It was a Tuesday, and the sun was high in the sky. School had been let out for the day, and while most kids went home or to their friends' houses, some went to the nearby mall. Michael, who this story will focus on, was one of the kids who went to the mall. Michael was a bit below the average height for someone in his mid-teens, but this didn't bother him too much. He had curly mid-length caramel hair that covered his thick, well-shaped eyebrows about halfway, and his skin was somewhat bronze with neutral undertones. His eyes were a light shade of hazel, and although they were very faint, he had dark circles under them. He was wearing a dull blue hoodie with a store's logo on the back, and he had dark denim pants on, accompanied by a grey belt and a pair of black combat boots. Maybe he didn't dress in the most spectacular fashion, but it was good enough for him.

Michael was sitting in the food court with his friends Jessica Bachman, Kaneda Kobayashi, and Elise Coleman. Jessica had dark skin and short black hair, and was wearing very grungy clothes like a crop top with some band's logo on it with a long jacket and black pants. Kaneda had slightly paled skin, and had short black hair. He was dressed in an assortment of loose, monochromatic clothes, and was sporting a backpack on one arm with some keychains from different series on it. Michael was only able to recognize the Jehuty keychain and the DDR Arrow keychain. As a result, the others were alien to him. Elise, on the other hand was kind of a sickly shade of white, but this was just how she looked, and it pissed her off that she couldn't look less pale. She had long, brown, wavy hair and was wearing a short hexagon dress that was many different warm colors, and had pink stockings with red tennis shoes with little stars on them.

Michael was feeling kind of drowsy, when Jessica got near him and snapped her fingers. Michael shot up. "Yo, dweeb, I'm gettin us some food. What do you want?" She asked. Michael thought for a second, and got back to her. "I'll take a 10 piece chicken meal thing, some spicy fries, and like, a Coke to drink." He responded. "A'ight, what do you all want?' Jessica asked the others. As they were telling her what they wanted, Michael began to fall asleep. "Hey, you get enough sleep last night?" Kaneda asked. "Y-yeah. It's nothing, just... something." He couldn't think of how to describe it because his mind was trailing way off. "Midday drowsies?" Elise softly asked. Michael drowsily nodded, and began falling asleep again. "Alright, well there's a bit of a line, so go ahead and rest, 'K?" Jessica told him. He attempted to give her a thumbs up, but when he tried to, he fell completely asleep.

He woke up in a hellscape of blood and skin arranged into a ring in a black void. He laid there on the ground, partially melded with it. He tried to scream, but no noise came out. He was in mental hell. He tried many times to get up, but he felt weak, making hardly any progress with each attempt. He finally got himself free after what felt like an hour, and brushed the pieces of loose flesh off of him. He timidly walked around, trying to figure out what was going on. The ground squelched moistly as he walked; This made Michael almost vomit. Strange, mechanical ambient noises surrounded him and penetrated his ears from every direction. They weren't very loud, but they didn't help is uneasiness. He had almost gone in a full circle when his foot caught on something and tripped him. Instead of falling into the flesh and getting half of his body stuck in it like before, he simply slammed against it, barely sinking in at all. He got up and looked around for what tripped him.

He looked down and saw a line of bulging flesh. Against his instincts, he reached down and grabbed it, closed his eyes, and pulled up. The sound of wet, ripping flesh made him vomit, but he let none of it escape, and swallowed it down. He shuddered, and opened his eyes. He had grabbed a chain, that, despite being covered with skin and blood only seconds ago, was surprisingly clean. As he looked at it, a voice slithered through his ears. "You're going to need that, Steven." Michael shuddered with fear, but mustered up enough courage to speak back. "Who the hell are you, and what do you mean, STEVEN? My name is-" But, before he could correct the voice, he fell through the flesh, and slammed down onto a metal grate floor. He got up, muttered a string of pained swears, and looked around. Still in the black void. But before he could look around, the god-awful noise of rusted metal grinding against itself assaulted him, and he closed his eyes and plugged his ears. When he opened his eyes, he saw why he heard that noise. Five blocks of metal grate walls had swung up, forming a cage.

He began quaking with fear, and after a few seconds of this, he ran to the walls and began pounding on them. "LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!' He began screaming. He was about to give the wall a big, forceful slam with his fists when he heard a deep, raspy gurgle. He slowly looked around and saw a figure. It looked bipedal, but it's form was incredibly alien. He couldn't tell what it was, but as soon as he was looking at it dead on, it charged at him, and leaped up. "This is it. This is how I die," Michael fearfully thought in that instant. He tried to close his eyes, but they wouldn't close. This couldn't be a dream. This felt too real.