Chapter 1: What the hell is going on?

Chapter 1: What the hell is going on?

Dark wooden beams supporting a mess of planks that barely maintained a triangular shape, cobwebs dangling from the corners while moss crept along the middle-section of the beams. Dark patches dotted with small gleaming stars were barely visible through some of the holes in the mess of planks. A ceiling. Yes, that thing right there most certainly fit the definition of a ceiling.

But, a ceiling? Here? Well, how was probably a better question than here.

"Right. Let’s think cl... Eh?"

The voice that piped up in the darkness sounded almost like a squeaky toy, the surprised exclamation cutting off his own words. Two hands rose towards the holes in the ceiling, he had to rely on the thin rays of pale silver light that shone down from there to see them properly.

"Eh? Eh?"

Squeak squeak, he sounded like a broken doll as he dumbfoundedly questioned the empty air.

Small hands, barely large enough to fit a little five-year old kid. Equally small scars that dotted the rough skin around the knuckles, dirty and cracked nails that had already become a speckled yellow. But above any of that...

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten... Whoa, ten whole fingers."

Where there should only be seven, there were actually ten. It wasn’t eight, it wasn’t nine, it was actually ten, a whole and full ten. He couldn’t even remember the last time he still had all ten of them. The shock of that alone was almost enough to make him forget about how small his hands were, they should be at least twice as big, if not a bit larger even.

"A look, gotta... Eh? No, stop that. Gotta get a look."

That blasted squeaky voice almost distracted him again, it was like a mouse lingering around his heels, cutely begging for attention. But he managed to push down the errant thought and sit up straight, he had to get a proper look.

"Hmmm, back hurts less than I expected. And there... Yup, still got two legs."

Now that he sat properly, he could see his own lower body. Once again, the legs were far smaller than they should be, smaller than they had any right to be even. Just how long would it take if you wanted to walk anywhere with legs as stumpy as these?

"And... Not alone I see. Doesn’t seem like a hospital ward though."

His gaze slid up from his legs and drifted through the room as he muttered to himself, his thoughts almost drifting thanks to the squeaky tone. He was sleeping on a simple mat. Just a mat, there wasn’t even any straw packed into it. And around him were about 10 or so children, all of them huddled up on the same dirty green mats as they slept. They all looked quite young, their hands in as rough shape as his own. But he was quite certain, he had never seen any of these kids before. Hell, they’d probably have run from him if they saw him.

The room was practically empty, well, save for the bunched up kids at least. Forget a mirror, there wasn’t even a bucket of water here.Ñ00v€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

"Wait, no, a puddle technically counts."

"Let’s see. I walked up the stairs, yes I remember that clearly. The door was a bit heavy because the hinges had rusted, but a swift kick got it open easily enough."

The memories came rushing in now that he took a moment to properly grasp at his reality. A damp staircase, a door that had been locked for too many years, a lone man.

"There was snow on the roof, some was even falling as I walked there. It was cold, I think?"

He couldn’t quite remember how he felt at that moment. The chill of winter, the cold snow around his naked feet, did any of them even reach him as he moved? The memory eluded him, the sensation slipping away into a hazy fog. But he still remembered what he did.

"The snow almost covered the edge despite its raised position. They really couldn’t be bothered to maintain it, could they? It was strangely quiet, wasn’t it? I don’t think it was too late so there should have been a lot of cars outside, and yet, it was quiet."

The hustle of cars, the constant droning of electricity. An unconscious flinch each time a vehicle raced past him from behind. He remembered it well now that he thought about it, that empty world. And then...

"And then..."

And then he jumped.

"And then I jumped."

He nearly slipped as he did, he recalled it now. The snow on the edge had gotten so packed that it became slippery. And then there was the ashen grey mixed with pale white that approached him as he fell. A dull colour.

At the time, was his mind as blank as the rapidly approaching ground? He hadn’t even bothered making up any thoughts, there were no memories flashing past his mind as he fell. And if there was talk of regrets then it would be that he wouldn’t get to see the final season of the show his sister made him watch before they parted.

"Whoa, just gets worse the more I think about it..."

The walk up the stairs, the snow that he couldn’t even properly feel. He’d walked with an empty mind, and then he jumped with that same mind. And thus, a young man only a handful of years away from his thirties departed from this world. The more he thought about it at this moment, the more distant it felt.

"Right, right, that should be the case."

His eyes opened again as he nodded his head. Right, he jumped, he saw the ground right there. So what was this? Really, seriously, what was this? His head tilted upwards as if he wanted to question the sky, and that was when he saw it. Looming over them, just barely visible through the holes in the ceiling, were numbers.

They stretched beyond the holes so he couldn’t tell exactly how high it was, but there were undoubtedly numbers hanging in the sky, seeming increasing and decreasing at random intervals. As he opened his mouth to utter a remark, one of the kids behind him stirred, a voice just as squeaky as his own calling out to him as he muttered.

"Tuesday Five? Come on... you have to sleep, teacher will be mad at you if you wake up late."

"Really, what the hell is going on?"