me staring at my hand. Eventually, reality set in enough for me to properly sit up the rest of the way and look around my room for something to wear. "It doesn't have to be fancy; it's not like this is the most important part of my life or anything." Before walking to the edge of my room, I chose a bright blue button-up shirt and a pair of shorts. I opened the door and looked back at the mess before closing the door behind me.

When I got out, my family was already in the car, so I locked the front door and looked around. The city we lived in was huge; most of the cities surrounding the towers were that way, but my family had it nice. We had a cushy two-floor house built in the Victorian style, which gave it an old-fashioned look. The house had a vibrant green lawn that my dad took care of meticulously. The houses around ours were cared for just as well, making the neighborhood feel safe and clean. I breathed in a long breath as I walked to the driveway and got in the car.

It was very uncharacteristic of our regular chaotic drives, but throughout the whole drive, everyone was silent. I wasn't too perturbed, as this gave me more time to think as I stared at my palm. "So, I have a scar? I never thought I would get one. I wonder what my ability will be?"

Through the window, I looked out into the city, seeing the giant screens that were ever present in our lives nowadays. Everyone had a phone in their pocket, but looking at the skyscrapers, you would see massive screens that always seemed to be talking about the tower in some way or another. My eyes locked with a screen showing the main force of scarred who were dedicated to getting out of the tower. Since the towers appeared 15 years ago, people have made it to World 22. Each floor, in this case, represents a whole new world, and today, they were fighting what looked like a gigantic minotaur.

These scarred had lighting, flame, and even ice abilities, and from the looks of the harrowed look of the monster, they were winning. I looked away from the screen and saw that a commentator was talking about the tower, and with a thought, the sound was connected to my earpiece, so I placed it in my ear to listen. "Even with all the advancements we now know, we still don't know who or why people become scarred, what is giving us a glimpse into the tower, or… even why the tower is here. But one thing is certain: the tower brings so much untouched knowledge and power that everyone should want in. Enough of that, though. In terms of yesterday's scarred, a young boy, age 12, named Thomas Gerald, and a lady, age 72, who asked not to be named, were chosen by the tower yesterday; the young boy said he would wait most of the 30 day period before going in, but the lady said she will be entering immediately since she has nothing to lose. Thank you all for joining us today for the Elris show, and join us tonight to hear us talk about the most powerful abilities."

I took the earpiece out and started thinking; it had been like this for so long; when the tower first appeared, of course, everyone was scared; what I heard happened was that almost every country entered some emergency, and their armies moved to surround and research the tower this occurred in every country around the globe and caused a wave of despair to roll across the world. Nobody was able to find anything out that was until a year later when the governments started releasing information about people who had begun to disappear when the tower appeared and drew a correlation to the tower, but that wasn't all, as their research had some fruit: they had found that the tower emitted waves of some kind that could be tapped into, these waves allowed us to see that the missing people were inside the tower and what was inside was a new world.