Shock, I think shock was the right word to describe how I felt right now.

Everything happened so fast, and I still don't understand what happened. I don't know what to do from here either. Hell I'm not even sure if I'm awake or just having some weird twisted dream. That thought finally led me to move for the first time since space crumbled around me. I lifted my hand up, pulled it back, and slapped myself in the face.

"..."

Well that hurt, a lot, why didn't i just pinch myself like a normal person who thinks they're in a dream? Actually, that's not what's important right now right? The fact that I felt the slap meant...

"It's not a dream."

A murmur escaped my lips. That doesn't make any sense. Since when does air just 'shatter'?

I remained bogged down by useless thoughts like these for a few seconds but the slap had helped me come to myself somewhat. Then productive thoughts finally started to enter my head. First of which was 'I need to find out what's going on, or at least focus on what's around me'.

Finally my eyes cleared, and the first thing I saw was an unfamiliar ceiling. The ceiling in the commons was flat with one skylight and a lot of those long fluorescent lights. However the ceiling I saw now had no light coming from it at all. It was a vaulted ceiling that was a murky gray. It arched so high that the peak was lost to the shadows. Then where was the light I was using to see coming from?

I lifted my head up and looked around. The same murky gray for the walls. Ah, the light was coming from small floating orbs of light. They were purple for some reason. As I looked around more things came into view, however the orbs were the only source of light I could see. There were no windows to be found.

Luckily some familiar things did enter my vision. People. Specifically I saw all three members of my group. We were still sitting at the same table (well Ms. Perfect was underneath it though). Each of them was reacting differently to the situation. Ms. Perfect looked out nervously from under the table as though expecting the roof to collapse on her at any second. May was looking around tiredly in a daze, it didn't look like she'd had the time to process what was going on after being woken up so abruptly. And Julian...

'SMACK'

"Fuck! That hurt!"

... We really are birds of a feather sometimes, especially in our stupidity.

My group members weren't the only ones here either, I think the same people who were around us in the commons were all here as well. At least I recognized a few of them I knew and one or two who I watched silently scream a little earlier. Most people were still in shock, but the stronger willed ones were already moving around. Some people were already murmuring or talking to each other in quiet voices, fear and panic evident on most of their faces. A small burbling of murmurs filled the room instead of the expected outright panic.

"What! The!! FUCK!"

When suddenly someone yelled loud enough for the whole room to hear. I, like everyone else, looked at the explosion of sound in this dim room and saw someone I knew. Bobby Grant; Senior, head of the football team, obsessed with training, all around asshole. He was famous on campus for his 'outbursts'. Most people think the only reason he hasn't been kicked out is because the coach of the football team pulled some strings to prevent the administration from taking away his star player.

Currently Bobby was walking around with a red face and shaking shoulders, talking into space.

"What kind of cheap joke is this! Whoever is fucking with me better fess up right now if they wanna fuckin walk on their own legs tomorrow. I have an important game tomorrow! I don't need this kind of shit!"

He was yelling so loud that my ears hurt. If there was one good thing about his antics, it was that everyone who hadn't recovered till now looked like they had finally come to.

"Hey Tony?"

That included May who looked at me curiously.

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"Am I being pranked?"

'Pfft"

I snickered. If this was a prank then I'm REALLY impressed, but my common sense was telling me that this was definitely not a prank. However, May's innocent question and confused face were just cute enough to make me smile even in this situation.

My reaction made her puff up her cheeks and look at me with an insulted look.

"Don't laugh at meeee. Are you the one who moved me here while I was napping Tony? You shouldn't joke like this with your teammates."

"No May I didn't move you here, didn't you see the air... crack?"

I questioned her, I'd be shocked if she'd been oblivious to all of it.

"That wasn't my imagination? Or a dream?"

"No, I'm pretty sure we all saw that. You saw it too, right Julian?"

I turned to Julian and saw he had a look of suspicion on his face with eyes that were narrowed while looking at me.

"Well, yeah I definitely saw that. But Tony, aren't you a little too calm about this?"

"Would you rather I yell at the ceiling like the king of anger management over there?"

A perfectly timed "Fuck!" accentuated my point. His eyes went back to their normal state and he let the corner of his mouth go up a tiny bit.

"I guess you have a point there."

To tell the truth, this was time for one of my only interesting features to show itself. I've always been extremely good at adapting to situations as they arise. I even put it as a positive in my cover letters when applying for jobs. The fact that I was sleep deprived might also be playing a role, but right now I knew that panicking wouldn't get me anywhere, so I was staying calm and trying to keep the others around me calm as well.

"Well Tony, since you're so calm, do you know what's going on?"

Kristen asked as she finally stood up after crawling out from under the table.

"Nope!"

"..."

Well, being level headed only gets you so far. Doesn't mean that I'm going to suddenly figure out what just happened or where we were magically without any information. I steadily got up with that thought in mind and told the others

"So we should get up and figure out what we can. Sitting here isn't getting us anywhere."

"Fair enough." "Agreed." "..."

Kristen and Julian agreed readily, and May just nodded her head lightly. They all got up from their seats as well.

I looked around the room again to get more detail now that I was focused. The room was as large as the commons we came from. The walls looked to be made of stone on closer inspection, and the floor was the same. The pieces of stone were smooth and well fitted to the point that I could barely make out the lines between them.

The furniture and objects that were in the commons all came with us. Tables, chairs, laptops, the condiment bar, trash cans, it was like all the objects in the room had shown up here with us. At this point I was assuming we had moved elsewhere as other options didn't seem plausible.

Not that any of this made sense anyways, but it at least didn't seem like the commons transformed and more like we were in a new space entirely.

The only interesting feature about the room itself besides the mysteriously floating orbs was a door. the door looked like something out of a fairy tale. Made of wood, the double door had delicate engravings all over it in mystical patterns. There wasn't any discernible object but the patterns themselves were very pleasing to look at. The door was also massive, sitting at least 10 feet tall and too wide to reach both sides with your two hands at the same time. The people who were moving around had already started huddling around the door and I decided to head over as well.

When I arrived at the back of the crowd I noticed that no one was approaching the door. Just as I was about to ask someone why, the loudmouth showed up.

"What are all of you idiots standing around for! If you're just going to stand there, move out of the way and let me through! You idiots can't even open a..... Huh?"

As he reached the door he made a dumb expression as he saw what the others had already noticed.

The door didn't have a handle.

"Wait, so does this mean there's no way out?"

For the first time, Bobby's anger subsided and a look of anxiety crept onto his face.

"Hey guys this is going too far don't you think? I'm not mad, honestly, so can whoever is messing with us please just let us out?"

He looked around the crowd, his growing fear creeping into his voice as he looked around and saw that no one was smiling at the supposed prank.

"... Then, is this actually happening?"

This started people getting anxious again. Everyone started whispering. Some spoke loud enough to hear.

"What's going on?"

"Is this some kind of terrorist attack? Are we all prisoners?"

"Oh God."

"Are we dead? Is this the afterlife? Was that a bomb going off earlier?"

As the panic started reaching a crescendo and everyone started to make wild guesses on our situation, suddenly we all heard a loud 'click', and everyone went quiet.

With a loud thunk, the door behind Bobby started to open, accompanied by a swooshing sound of wind and a bright light shining through the crack.