Drake, being the heavy sleeper that he was, took his sweet time getting out of bed. Still in a rather groggy state, he failed to notice that he had fallen asleep wearing shoes, and that the room he had woken up in was not his room at all. It wasn’t until he shuffled across the room in what he believed to be the direction of the bathroom, only to collide with a wall, that he realized something was amiss. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he looked around the tiny, rather dark room. It had all sorts of decorative merchandise of movies and video games that he enjoyed, and they were all laid out like they were in his bedroom, but… this wasn’t his bedroom. If it was, the bathroom would’ve been right here where he met the concrete wall and- wait, concrete? Since when were the walls of his apartment made of concrete? Unless… The last of Drake’s sleepiness melted away, his brain entering an early stage of panic mode. He’d woken up in a room that looked like his, but he knew for a fact wasn’t, wearing clothes that he didn’t recognize, and for the life of him, he couldn’t remember anything since around yesterday afternoon. He immediately assumed kidnapping, but he couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to kidnap him in particular. He hadn’t done anything to gain anyone’s ire, aside from a few people he’d run into at the grocery store, but those people deserved to be yelled at. As he pondered the meaning behind his predicament, the TV he hadn’t noticed until now blared to life, rattling off its spiel. While it did answer a few of Drake’s questions, it brought up all sorts of new ones. He and some others had been brought in to participate in a series of experiments, which were being monitored by a faceless entity calling itself Wizard. Not exactly how Drake planned to spend his time. To hell with science, he was out of here! The metal door refused to budge, no matter how hard he pulled the handle or kicked. With that option no longer viable, he began searching the room for another exit. Instead, he discovered the small, plastic card lying next to the stack of school supplies, bearing his name, face, and other various information. This was getting weirder by the minute. A closer examination of the card revealed what looked to be a magnetic strip. Wait, didn’t that door have some kind of reader just above the handle? A second look confirmed Drake’s suspicion, and one swipe later, the door was opened and the prisoner went free. Well, not free, but it was a start. He stepped into some sort of common room, nothing but him, some cheap furniture, and- holy shit, another person. A younger one, by the looks of it, but Drake would take the company of an 8 year old over being alone in a place like this. “Hey,” he greeted, calmly as to not startle the poor guy, “they kidnap you, too?”
As Chloe blinked into consciousness, everything was blurry. She needed her glasses, firstly. Fumbling about, she finally found them next to her on the bed. Putting them on her face, she looked about.
This… this wasn’t her room. Sure, her stuffed animals were here, there was manga strewn about and on the shelves, and posters of her favorite characters littered the walls… but it wasn’t her home at all. It was cold, even with her jacket on, and she pulled it closer to her body. Looking down, she realized what she was wearing. It looked like a school uniform — not the cute seifuku worn by anime girls, but a prep school uniform. “W-what is this…?”
Hopping to her feet, she investigated the room a little. Nothing seemed dangerous… The stuffed animals on the bed were all plush and cute, her reaching out to give them a testing squeeze. She took the bat one, tucking it under her arm as she continued to explore the room.
Curious about the door opposite the metal one, she opened it up. It was a bathroom. It seemed normal, and she peered at her reflection in the mirror for a moment. Her fangs and hairclips must have not violated dress code, because she still had them.
She pulled back, closing the door, before turning to walk towards the shelves. The manga was neatly arranged by title and volume number — all things she had previously read and owned, nothing new. But still, Chloe loved to re-read her favorites from time to time, so that wasn’t unusual. There was a couple of her nendoroids, too, posed in front of the books. They were even set how she had them in her room.
Finally, towards the desk, looking over it. The papers on the desk even had her handwriting on them, and even some doodles around the edges that matched her style. She had to grimace at the sight of the school books… she struggled in school enough as it was.
She then noticed the card, placed between the open pages of a manga book, and picked it up. It had her name, and information on it… and a picture she didn’t remember taking. Chloe tried to remember how she even got here, or what she was doing last… but she couldn’t remember. She wondered if her dad knew where she was… did he ship her off to some school?
As she looked over the card, the television set flickered on, startling her. She jumped back, giving a small wail of surprise. Listening in horror as the voice talked about experiments and sacrifice, Chloe felt like she was getting dizzy. From the sound of what “Wizard” was saying, she wasn’t alone in this nightmare. Feeling her stomach do flips, she squeezed the bat to her chest.
Hurriedly, she took the card from her pocket, looked towards the door and put two and two together. She put it through the reader, though was clumsy with it for the few first times and had to retry. Finally, she got it. After the beep, she pushed open the big metal door with all her might, stumbling out into the common room.
There seemed to be two people already waiting, much older than her. “U-Uh… h-hi.” Swallowing hard, she waved her sleeve. She was glad she had the stuffed bat for comfort, still squeezing it tightly.
“No….those are….my dumplings….”
Another pleasant dream filled with unusual and unrealistic situations. Unfortunately the time for a food-filled, adventurous excursion came to an abruptly close when one of Vivi’s stuffed turtles avalanched on top of her face. Poor Boku found itself falling from the comforting warmth of this bed to the vibrant, snowflake-shaped carpet below.
The blue-haired woman sat up in her plush bed stretching both arms up, enjoying the small clicks and snaps of her waking limbs. Her jaw opened fully with a usual, morning yawn. However something didn’t feel right, specifically a missing component Vivi always found on top of her bed. No pressure or presence of her faithful, red-maned companion. Mystery always slept either at the foot of her bed, or she’d wake up with his splayed, little body atop her sleeping form.
Her cerulean eyes opened to a scene both familiar and disturbing. This was her bed, her various turtle plushies strewn on the floor, the blue wooden bookshelves lined with parapsychology books and several manga, but the rest of the room? All of it foreign. There were no windows shedding a glowing, warm light like it always did in the mornings. She couldn’t even guess the time of day either! Without that or even a simple wristwatch, it could be the dead of night considering she usually fell asleep at 3 or 4 in the morning. College work really ruined a student’s normal sleep schedule.
Speaking of her college work, Vivi peered over at her desk cluttered with mountain high textbooks and various notebooks. Were…those her class textbooks? They didn’t look familiar. Her laptop, still sitting in its upright position, stared blankly back at the semi-conscious woman. Black and still. Don’t tell her she forgot to turn it off or plug in the charger!
Vivi shuffled out of her bed walking towards the desk, and promptly shutting the laptop screen closed. It’s when her hand outstretched towards the electronic Vivi noted the strange cufflink on her wrist! Did she go to bed wearing that last night? Why did…everything feel so fuzzy when she tried remembering what happened the night before?
Before any other thought crossed her mind, the loud static sound got her fully turning towards an old CRT TV plugged above her bed. A microscope? Suddenly a strange, disembodied voice enthusiastically spoke out to her calling this some kind of…experiment? What in the hell was all this!? It sounded like she stumbled into one of her horror games! Hearing there were multiple ‘test subjects’ for this supposed trial brought some relief. She wouldn’t be alone going through his….maze of trials. Just as the abrupt message appeared, it quickly shut off once the voice’s final thoughts were spoken.
What else surrounded her? Aside for the homey décor, which strangely looked exactly like her bedroom back at the apartment, a wooden door and a steel-metal frame were her two escape routes. So she called them that. Vivi took a peek behind the wooden entrance only to find a small, rather crapped bathroom behind it. No rust-incrusted showerhead or disgustingly green-like substance smothering the walls. At least this place appeared clean, and not rancid or decaying like most horror scenarios.
A bathroom to keep up their hygiene, a sleeping quarter decorated like a near-exact replica of her room, and an added glass-encased TV to give these subjects daily announcements. That’s all Vivi, leader of a paranormal investigation team, could deduce in this moment. Her mind still felt groggy from the sleep but still had the ability of clear-cut observation. The only little detail Vivi didn’t note until just now was a small card tucked in one of these strange textbooks.
Wow, what a flattering picture! So happy and full of life! Just when did they take this anyway? There wasn’t any recent time where she visited a photo license center. Vivi didn’t even HAVE a permit!
Taking note of this, the investigator thoroughly examined this plastic name card. Nothing felt strange, but the information printed on the front couldn’t have been right. She already obtained a student ID for her college, and these colors didn’t match up with Vivi’s college. There couldn’t have been a sudden transfer without her knowledge…could there? No college, school, or academy would room a student under these conditions….unless, again, this wasn’t your typical education facility.
On the back side the bluenette noted a magnetic strip, like the one you would find on any backside of a credit card. Not only would this card represent their identity, but it looked to be an access card as well. It must only open up certain doors or entranceways in this facility. Cerulean eyes glanced up at the steel door casting her gaze towards the card reader.
“At least this will…hopefully get me out in the open…” After a quick deep breath in, and letting the rest of her sleepy feelings out in the exhale, she approached the door and swiped it. Several beeps and clicks followed opening up her room to a roomier, common area. One quick look left then right, and Vivi joined three other figures lounging around the area.
“Oh…thank goodness…I’m not alone..” She breathed that quietly to herself. Vivi approached the center of this spacious room looking over the other people. “I’m guessing you guys heard that strange message as well?”
Groggy… Headache… And like most nights, sleep seemed to do nothing for the boy. Groaning softly, he nearly slapped himself in the face while attempting to rub his eyes and sit up. Squinting, he reached around almost blindly to find his glasses, sighing a little once he had actual vision again. Though… Wait… This… This isn’t my room… This place is bigger…?
Sure enough, the red seemed to suit and follow his wallpaper… Some tools laying almost haphazardly on the ground, as well as some of his games, maybe a newspaper or two… But that carpet looked wrong… The bed was not only bigger, but so was the room as well. And like that, the tightness in his chest only seemed to increase, as he shambled out of his bed, finally taking note of his clothing.
A… school uniform? Oh no…. Oh no, no, no, HELL NO. Was the last year of his life a lie?! Had he slept through the last two years of his schooling, and subsequent LEAVING of school?! Was he back where he hated the most…? No… No, I didn’t have a uniform before, think James, think! Forcing himself to slow down for a moment, and breathe, he noticed a pair of sneakers on the floor, as well as his locket. Putting them both on, he nearly jumped out of his skin with a frightened yelp as that TV turned on, assuming some… kind of martial arts stance, at least, that’s how it looked in his head.
“W-Wizard… Experiments… T-Trials… S-SACRIFICE?! H-Hey! Hey w-wait a minute, what d-do you mean?!”
…and like that, silence. He was trapped in some room he’d never seen before, wearing some kind of uniform he’d never owned before… And there was no one else here to possibly save him. Biting down on his lower lip, he looked around, finding a bathroom and moving to the mirror, taking a look at himself, just in case something had happened.
Well… At least he was still in one piece, for better or worse… Though he still didn’t know how he’d arrived in this place. Taking a shaky breath, he stepped away, catching sight of the ID card, picking it up and reading it. When was that picture taken?! And why was it even here in the first place? Maybe… Maybe I should try to get out of here… Yeah! Let’s see… Door… Door… Hey… A key reader… Maybe if I….
Swiping the card, the door opening before him… He stepped outside as quick as possible, barely breathing through his own panic… But wait… He… Wasn’t actually alone! There were other people here! …people who were just as confused as he was, it seemed…
“P-Please tell me this is… S-Some kind of elaborate prank and y-you guys are all in on it? … yeah I thought not… Wh-Who are you people? Wh-Where are we?!”
Jace took in the room once he’d passed through the door, no one answering his call. He must be here by himself. Or at least he must be the only person out so far, given there were a few other doors. The rest of the room didn’t have lighting from any windows, so it was just as dim as the bedroom had been. It was equally decorated, though these things seemed far more generic compared to the uncanny familiarity of the room with all his things. It did seem kinda like it was trying to be a nice space… but it was just unsettling, honestly. Like a rec room for a college, but somehow more depressing.
Jace hummed a little to himself in thought as he glanced over what was around and started to wander the room. His eyes lingering on the sealed metal door, but moved on to other decorations and details. There wasn’t much he could do about that now. Maybe it would open when he finished whatever tests they were doing and he could leave? Hopefully. This place gave him the creeps.
His attention flipped between everything at a relatively fast pace, not really settling on any one thing as he took in the room. It really was furnished like a dorm center. It reminded him of the one from school they called the Clubhouse, where he used to play pool or chess with his friends, or mess around with the communal keyboard. But his attention, while quick to jump, moved faster than it had for everything else when he heard one of the doors open. He hadn’t moved far, barely having a minute to explore the common room, and he started at the sudden noise behind him after the bout of relative silence. Jace twisted in the direction of the sound on his heel, hair and scarf following the flow of his movement. The strands flapped out where inertia carried them like the overdramatic curtain his hair could be.
Jace blinked on seeing the newcomer. He wasn’t sure what he expected exactly, but given the place and how on edge he felt, the worst case scenario had been on his brain when he’d whipped around. And then there was just—a dude. Not a bad-looking dude. But not a scary one either. He took in the new guy: he was about his height, a bit older, dark brown hair that looked like it might be slicked back, and a five o’clock shadow. He looked just as surprised to see someone else there as he himself felt seeing him, though the other guy recovered first. He even managed to sound nonchalant. “Uh—howdy! And I guess so…? I--.”
He intended to say more, but a second door jostled and then opened, a young girl spilling out from her room. She was tiny, or at least smaller than he and the other guy were, and where the guy looked way older than him, she looked far younger. She had long-ish blonde hair in a ponytail, big round glasses that only enhanced her baby-face, freckles, and green eyes that seemed to dart between them in an almost nervous way while she waved, too-large sweater-sleeve flapping.
She’d hardly spoken before the next door opened, and another girl, taller than the other one, stepped out and approached them. She looked his age, had blue hair cut short, bright blue eyes behind pink frames, and a blue scarf around her neck and over her uniform like his own red one. She definitely had a theme, didn’t she?
Jace gave her and the blonde girl a nod, but another door opened to draw his attention, and yet another person spilled out. This guy looked younger, like the blonde girl, and he was breathing shallow. He had dark hair and blue eyes behind dark framed glasses, and wore a red sleeveless hoodie over his uniform.
Concern needled at him seeing how worried the guy looked. Well. They all were to some degree, weren’t they? He certainly wasn’t feeling good about any of this or what the Wizard had said right now, but he did feel better knowing there were other people here. That probably meant they’d be safer. Hopefully they could all help each other.
“Uh—hi!” Jace clapped his hands together, light so they only snapped when they connected. He glanced over each of them with a smile, with only a hint of a waver. Meeting so many people and in such a tense situation was enough to throw him off-kilter, and he could feel it in the stiff way his hand jerked to move and the shuddery beat in his chest. “Um. I think we might all have the same questions, probably?” He waited a few seconds, to make sure they weren’t interrupted by anything, be it the TV or yet another person showing up.
That seemed to be all of them, and the screen stayed black. “So. I’ll go first! My name is Jace. And what I remember is waking up in that room.” He pointed back to where his door was. “I don’t remember how I got here, and I don’t know where here is, either. And then that Wizard person was talking on the TV, and said something about this being… an experiment?” He frowned briefly, before looking at them all again. “Was it the same way for everyone else?”
