The rain began to poor on the ground as a lightning bolt sailed through the sky. Nicolae was just closing up shop at "Back Alley Bargains". As he began to stroll home in the rain he noticed a fallen civilian. He immediately ran over to the fallen man...as he picked him up the man spoke about a great villain. Nicolae heard a loud bang come from the alley way. He then ran over to the alley way and as he looked in it...something hit him on the shoulder. Hard. ''Ah! '' he cried out.

Nicolae fell to the ground, reeling from shock. Pain shot up his shoulder blades. The rain fell harder, worsening his pain. His face contorted in agony. He heard someone scream out from afar. The scream seemed to echo throughout the whole of Gaia. 'What in the world is happening?',he wondered in bewilderment, his eyes blurring from the tears that were starting to stream down his face from the pain that seemed to get more worse with each passing second.

Poison. Was that it? Nicolae is a strong man; he can take physical injuries well. His last thought was ''This is utter madness.'' before he blacked out.

Nicolae shot up from his bed with a start. He had been dreaming that he was being swallowed up by a strange sea monster-he didn't even know where that came from. After all, dreams are formed from the things that you think about everyday-he found that out from some documentary he watched on TV. Nicolae sighed inwardly with relief before blinking and looking at his surroundings again. Walls painted in boring white. He sniffed the air and cringed from at the strong antiseptic smell. 'A hospital?',he thought, bemused. He didn't remember being injured in any way. But just as he thought of that, memories came flooding back. That thought disappeared as fast as it came.

But something felt missing-different, more like. Everything felt more real. As Nicolae was settling back into the bed and thinking about what felt missing, he noticed that his entire left shoulder had gone numb. He remembered the pain. 'At least this feeling is better than pain,' he thought. Nicolae can only hope that the injury was not anything too serious.

But it was serious enough to cause you to faint, a voice whispered from the back of his mind. Nicolae ignored it. What has happened has happened, nothing can be done about it. When he was contemplating whether if he should get out of bed and ask around what happened, a nurse walked in.

''You're awake!'' she commented in an Asian accent, smiling pleasantly. ''What happened?'' Nicolae blurted out. Then he added in hastily,'' Pardon my rudeness. '' Before he could say anything else, the nurse laughed and said, ''It's alright. I get that a lot. Call me Christine. '' Then she continued, ''You are one of the many people that have been mysteriously appearing all around the world, most wearing strange clothing and carrying foreign..'' she struggled to find the correct word. ''…objects like rings and spheres that had an intense…'' Christine paused again before continuing, ''aura about them.''

'' The most unusual thing is that all of you have no identity. '' Christine stopped short and asked Nicolae if he was feeling alright, and if this was too much to take in, since he has only just woken up. Nicolae, face pale, ignored her question and instead asked,'' W-Where in Gaia am I? '' Christine raised an eyebrow at his choice of words. Then she said gently,'' In Singapore. You don't remember?'' Nicolae merely rubbed the back of his head, which was starting to throb with fatigue. Then she sighed. ''Well, I guess this is no surprise. The others asked the same question as well.''

Nicolae fell back against the pillow with a thud. [i]This had to be some sort of dream. This cannot be. This is not happening.[/i] The words repeated over and over again in his mind. The nurse had told him that two men would come in a couple of hours later to ask him about some things after requesting for his name. Nicolae had been too bewildered and tired to even reply. ''Rest.'' She had told him firmly before leaving the room. He simply nodded, staring ahead into space.

Waking up in a world that you had never even thought to exist, that was the worst thing that will ever happen to someone, Nicolae thought decidedly. He sighed heavily, shutting his tired eyes. But he did not sleep. Deep down, he was afraid to sleep. What if he woke up in an even more alien world than this?

And what was he to do now? As he thought about it, his vision started to blur at its edges. Nicolae fought his fatigue. But in the end, his body won and he drifted off into deep sleep.

Nicolae woke to the sound of men conversing in low voices. As he blinked the sleep out of his eyes and sat up, the man sitting closest to his bedside cried out ''You're awake!'' Nicolae had a feeling he was going to hear that statement a lot more during his stay at the hospital. ''You must be the men who Christine said was going to come.'' Nicolae replied. ''You got that right,'' the man who had not spoken before looked down at the piece of paper he was clutching,''…Nicolae.'' Then, continuing with a broad smile, he said,'' As Christine has told you already, we are here to question you about your sudden appearance.'' How direct. Nicolae shrugged and said in a noncommittal tone,'' Go ahead.''

''Where were you before you woke up here? Age? Are you acquainted with any of these people- Johnny Gambino, Jessica Shones,…''

Nicolae shook his head at the men , whether or not he recognized the names. He never intended to answer honestly anyway.

Question after question continued to flow out of the questioner's lips. As the men's voices continued to drone on , Nicolae started to feel sleepy again. Must be the medication or something,he thought…


A few years later

''N-Nicolae?''

Nicolae looked up upon hearing his name being called by a familiar voice. But his heart no longer sped up with excitement like before. Nicolae used to hope that he would one day see one of his Gaian friends , but that never did came true. It was not long before he gave up hoping.

The government-or whoever that controlled this world-had in the end decided to give those people who had ''mysteriously appeared without any reason'' a identity and let them live here , in this world they called Earth. Nicolae did his best to survive in this world , but in the end he gave up and stuck to what he was good at – selling his own inventions.

''Nicolae?'' The voice repeated.


*Is the longest one ever written ==*

I do not own the characters mentioned in here except for Christine and the 2 men, who I created on the spot.

The rest are characters taken from . This..was written for a contest,actually. But I didn't manage to finish it on time. Unfortunately xD

Reviews are appreciated ^^