Disclaimer: Not one character used here is mine.
Though I had seen this before, I was in the safety and comfort of a school bus when that happened. This time, it was just me, having nothing to hold on to, except for one so-called timer, and one dagger that... My thoughts paused as I remembered that the dagger belonged to someone who connected to me (because I don't know what else to call her). So tumbling through what looked like a bottomless pit, that goes in every direction imaginable and yet seems to be going nowhere at all, wasn't as easy a ride as it was the first time I experienced it. Then again, that time, I bumped my head, so I missed most of the trip. This time, I had nothing to bump myself against, so I kept witnessing the entire journey. I could close my eyes if I wanted to, but that didn't make the trip go any faster. It was almost as if stepping through that portal was a mistake. But what other option did I have? I could either stay behind on a space ship that I didn't know how to control, and was filled with dead people. Or I could take my chances and step through the portal that this timer opened to me. I had to choose quickly, and so I did. And it was only after I stepped through that I had the chance to think I might regret this.
After quite some time (no idea how much, since I lost all sense of it after stepping through), a hole opened up before me, and I fell through that one. I landed on dry mud, immediately understanding the meaning behind "biting the dust". But that thought did not cross my mind at the time. Partly, I was relieved to finally be out of that... tunnel. But another part of me was still in a panic. Did I arrive back home? Back in my own world? And if yes, where on my own world was I? For that matter, how do I explain to others where I was? Where everyone else was? What happened to them? What happened to... me, before I escaped? Unsure of what to do next, I gathered myself up, picked up the timer and dagger that I dropped, and sat myself against a tree. There, I could take a better look at where I was. It was a forest, and a rather thick one. All the trees were grown at random spots, so it means this was a natural one. It was dark, but clearly the moon shone bright enough through the tree leaves, so I could still see something. I could even see a shadow moving behind a tree. I started to breath heavily as I saw it. Was this a dangerous animal that lived here? I could not know. I dared not move, thinking I might draw its attention. I couldn't do that for very long, as a rustling next to me spooked me.
"Hey there!" whatever caused the rustling spoke to me, "I'm Erich. What's your name?"
A rabbit, speaking to me, calling itself Erich, and asking me for my name. Will reality as I've always known it ever come back? I tried speaking back to him, but this new appearance made me even more unsure about everything. It was like everything that had happened to me made me forget how to talk. But even if I could talk, I heard a creeping sound in front of me. I turned to look, and before me was what looked like an insect. One that was about a quarter the size of me, completely black, with yellow eyes, and only four limbs. The only reason I even thought it was an insect was because of its antennae. And where he was, several more appeared.
"Don't worry, I'll get help." the rabbit (Erich) said, and started hopping away.
It didn't hop very far, as some... thing else caught it. It looked like a man in a gray jumpsuit, except it had no hair, a large head (so large, it somehow made his eyes less visible), and large teeth. With those large teeth, it bit Erich's head off. He made one loud squeal just before his head was inside that monster-man's mouth. I tried getting up to run, but those shadow-bugs had surrounded me. There was nowhere I could go. I felt that monster grab my shoulders with its strong hands, just before I felt something wet splashing over my back, after which its grip loosened. Those shadows backed away, as I heard a loud thud. From behind the bugs, a man appeared. He didn't look much older than me, wore dark pants, with brown boots, a lighter brown jacket, a blue shirt and a red scarf. He held a log, with which he crushed the bugs before me. As he did so, somebody jumped from behind me. An Asian girl, who looked younger than me, wearing what looked like a sailor outfit, and wielding a long sword, which had fresh blood staining it. With that sword, she dealt with the shadows, just like that other person did. As they were fighting, I turned to look. I saw that monster, lying behind me, but its head, for some reason, was invisible. This didn't make sense to me, until I took a closer look. It wasn't invisible, it was just gone.
"Are you alright?" an older voice spoke to me, resting his hand on my shoulder.
Spooked, I turned to look at him. He was old, about forty years old, maybe. He was leaning on a cane, obviously having trouble walking. I turned to look at the other two. The sword-girl had just killed the last shadow, when that red scarf-guy came up to us.
"Don't worry, we're friends." he said.
"So you keep saying." the girl sneered.
"My name is Lawrence." the old man said, "Can you tell me yours?"
To answer his question literally, no I couldn't. For some reason, I could only remember what happened to me in the past couple of hours. It was like the life I had before all this didn't happen. And in those couple of hours, I did not have a chance to tell anyone my name. I therefor couldn't remember what it was. Even if I could bring myself to talk, I couldn't answer him.
"What's wrong with him, Dr. Gordon?" the guy asked.
"He's in shock, Merlin." the one who calls himself Lawrence answered.
"You don't say." the girl replied.
"He must've gone through some serious shit before he got here." Lawrence said.
"What's that thing?" the other guy (Merlin) asked, pointing to the timer.
Lawrence looked at it: "Whatever it is, it looks like we have... two days for it to... what does it do?"
I looked at the timer myself. It read "01:15:32:47" and counting down. My thought was that this meant another portal will open when the timer's run down.
"Will it explode?" Merlin asked.
"It doesn't look like any explosive I've ever seen." the girl answered.
"Yeah well, they could built them differently in his world, Saya." Lawrence said, "Lemme look at that."
He reached for the timer. Although going through that tunnel was a horrible experience, it was only because there seemed to be no end to it. So now that I knew there will be one, I knew it was my only way out, if I needed one. So I held on to it, tightly, not letting Lawrence have it.
"Come on, don't be shy."
"That answers that." the girl (Saya) said, "If it was a bomb, he'd want to get rid of it."
"Sounds reasonable to me." Merlin said.
Lawrence still looked me up and down: "Well, I can't find anything physically wrong with him. I better let Sookie talk to him."
What's a Sookie, I wondered.
