Dean awoke to darkness, a moan escaping his lips. Other than noticing the complete lack of light, he noticed he felt sore all over. Every joint, every muscle felt like it had been stretched too far, as if he had overdone it at the gym. That’s weird, thought Dean, the last thing I remember is…walking to the stairwell. Did I get jumped and dumped in a closet somewhere? Where the hell am I?
A slight breeze rolled past him, and as he got to his feet, his eyes adjusted to the dark, albeit marginally. Reaching into his pocket, he found his cell phone. Flipping it open and using it as a makeshift flashlight, he took a look at the ground.
“What the fuck?” he said aloud as he examined what he was standing on. He stomped is foot, then reached down and gave the floor a press with the palm of his hand. It was an almost-rubbery black material, unlike anything he had ever seen. It was obviously artificial, so he decided he had to be inside somewhere. Peering into the darkness and once again feeling a gust tugging at him, Dean was sure he was outside; he had a feeling he was in a wide-open space. Was it some sort of domed football stadium? Was this some new sort of artificial turf? Questions raced through his brain, but no answers were coming. He took another step to begin exploring just how far this place went when he heard a moan to his left. “Shit!” he yelled, startled at the noise. He wasn’t alone? Walking toward where he heard the sound, he only took a few steps before his foot hit something, causing another groan to escape the unseen figure on the ground.
“Man, what the fuck…who’s kicking me?” said the figure on the ground.
“Oh hey man, Leon, is that you? What the fuck is going on? Here, grab my hand,” rambled Dean, relieved that he wasn’t alone in the alien football stadium but still frightened by his predicament. Maybe Leon could tell him how they got here?
“Where the fuck are we?” asked Leon, squashing Dean’s hope. So they were both on the same very confused page.
“I have no idea, dude. I just woke up a couple of minutes ago, stiff as fuck, in some pitch black like…outdoor arena or something. Hey, is Ken with you?” Dean asked, now aware that his last memory involved walking with Leon and Ken. Ken must be here too, somewhere, Dean reasoned.
“I got no idea, man. This is fucked up. We get drugged or something? And I ask again, where the fuck are we? Stuck in a goddamn nightmare, that’s what.”
“Alright, let’s just call his name and hope that he’s in earshot. KEN! KEN, WHERE ARE YOU!” Dean cupped his mouth and shouted, sure that Ken would be nearby. Leon joined in, but there was no response. Dean was hesitant to walk far from where they were standing to search, due to the fact that he couldn’t see a thing in the darkness that surrounded him.
“Maybe he got away or something.” suggested Leon.
“Yeah, but got away from what? What is happening man?” asked Dean, not really expecting an answer.
While not an answer, something monumental happened then. As if someone flipped a switch, light poured in front of Dean and Leon, momentarily blinding their darkness-adjusted eyes. It seemed to be spilling across a vast horizon, an instant sunrise with no sun. The sky overhead remained pitch black. Blinking away the spots in their eyes caused the sudden influx of light, Dean could make out his surrounding a little better; The black plane that he and Leon stood upon seemed to stretch forever in most directions, although Dean thought he could see an end to surface far ahead, toward the light. The light also appeared to be cut off by a straight line in the sky far beyond the two, as if a gigantic curtain was draped across the sky.
“Dude…where the fuck…this place doesn’t make any sense!” shouted Leon, his voice trembling just slightly. Dean had never seen his friend so rattled. To be honest, Dean himself had never been so completely unsure of what was going on. It was then he noticed a building far to the left, perhaps a football field away. It was a gigantic black column, stretching into the sky and…curving? Dean couldn’t quite make out where the top of the building went, but he didn’t care. A building meant people! Dean didn’t have to point it out to Leon: he was staring at it as well, hope in his eyes. Then he started running toward the structure, with Dean in tow.
“Whooooo! Hello! Anyone there?” shouted Leon as they approached the tower.
Now that they were closer, Dean knew there was something wrong. He couldn’t see any doors, any windows, nothing. He approached the gigantic column, placing his hand upon its side, and noticed something he found puzzling: the skyscraper-sized column was made of the same material the ground was. Slightly porous, but otherwise uniform, this was just an extension of the ground, like some sort of alien mountain.
“I just don’t get it, man. I just don’t get it. Nothing makes sense anymore.” Said Leon, shaking his head as he sat on the ground, his back to the column. The column was so big, that although round from a distance, it seemed more like a wall that extended maybe eighty feet before starting to curve around.
Dean looked beyond the column, where the black turf seemed to extend forever, and he thought he could make out a white speck in the distance; it was so far away Dean had no idea what he could be looking at. It’s too far away to investigate anyway, Dean told himself, sliding down next to Leon.
“Well,” began Dean, looking over to the defeated looking Leon, “What’s next?”
Ken was sweating, panic settling in, as he looked around, seemingly lost in a black desert. He awoke to bright light, more sore than he has ever been after football practice, and to top it off, he was all alone.
Wasn’t I just with Dean and Leon? thought Ken, trying to remember what events led him to this strange place. The last thing he remembered was walking through the doors to the stairs on the third floor at school, and then waking up to this. He could make out three gigantic structures, one far in the distance ahead of him and one to either side of him, all of them miles away but obviously extreme in height. With nothing better to do, he decides to start walking toward the one far ahead of him, the direction the light is coming from.
He hadn’t walked two hundred feet before part of the sky lifted, simultaneously revealing more light and having the light blocked by an object in the sky so enormous that Ken couldn’t even begin to figure out what it could be. Backlit as it was by the light, it just seemed an enormous shadow reaching out toward him. Instead, it grabbed hold of the top of the enormous pillar far ahead; the very one he had just begun walking toward.
All of a sudden, the entire landscape began to be dragged toward the light, knocking Ken to the ground. The light grew brighter as the world above him raced by, until he fully passed into the light and the landscape ceased to move. His eyes now adjusting to the light, he sat up. He could only make out that beyond the black plane, hazy and startlingly bright colors composed the world that he was stuck in. As he began to understand what exactly he was looking at in the world beyond the black plane, a shadow overtook him. Looking up, he found a peach sky descending, a grooved roof on the world lowering, and as it drew closer, Ken suddenly realized how oddly familiar everything was, and connecting all the dots, began to scream.
Samantha stirred beneath her covers, her internal alarm clock alerting her that is was time to get up and prepare for the school day ahead. Samantha always awoke a couple hours before school began, a necessity when one had image to maintain. Yawning and flinging the covers off of her, she got out of bed and walked out of her bedroom door to the bathroom, her eyes adjusted to the dark of her room and hallway.
After using the restroom, showering, and brushing her teeth, she walked out of the bathroom back to her room, this time turning on the light so that she could get dressed for the day. Having already set out her outfit for the day (black leggings, short skirt, and lacy white spaghetti-strap top complete with hooded black cloth jacket to cover her shoulders) she dressed quickly.
She paused to consider what shoes would compliment her outfit best, deciding then on her black flip-flops. It was a no-brainer, it being as hot as it was outside and having the urge to show off the pedicure she got the other night. For a moment, she forgot where she had put them; when one had as many pairs of shoes as she did, it was easy. While her closet was nearly full of shoes, the shoes she wore more often she often stored under her bed.
She sat on her bed, reaching under with one hand to grab both shoes by the thong. Pulling them out, she quickly dropped her feet into them, sliding them until she had a grip. Ready to start the day, Samantha sat on her bed, hoping for a moment that for the first time in months, maybe today things would go her way. If she was really lucky, Dean would be out sick today and she wouldn’t have to deal with him. She allowed this fantasy to ease her into a pleasant mood, standing up and walking out of her bedroom door.