Chapter 1: A Dip Into The Void

"Strike three! Batter out!"

I couldn't believe it. The pitch that was hurled towards me… and our final chance to start a comeback against the opponent… just flew right past me. The worst part was I didn't even make an attempt to swing the bat at it, and the instant regret stung really hard. All of my university teammates, not to mention the whole crowd of supporters in the stands, had to be let down by my misjudgement. It was just my luck that I was the one who had the whole team's hopes on my shoulders at that moment, and I felt all that weight quickly sink into the deepest pit of my stomach.

"And Kaftka strikes out!" a commentator's voice boomed from the speakers above the field. "The final score is four runs for the visiting team, one run for the home team. That's a heartbreaking loss right on their own turf, and the winless streak now continues to five games."

After fighting the urge to just leave my gear on the field and get the hell out of there, I slowly joined my teammates in shaking the hands of the opposing team. It was very unpleasant since it felt like I basically handed them the win. The disappointed noises from the crowds of fans lessened as they slowly made their way out of the stadium, and I also wanted to leave the place as soon as I possibly could. Coach gave the entire team a very loud and stern talk, however, which left me with an even more bitter taste despite my teammates telling me everything was alright. Their encouragement had to just be their way of trying to keep me from beating myself up for the rest of the week, though.

'I just wanna go to bed,' I thought to myself, stuffing all of my athletic gear into my bag.

After heading indoors and placing my bag into the appropriate locker, I made my way to the facility showers and just stood still under the running water. Maybe it was only wishful thinking that the warm, gentle downpour of water would soak all my frustrations away.

'Tyler, this isn't you,' my mind tried to reaffirm. 'Just move past this like you've done for everything else that's gone wrong in your life.'

After finishing my shower and preparing myself for the long-ish trek back to the student dormitories, I departed the stadium and started my way along the route. The walk through the university campus was long enough for me to do some reflection, and I realized I knew better than to think some sleep would come easy with all this negativity whirling around my head. A clear state of mind beforehand would definitely help, one clear like the night sky that was forming overhead.

Now the question was how to take my mind off of that embarrassment of a baseball game. How about going for a few drinks? Nah, there were classes tomorrow morning. I could give my parents a call if I really wanted to, but I knew both of them were occupied with my little sister's piano recital tonight. That left another option of opening up to my closest friend about my current feelings, which actually didn't sound like a bad idea. There was only one problem with him, though, and it hopefully wasn't an issue right now…

I got distracted from my deep thinking when I heard the voices of two conversing teens walk past me. After a small startle, I quickly pulled the hood of my hoodie over my head. There was absolutely no need for any fellow students to recognize me as The One Who Struck Out. Gosh, the idea of a nickname like that gave me more chills than the cool autumn breeze that blew by just now. It wasn't much longer until I'd reach my dormitory and escape both the public eye and these falling temperatures.

Maybe I'd deserve the verbal beratement, though. After all, it'd just be another drop in the bucket with the other catastrophes for me this week: an accidental collision with a biking student on my walk to class, the discovery that I didn't get the internship I was hoping for, a food poisoning episode from a cafeteria meal, and a laptop crash halfway through an essay I was writing. It wouldn't be a surprise if even more misfortunes awaited me tonight.

Luckily for me, my friend's room was just down the hall from my own. Neither of us had any roommates, so oftentimes I would just take the dozen steps down the plain white hallways and knock on his door. Even if there was no guarantee of a response, I would still try. I still saw myself as a patient individual. Tonight, however, there was no patience in me at all with the mood I was in. A deep breath of relief escaped my lips once my dormitory came into view. I let myself into the brick-walled building in a hurry, stormed up the flight of stairs to the right level, and swung open my room's door in a display of unhappiness. The small, wooden-framed bed was illuminated by a light post from outside the single window, but I still knew an attempt at sleep wouldn't get me anywhere. It would feel much easier to crash after letting out my disappointment to the one down the hall who always listens… at least when he's not distracted by his hobby that I completely and utterly hate. Leaving my backpack on the bed, I left the room almost as quickly as I entered and made my way along a few doors.

"Please don't be watching them, please don't be watching them…" I muttered until I reached a certain door.

My serious hope was that this would be the one thing that goes right for me now. It was a coin flip if he'd actually have the time to listen to me tonight and knowing my luck, the coin was bound to land on the wrong side. I knocked my fist a few times against the door and awaited some kind of response. To my surprise, I heard the sound of footsteps immediately heading my way from the other side. No way… was he actually free right now? The door slowly opened and I saw the familiar lean figure of someone my height looking at me.

"Oh, hey Tyler," the teen greeted casually. "What's up? How was the game?"

So he didn't even take a peek at the score at all. This was sounding real promising.

"That's… actually what I wanted to talk to you about, Kenny. Is it cool if we chat?"

"For how long?" Kenny asked, running his hand over his hair.

It wasn't unusual for his hair to be slightly messy at times. I knew it was probably because of his genes since he was part Japanese, but the wireless headphones resting around his neck was the likely culprit for his appearance now.

"Just a bit," I answered.

Kenny sighed and looked uneasy for a moment. "Can it wait for an hour, maybe two? I'm a little busy right now…"

I could feel myself fuming more and more. It was ridiculous for my 'friend' to give me hope just to say he wasn't available, and I only needed one guess why he didn't have time. At first I thought the faint singing voice from his headphones was from a playlist or something, but he could easily just pause it. This had to be a freaking livestream. I peered over his shoulder to the far end of the dorm room, and sure enough I caught a glimpse of it: on his desk was an open laptop, and on the screen was an overly-cutesy virtual avatar of a girl singing right beside a rapidly-moving chat of excited degenerates. This felt like the millionth time he turned me down for this nonsense, and it was crazy that my tolerance for this was only now reaching its breaking point.

"OH COME ON!" I shouted, not caring if I disturbed any students in the nearby rooms.

"I'm sorry~" Kenny apologized, clapping his hands together once and bowing his head. "I've really been wanting to catch this karaoke stream today! I promise I'll be right with you as soon as this ends."

Both my fists were tightly clenched together. "And what if another one of those stupid streams starts? I bet you'll be on that immediately without a care at all!"

Any promises from this guy meant nothing to me. In fact, if there was an addiction hotline for this kind of stuff I would've given him the phone number ages ago. Kenny was clearly trying to find a way to calm me down so he could return to his vtuber craving.

"Look, I'll turn off all their notification bells for tonight, okay? Please just tone it down a little."

"Oh, so now you're concerned about me? If you cared at all, you would've known our team lost the baseball game… because of me! And yes, I do feel awful about it right now! But instead you're busy drooling over your stupid, two dimensional anime girls!"

"Hey, they have 3D models too just so you know. They use them for neat stuff like concerts, skits, and… other things…" Kenny trailed off as if some unerasable memories flashed before him.

"Why do you have to be like this?" I groaned, gritting my teeth. "You're beyond hopeless at this point."

The teen across from me folded his arms. "Once I found the rabbit hole, there was no escape. If you also fell in, you would've understood."

"Ugh, the 'rabbit hole' would have to find me!" I slammed his door shut myself. "Good night!"

I was not about to waste any more time with him about this. It was no use trying to steer Kenny away from his obsession for even just one night. It wouldn't even be a surprise if he was hiding body pillows or some crap like that in his closet. All I wanted to do was spend some time with a close friend, and he didn't even want to a minute. My loud stomps almost resounded through the hall as I headed back to my own room. I didn't want to call my parents at all, they'd probably be terrified of me if they heard how furious I was right now.

Once I was within my four walls, I threw on some pajamas and leapt into bed. My hoodie and other articles of clothing were simply left hanging over my desk chair, and I didn't bother to put them away. Right now lying here and staring at the ceiling made more sense than arguing with Kenny. Who knows, counting times he turned me away instead of counting sheep could possibly be a solution for sleep. The room had quickly gone dead silent, except for the constant ticking of the alarm clock over on my desk. Its continuous, evenly-timed rhythm somehow paired well with the plain sight above me. I could gradually feel that the shouting had taken a toll on me; maybe the angry outburst had more of an effect than the simple summary of emotions I was originally planning to have with him. The white ceiling was slowly becoming darker, and my eyelids felt heavier…

…until I heard a subtle cracking sound from below. It wouldn't have bothered me a ton, but it was also accompanied by a slight tremor.

'What the hell?' I thought after quickly sitting up in the bed.

Surely this was just my imagination playing tricks on me. I was ready to dismiss it and try for sleep again, but it happened once more. The same crumbling. The same tremor.

'Isn't this bad? Isn't this an earthquake or something?'

My instincts for self-preservation were urging me to make a break for the door, but my mind was refusing to believe this was real. I couldn't hear any panicking students from the neighboring rooms. It would be better for me to take safety under the desk than cause a scene… at least that's what I learned in school prior… so I shoved off my thick blankets and started to step off the bed. It was this exact moment when the floor space beside the bed opened up. This wasn't an earthquake… it was a freaking sinkhole. My eyes widened in terror as I felt the bed suddenly lean down towards the round, dark chasm.

"No!"

The floor was collapsing into this pit, and by some miracle I was able to grab the metal bed frame to keep myself from falling in. I didn't want to look down at all, but with thoughtless human nature I did anyway. My stomach dropped when I saw what was below: my legs were dangling over a seemingly bottomless opening, loose wooden boards falling until they vanished into the darkness.

"Come on!" I begged, using all the strength I had as an athlete to hold on for dear life. "Please survive!"

The bed suddenly jolted downwards again, and I felt my hands slip. The ceiling I was staring at minutes ago was getting higher and higher as I felt myself falling deeper and deeper. So this was it… this was how my life would end. Right before I was consumed by total darkness, I shut my eyes and accepted what would be my final misfortune.

There was no crash. No splat. No violent impact onto the rubble below. Instead I felt a very cold splash. It still hurt like hell, but it wasn't the gruesome feeling of my body breaking like I expected to happen. I slowly opened my eyes, and my vision wasn't overtaken by darkness. I was underwater… the rippling surface above me, stones and small vegetation below me. There was light, and it was almost as if it was trying to save me by shining through the water's surface. If I wasn't going to plummet to my death, I certainly wasn't planning on drowning either so I moved my arms and legs to start swimming. My lung capacity was beginning to give out, but in the nick of time my head broke the surface and I gasped for air.

"Thanks for saving me, swim lessons…" I said as soon as I regained my breath, doggy paddling to keep myself from sinking.

With the sunlight now shining down, I could clearly tell I was in a rather narrow river, but it was the sight around me that almost took my breath away after I had just got it back. There were massive trees rising from the ground, their branches above slowly swaying from the wind. Rocks and moss formed the banks of the river, while grass coated the ground further beyond. I was floating in a river running through a gigantic forest. Wait a second… a forest? Wasn't I in a dormitory bedroom not too long ago? Where even was I right now? It must've been a couple minutes before I gathered myself and made it to the bank of the river, still recovering from the fall. My ability to think was also temporarily battered. This was all just a very odd dream, right? The pain and other sensations I experienced all felt pretty real, but I was lost on any explanation for this. I was still wearing my pajamas, which were now completely soaked, and my hair still faintly smelled of the shampoo I used in the locker room showers.

Trying not to overdo anything, I slowly took each step one at a time as I began moving away from the river. My bare feet tried their best not to slip on the rocks until I reached more secure footing on the grass. A couple of birds flew by atop the trees, and a distant animal howl seemingly echoed in the air. When walking began to feel less painful and a little more normal, I stopped myself to take a breather. I had no idea where I was trying to go and where this place even was. If anything, I was lost in my own dreams until I'd be able to wake myself back up into reality. This whole sequence of events… it might've even been safe to put it in the nightmare category. The sights, sounds, and feelings all somehow felt beyond what a dream could induce, though. Each step as I resumed walking didn't feel any different from a normal step, and the bloodthirsty growls approaching around me all sounded like they were actually there.

I immediately froze in my tracks. Lifting my gaze very cautiously from the grass, I saw that I was surrounded by a pack of vicious wolves, each one snarling at me like I was the first meal seen in months.

It was now, more than any moment before, that I wished this was all a nightmare.