"We shouldn’t get involved with him. The situation is already complicated as it is!" Leo heard a man’s voice hiss the words.

"I can’t just ignore this young man’s situation. I am going to wake him up, whether you like it or not Kando." Another voice, a woman’s this time. The second voice was clearer, as if it was closer to Leo.

"And what do you want to do? We don't know who he is. We don't know anything!" The first voice spoke again as Leo’s mind started to slowly dispel the fog that impaired his judgement.

As he started coming back to himself, Leo realized that there was no shaking of the cart, not even the noise you would expect from a busy morning in the subway. As the discussion between the two people seemed to end, so did Leo’s disorientation. With a startle he shot up from his cushioned seat and took in his surroundings.

“What the fuck…” Leo muttered under the breath caught on his throat.

No longer was he on the train cart, or even the subway system. Leo had suddenly found himself in some sort of theater, with red cushioned chairs organized in two blocks bisected by a main aisle. A number of people were present, but the place was eerily quiet, even for a theater with remarkable acoustics.

After a brief moment of shock, Leo stopped his gawking and turned to the couple who stood two paces away in the row of chairs immediately behind him. In the awkward silence that followed between the three of them, Leo couldn’t help but take a better look at the asian looking couple.

The man wore a checkered white and blue shirt with blue jean pants. His hair was greying and he had it combed all the way back. His face held an impassive harsh expression along with a pair of glasses held by a black string looping around the back of his neck.

While the man appeared to be in his late fifties, the woman seemed younger, but not by much. When Leo stood up he had startled the woman and she now stood beside the manwhile locking her right elbow in his arm. Although Leo didn’t have much presence of mind to pay them much attention in the few seconds that had passed, he was starting to piece together their encounter so far.

As his earlier surprise subsided Leo could feel his expression softening, and so did the woman’s. She had long black hair tied in a careful bun with two, seemingly intentional, strands of hair hanging on each side of her face. Her cheeks lifted tentatively in a friendly smile and Leo couldn’t help but be reminded of his grandma.

“I apologize if I startled you.” Leo attempted to open the conversation with diplomacy. “I was asleep and I didn’t expect to be… here.”

“We understand, young man.” The woman said as she let go of the man’s arm. “My name is Schimizo Aya and this here,” She gently patted the man beside her. “Is my husband Schimizo Kando.”

“My name is Leonard Hall. It’s a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Aya and Mr. Kando.” Leo finished with a gentle head bow as he thought the asian couple might appreciate.

To his surprise, when their eyes met again Aya’s smile had become a little strained while Kando was outright frowning his way. The moment passed all too quickly as Aya took reins of the conversation.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want Mr Hall, but would you mind sharing where you were before you found yourself here?” She asked politely.

“I was on the subway, on my way to a job interview on the other side of the city.”

“Did anything… unusual, happened during your journey?” Aya said with a little hesitation.

“Unusual?” Leo trailed off as he crossed his arms and replayed everything that had happened since he woke up this morning. “No, nothing that I can think of. The last thing I remember was falling asleep on the train cart and then… I was here.” Leo said with a show of hands.

Kando’s mask of disapproval and suspicion cracked as he looked dejectedly to his wife.

“It’s the same with everyone, dear.” He said as he placed a hand on Aya’s shoulders. “I don’t think we will find anything from the people here.”

“I think you are right, dear.” Aya said with a long sigh.

“What is happening?” Leo's question was met by two looks of frustration. “I understand that we are in the same situation, but you seem to have been here longer than me.”

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“Besides the obvious?” Kando asked with a tinge of irritation.

“Kando, dear, please be a little more understanding.” Aya lightly admonished her husband, who answered with a barely audible huff. Ignoring her husband’s antics, Aya turned to Leo as she started explaining what little she knew.

“We suspect this is a kidnapping. There is only one exit, that way.” Aya pointed to the back of the room where two steel double doors were closed shut. Two people stood beside it, but they didn’t seem to be doing anything else but looking at it.

“It’s closed and no one has been able to open it yet.” She continued. “It seems we were all placed here at the same time under the effects of some sleeping drug. People have been slowly waking up, but you have been asleep for a long time. You are the last to wake up, I think.”

“How long did I sleep for?” Leo asked with a frown. He had never considered himself to be a heavy sleeper.

“I… don’t know. I am sorry.” Aya answered with an unusual apprehension towards such innocuous question.

“It’s okay, I guess I should phrase it differently. How long have you been awake here?” Leo asked with a reassuring smile. He wasn’t sure where the apprehension from Aya came from, but he wanted to be clear he wasn’t upset.

“Well… That’s the issue.” Aya wrung her hands and fidget in place as she avoided answering. As Leo started to become worried about what could possibly put the woman in such a state, Kando interrupted.

“Oh, please Aya. Just tell him already.” Kando spoke to the ceiling and immediately turned to stare straight into Leo’s eyes. “Everyone’s electronics is gone. Computers, cellphones, all your trinkets and baubles. Even my wrist clock.” The last one Kando added with a sad look to his left wrist.

“You can be such an insensitive person, Kando.” Aya spoke with reproach in her voice as she turned to face her husband. “You know the young generation can be quite attached to their gadgets.”

Leo barely paid attention to Kando’s mumbled answer as he patted himself looking for his phone. When he failed to find it in any of his pockets, he opened his briefcase, which he found lying beside his feet. He took it to his lap and opened it, but the tablet that should have been there was gone as well.

“Well, that sucks… but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised if we are kidnapped.” Leo muttered under his breath.

‘Wait. Kidnapped? Am I one of the victims of the mysterious kidnappings…?’

“There is more, Mr Hall.” Kando’s voice interrupted Leo before he could continue that train of thought.

Pulled out of his musings, Leo turned to look at Kando. Satisfied with having the young man’s attention, Kando nodded and continued.

“We still don’t understand how this is possible, but the few people we have spoken so far have been from different places. Very different places.” Kando added the last part with an unnecessarily lower tone.

“What do you mean? Like different cities?” Leo asked, a little confused.

“Where were you before, Mr Hall?”

“Like I said, I was on the subway-”

“No. What country were you?”

“Country? We are in the UK.” Leo said with a scrunched eyebrow in confusion. “We are still in the UK, right?”

“We were in Tokyo.” Kando said, pointing to himself and Aya. “He was in Finland.” Leo followed Kando’s finger pointing to the blond man standing by the steel door. “And the man beside him was in the United States.” A tall and bald black man stood beside the blond guy from Finland at the door.

“But that’s impossible!” Leo blurted out. “We would have to be drugged for a day, maybe longer… and what would be the point of bringing us all here in the end? Just thinking about it sounds like something extremely difficult to pull off. Even considering-”

Leo’s rant was cut short by Aya's hand gently touching his arm.

“Don’t think too hard on it, dear. I am sure the authorities will have people to figure that out. Right now, we need to think how we can help ourselves.” Leo had turned to stare at the floor at some point during his rant, but when he lifted his face to look in the eyes of Aya, he felt that matronly warmth that reminded him of his grandma again. With a deep, calming breath, he pushed himself to gather his wits again.

“Thank you, Mrs Aya.” Leo said quietly as Aya removed her hand from his arm.

Leo sat down on his cushioned seat and fell deep in thought as he barely registered Aya admonishing Kando for his overdramatic explanation. Leo would have found it funny if he had paid it much attention as Kando snickered. An act that didn’t at all fit with the earlier facade the older man was putting.

Despite Aya’s words, Leo couldn’t help but overthink the situation they found themselves in. Everyone must have at some point, he merely considered himself a late starter. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much time to delve into it. An icy chill gripped his heart and his eyes shot forward to a lone pulpit standing in the center of the theater’s stage.

An amorphous blob of the deepest darkness suddenly appeared behind the wooden piece. Leo tried to stand and gasp, but he realized his muscles didn’t obey him. He was completely paralyzed with the exception of his eyes and eyelids. Everyone else seemed to be in the same predicament as he realized no one had moved a muscle, despite them all staring at the same fantastical phenomenon.

Slowly, painfully so, the amorphous blob of darkness started to coalesce in a vaguely human shape. The figure was draped in a dark mantle with a long cowl covering its face. After what seemed to be an eternity of suspended time, the figure moved its arms and placed them on the pulpit. Bony white fingers gripped the dark mahogany wood as the figure leaned forward slightly.

The figure spoke. The voice was like a whisper, but Leo heard it as if it was standing just beside him. He couldn’t help but shiver as all the hairs in his body stood even under the paralysis.

“Welcome, blessed children.”