《Further down, deeper in》


 In the beginning

    Alone in a room with a door. Not much to go on, but it is still somewhere to start from. The past memories are foggy. The general knowledge is there but people, places, and things don''t matter that much to someone who has no relation to them.


    A lone man ponders his predicament. He is self aware, but has no recollection of himself. Something just feels wrong in the back of his mind. Terror would be obvious to anyone, be he is a nobody. Naked in a unimposing room with a light fixture out of reach above his head, and a wooden door embedded into the opposite wall.


    The first thing that comes to his mind after collecting himself is "I think therefore I am". He feels no pain or residue of emotions to build onto. Just knowledge that waking up naked, not knowing who you are, and in an unfamiliar setting is not a good situation. Gathering his bearings the man rises from his vantage point and slides his back up the wall. An impossibly smooth wall. No imperfections at all. Every side and edge of the room is perfect excluding the door. Somehow even the light is perfectly aligned and balanced as it floats inches below the ceiling.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    He may be ignorant of himself but floating lights are not possible. The slight tinge of fear causes goosebumps to rise ever so slighlty on his forearms. Even in this evenly heated place. Pressing off the wall with his left hand he paces over towards the door.


    Fear may be guiding his actions but it is obvious that the only way forward is... well... forward. There is literally nothing in here for him maybe not even air. Breathing is fine for now, but that doesn''t mean the air won''t stagnate as he consumes it to fuel his lungs. Grappling his budding emotions he observes the exit. A smooth door with no creases or indents in or around it is just inches away from him. There is no air circulation around it so it does seem that his time here is limited. Listening or testing it wont yield any answers, just more questions. Disturbed by his generic past, and fearful of the uncertain future he grasps the doorknob with his right hand and turns it. Feeling no resistance, and barely enough friction to not slip his hand off, he twists until it abruptly stops.


    Sweating from the palms is cool to the touch as it rolls down the length of arm. A taxing heartbeat, and deep breathing are the only sounds resonating within this finite space. Panic momentarily freezes the action. A drop unbinds itself from skin and commences the rest of the procedure.


    He pulls the door towards himself.


    Then walks though the open path.

 Single step

    The first note worthy detail about entering is how unimposing the transition was. Leaving one place to enter an identical one doesn''t seem productive. Not that he would consider it otherwise. The man simply noticed the same atmosphere, at least there is a theme. It seems that bland apparantly is in fact a theme.


    Stepping into the new room after letting go of the door he shivers slightly. Not from the almost stagnant air with no humidity, or temperature variance despite his body heat radiating outwards. The feeling of dread came from the door closing on its own accord. Slow enough to register as movement but too fast to catch. Reaching for the doorknob midswing only catches thin air. For the door simply vanished, or more accurately was absorbed into the wall as if there never was one there to begin with. Feeling the sealed entrance just reinforced the feeling of too smooth and a lack of imperfections.


    Doubt replaces fear. This can''t be real... can it? Reality is rather subjective and it seems the man is the only one to shed a viewpoint on the occurrence. An exasperated sigh escapes as he turns around to get a good look at what is actually different from the previous room. A simple rectangular pedistal directly under the symmetrical lighting. The smooth, yet oddly jutting, edges tapering onto the top. Which is occupied by a suit of some kind.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Grasping at the waist high positioned fabric he studies it. There are no seems and it feels just as devoid of character as the rooms. No seams, zippers, or excess at all. The colorless suit reminds him of spandex one pieces. A shudder goes though soul as he is reminded of popular culture. He''d rather wear it than carry, hands are useful tools when empty. The logical thing would be to enter the only hole there is which is the exposed neck.


    Surprisingly elastic he pulls both legs into each side. After that he nudges his left arm in. The fingers were tricky to get in their respective areas, but after that the next arm just slipped right in. It feels like he wears nothing like before the only sign anything changed was the monotone room matching color.


    With the questions piling up the man heads towards the door with some semblance of order and logic. Hopefully there will be answers...

 Deeper In...

    After entering the next room a sigh of releif is exhaled breifly. That is until he realizes that there is a slight difference in this room. Mainly the humanoid figure standing motionless in the center. Just like the color of his new suit, that is surprisingly non constrictive despite being essentially an extra layer of skin, and the walls surrounding the both of them. Not even trying to go for the door this time, but unconsciously gripping tighter on the room temperature brass handle. His tightened grip suddenly clenches into a fist as if there was nothing in it in the first place. Not wanting to look away he breifly catches the door phasing back into the wall. Blending into the texture and changing color to match it. After confirming that it is now gone his focus once again returns to the statue. It is roughly the same size as he is. As he gets closer to inspect it the moves are mirrored into the mannequin. Jumping back in shock is unsettling when you see the motions being imitated in realtime. Although now that he gets a closer look at the object he notices that unlike himself, the object has not moved out of its original position. How curious, it is like a three dimensional mirror image of himself being reflected. Only now does he notice his own body matches the shape, texture, and size of this thing exactly in the right proportions. Although the suit is not copied that is about the only destinction to be made against the two other than the fixed position of the double. After flexing three fingers and a thumb on one hand in a random manner and witnessing the copycat actions he feels safe in the fact that whatever it is in incapable of hurting him. Walking around the room reveals nothing else, not even an exit like the previous rooms had. Without a propper way to tell time, and no bodily functions to gauge its passage either other than his even breathing he begins to observe the golem in detail.


    Something seems off about it on closer inspection. Every time he reaches out towards the figure, and it to him in the same fashion, the bland area around their hands that are about to touch burst out in a radiant color that envelops the area around the about to be connected parts. The vibrant aura pulsates and resonates with a faster change in color the closer the two meet. Nothing else feels different at all other than the lightshow. Getting bored and mentially fatigued he might as well get this over with. No other course of action to take the fingers meet and a sort of clicking sound occurs and the auras engulf both of them before fading. Letting go of the contact slowly he begins to understand that something or someone is communicating with him. It is hard to firgure out since there are no words, just direct thoughts and images that are not his own flowing into him. It seems... no it is an alien entity that can not be understood by conventional wisdom, not that he has any. Coming from the walls, his suit, the golem, the light, or himself he has no idea where it is from or what means of communitation it is using. All he can sense is a rather strange list of questions being asked of him. The only thing he knows is that there is literially nothing else to do. That and the fact that he is obviously trapped. When in Rome do as the Romans do. A slight shrug shared by both him and the body seemed to be taken as a continuation of the exchange.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    It is pretty simple and repetative in the meaning. Basicially it wants to know what I am. A tricky question seeing as I have no idea at the moment a literal blank slate. I think of myself in confusion, and that is when a sort of reply comes from the entity. It doesn''t want to know what i am, but what i am to be. It is requestion an image to shape myself into. A sort of... urn? Flashes of containers flow into my mind. All shapes, sizes, textures, colors, functions, smells, and every other feature imagineable with a few incomprehensable. I know that i am male, but other than that no clue. A pause occurs as the golem starts to reshape itself. It is now somehow a more masculine version of utter neutrality. The conflicting states is starting to cause a headache in me and i reach up to cradle my head with both hands feeling a jutting jaw as they pass. It is rather unsettling having a jaw with no mouth.


    Next up are flashes of humanoid figures, different species i think? Not sure exactly what i am without a reference point. However one of them seems to catch my eye above the others as it continues to pass by in the rotation. It is a rather unimposing stature but something just pulls me to the lithe form along with the changes made to my body a breif description is given to me about what i am now. Apparantly my people are halflings. The halflings survive in a world full of larger creatures by avoiding them. I am about three feet tall which is apparantly an average size for us. Halflings¡¯ skin ranges from tan to pale, and their hair is usually brown. I am rather pale, but my blond hair is rather light compaired to the darker browns associated with my race. My Hazel eyes inspecting myself notices these minute details since it is rather interesting to inspect yourself that is inspecting you at the same time. None of this is making any sense to me. At least my proportions seems correct at the moment. A rather lithe thin form that looks awefully dexterious.


    After the solidified form appears three more images float around in my mind. One is of a serene monk meditating on a rather large cliff face before running down the side and landing a strike with his bare palms resting on a much larger creature. The figure then collapses and breathes evenly while I just sit back down and wait for the others to come to the aid of myself, or the other i don''t know which. After that comes a peaceful woodland area filled with contrasting shadowy bushes and bright trees with myself sitting in one of them. I see myself tense up and pull out a bow before firing it into the brush several trees ahead of me. I see myself hop down from my perch easily before rummaging in the bush to pull out a rabbit then walk away listening to the birdsong. And lastly I can''t see myself at all, just a rather fat woman being attended to by various serveants. Then from the huge shadow behind her i see a small hand quickly take a bag off of the table before vanishing. How interesting the last one is. I think i will go with that shady image. It is better to not be seen in the first place when you are as frail and small as I am after all.


    Even though nothing physically heppens to me or my double I can see a sharper glint in the eyes. It might just be my imagination, or all of this could be.