After I passed out, it was dark for a long while.
So long, in fact, that I began to get a little confused.
It didn't take much time before I realized I had to open my eyes
When I did, the first thing I noticed was that I was standing up. Secondly, the place I was in was incredibly dark. I looked down to see that I was still wearing the clothes I had on before. However, my necklace was missing.
I reached up and touched my chest before looking around at the environment I found myself in.
At first glance, it seemed to be a living room. Upon closer inspection, though, I noticed something else.
This is my living room.
Examining the room further, I found it to be an exact 1:1 recreation. The only things missing were the windows and... the doors. Lightswitches, too. The only light source came from my old 2006 television sitting atop a wooden TV stand. Nothing was projected on the screen except for the color white.
I quickly came to the conclusion that I was dreaming. Closing my eyes again, I tried to force myself awake like I usually do. However, it didn't seem to be working. I tried again and again, but every time I opened my eyes, I still found myself in the near pitch-black room.
I sighed. "So it's one 'a these..." I walked over to the TV to see if I could do anything with it. I reached out to try and press any of the buttons, but they didn't do anything. I looked around it to see if I could find the remote but had no luck.
Backing away from the TV, I took another look around the room itself. Everything was incredibly dark, and I could see practically nothing behind the TV since the light didn't reach back there. I began to walk back toward my couch when a loud voice suddenly reverberated through the room.
"-ood morning citizens and welcome back to-KSSSHHHHHKKKK-" Static cut the man off as I whipped around to see what was happening. On the screen I was met with a familiar sight. It was my town's local news, but it was not the normal female anchor. It was instead an unknown male news anchor, currently sitting behind a desk with a stack of papers in front of him. The screen was glitching out while the static played but returned to normal after a few seconds.
"Today's story seems to be quite a harrowing one!" Despite his words, he spoke with a smile. "Yesterday, Kasher Middle School burned to the ground after an unidentified individual was spotted pouring gasoline around the entrances & exits before lighting them with a match." My eye twitched. I sat down on the couch. "By the time the Fire Department arrived on the scene, the blazes had already spread inside of the school. It took them a whopping 8 minutes to just enter the building! Seems like quite a long time, don't you think?" The man stared directly into the camera with a grin on his face, and I stared back. No... he wasn't looking at the camera.
He was looking at me.
As I stared at him, unblinking, I began to feel that something was wrong. A chill ran up my spine, and my hands started shaking. From the shadows behind the TV, I felt like I was being watched.
I'm not the only person in this room.
I was about to avert my gaze, but then the news anchor shouted.
"Look at me!" His face twisted into an expression of anger. "LOOK AT ME!" He yelled and stood up slightly. "LOOK! AT! ME!" His voice boomed through the room and made my ears hurt. However, I did not take my eyes off him. "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!" Every time a word exited his mouth, he began to sound less and less like a person. He then slammed his head onto the table. "LOOK!" Again. "AT!" Again. "ME!" Again. And again, and again, and again again again again again again again. One final time, he rested his head on the table before raising it and revealing what was left of his face. One of his eyes was now dangling out of its socket, and he gave a crooked smile showing his broken & misaligned teeth. The rest of his skin was badly bruised, with blood leaking from several holes that opened from the impacts. His bottom lip was completely split, showing his teeth even when his mouth was closed.
He sat back down in his chair before continuing to read off the bloodied paper in his hands. Despite the injuries, he spoke with no issues. "After finally entering the building, our beloved firemen spread throughout the property in groups of 3. One particular group made their way to the southwest corner, where there were classrooms that had no windows. One by one, they made their way around and began clearing students and teachers alike out of every blocked-in room they could find." Sweat ran down my face. The room was getting hot. "When they reached the end of a hallway, however, tragedy struck." The grin on his face grew wider as a tooth dropped down onto the table. "The roof collapsed behind them! They were trapped, along with all the people they had just freed from their final few rooms!" The man began to laugh as he spoke. "It was terrible! Horrible! Their screams echoed throughout the building, but nobody came to save them!"
The man's face suddenly switched back to a neutral expression. "Nobody was going to save you." He stared into my eyes for a few more seconds before his expression once again contorted into that of anger. "So tell me, Henri. Why, when the fires were purged, and the bodies were pulled from the rubble, were there 38 civilian casualties, 2 fireman casualties..."
"... and one survivor." The man slammed his hand into the table. "You were supposed to DIE, DAMMIT! SO WHY DIDN'T YOU? WHO COULD HAVE SAVED YOU?" He then used both his hands to flip the table over. It clattered onto the floor as he rose to his feet. "I MADE SURE OF IT!" He breathed heavily for a solid 15 seconds, before reaching behind his back.
"Your God cannot protect you forever." The man pulled a pistol from behind his back. In one swift motion, he placed the barrel in his mouth and squeezed the trigger. A loud bang echoed from the speakers as blood splattered on the wall behind him. The screen then immediately turned to static, though no audio was played.
I sat there, in silence. I didn't avert my eyes from the static on the screen. I couldn't.
…
Clack
The thing behind the TV moved.
Clack
It was walking. It didn't sound like a person.
Clack
The footsteps were heavy, and the room rattled with every step.
Clack
...
The figure now stood to the right of the TV, just outside of the light's reach. It stood at a massive height, its head almost touching the ceiling. A hand snaked its way onto the top of the television, though I could not see what it looked like.
I looked down at the coffee table in front of me to see something that wasn't there before.
A gun.
The same one the man had.
"Pick it up." The thing spoke. Its voice was not loud, but it was not normal either. It sounded guttural and deep, like every word came from the depths of its stomach. It also felt commanding, and made my hair stand on end.
I obliged and picked the weapon up in my right hand, staring at it. The color was matte black, with nothing special about it at all. Just by looking at it, I assume it fires 9mm.
A hand suddenly placed itself on my shoulder. I jumped a bit but did not look behind me. Oddly, this one felt small. It was strangely comforting, as its grip was light, & its skin was soft.
"It's okay, child." A new, female voice sounded from behind me. Presumably, this was the owner of the hand on my shoulder. "He cannot harm you." Her voice was soothing, but still held the same commanding presence that the other one had.
"Who... are you?" The other voice spoke. It did not sound surprised, more... amused.
My hands began shaking even more, and I began hyperventilating. I hadn't taken my eyes off the gun in my hand. A thousand thoughts were racing through my mind, none of them good. I slammed my eyes shut and tried to steady my breathing, but it wasn't working. I began weighing my options. The woman behind me spoke, but I couldn't hear it. After a few long seconds of debating, I decided what I was going to do.
I opened my eyes, placed the barrel of the gun to my temple, and pulled the trigger.
…
…
…
For a long while, there was nothing.
...Did I make the right choice?
...I just wanted to get out of there...
I didn't have time to think about it, though, because I could feel that I was now residing within my actual body. After a few seconds, I slowly forced my eyes open.
My vision was blurry, but I could tell that the room I found myself in was dark. Also, whatever I was laying on was incredibly uncomfortable. I took a deep breath, and a pain spread through my chest.
Ow! That asshole must've bruised me pretty bad...
As it subsided, so did the blur in my eyes.
The ceiling above me was made out of a gray stone, looking worn out & damaged. Whatever poor excuse for a "bed" I was laying on sat right up to the wall, made of the same material as the ceiling. It also showed the same signs of decay. After a short battle with the pains in my chest, I pushed myself into a sitting position. Looking down, I saw that my "bed" was literally just a dark wooden table. Taking a look over the edge, I saw that it was held up by 2 legs on one side, while the other was just bolted into the wall.
I then took the opportunity to look around the room. Like the walls & ceiling, the floor was also made of the same stone material, though it seemed marginally less damaged. The room was walled on all sides except for the one opposite my bed, which was blocked off by vertical iron bars & a door. Beyond the bars, I saw a hallway with wooden walls, but nothing else could be discerned from my current position. Nothing else was in the room with me except for a rusty bucket in the corner.
Is this... a jail cell?
I swung my legs over the edge of the table-thing and slowly stood to my feet. A dull pain washed over my leg, but it was negligible. The real pain was in my chest, which protested heavily any time that I moved. Taking a breath, I stumbled my tired body over to the iron bars to see if there was anyone around.
Much to my surprise, a man rounded the corner to my right the moment I reached the edge of my cell.
"Gah!" He jumped the moment his eyes crossed over me, his hand instinctively grasping the sword on his hip. However, he regained his composure after a short moment. "...Hm, so you're awake." He then continued casually as if the previous few seconds did not occur.
"Agh!" Another pulse of pain shot through my chest, and I reached my hand up to clutch at it. "I wish I wasn't..." The nightmare crossed through my mind. "...actually, never mind."
After looking at him for a few more seconds, I recognized the soldier in front of me as the one I was speaking to before I passed out. He had short brown hair, with a strangely curly mustache above his lip. Somehow, he looked good with it, even though he looked like a cartoon supervillain. He then abruptly walked over to the door of my cell and unlocked it.
"Come with me. The captain wishes to see you." He swung the creaky door open and began walking back down the hallway, not giving me a chance to respond. Seeing no other options, I chose to follow him.
The hallways were nothing special, just normal wooden everything with lights embedded into the ceiling. Looking behind me, I saw a plethora of cells similar to the one I woke up in. However, none of them seem to be inhabited.
"Yo." I turned back around and saw the curly-mustached man peering at me from around the corner. "Hurry up, or I'll put you back in that cell." He then disappeared behind the wall, presumably continuing towards the "captain" he spoke of. The man had a strange accent, but I couldn't place it anywhere specifically.
"Alright, alright, I'm comin'." I followed after him as we walked through a plethora of winding hallways. "...Pretty big place you got here." I noted.
"This building serves many purposes, so the size is necessary. Us soldiers only own a portion of it, while the rest is split up between the government & any independent party who has the money to rent an area." He gave me a short explanation. "You're only seeing a fraction of it right now."
"Hm." I didn't bother asking anything else. It'd be better to save my questions for the captain, since that sounds like the rank of somebody who knows things.
Speaking of, I think we're here.
Mr. Mustache stopped walking and was now standing in front of a grandiose double door. Well, "grandiose" is a strong word. I only called it that because it was marginally fancier than all the other doors we passed up until now. It had crude engravings on each door that formed a tree in the middle, as well as an outline of what I assume is silver on the edges. Above the door, there was a shiny silver plaque that read "CAPT. MALLEY." Guess that's the captain Mr. Mustache mentioned.
The mustachioed man then proceeded to knock on the door 3 times.
"Come in." A female voice emanated from inside. Wasting no time, my mustache-having chaperone turned one of the door's silver knobs and opened it with a creak. Lotta silver in this place.
Stepping inside, the room itself was an odd mixture of fancy, bland, and disorganized. For example, very nice-looking bookshelves lined the wall to my right, but the books inside of it were scattered all over the place. The books themselves were also nothing special, most of them didn't even have writing on their spines.
I stopped criticizing the room and turned my attention to a desk that sat near the wall opposite the door. At the desk sat a woman, who looked at us as she pushed a stack of papers to the side. Her eyes widened a bit after she saw me enter the room, but then returned to normal less than a second later.
"Hm. So you've finally awakened, have you?" She directed her gaze at me. The woman's appearance was nothing special. She had long, brown hair that reached beyond the edge of the desk. Her skin was slightly paler than a normal individual, but not by a major amount. From where I was, her eyes looked to be a dark green, but it's hard to tell in this lighting. On that note, she had visible bags under her eyes. Her clothes consisted of the same medieval-esque outfit that I saw on the street, although it was colored in a deep purple.
"Ahem." She then cleared her throat, still staring at me. It then dawned on me that I've just been looking at her for the past 15 seconds.
"Oh- ah, right. He said you wanted to see me?" I gestured to Monsieur Mustache.
"That I did." She turned her gaze over to him. "Bruno, you are dismissed." Bruno, huh? Damn, I still had a few more mustache names in the chamber.
"Huh? But capta-" Bruno attempted to refuse.
"No buts. It's late, and you need rest. Tell Kenji to take up the rest of your patrol." She glared at him.
"...He won't be happy about that, captain." Bruno sighed.
"Tell him the captain ordered him." She then shooed him off with her hand. "Now, go."
"Very well." Bruno quickly bowed and left the room, shutting the door behind him.
With him gone, I turned back around and faced the woman at the desk. We stared at each other for a couple of seconds.
"Take a seat." She ordered. She sounded a bit angry, but I'm gonna go ahead and assume that's from how tired she was. Not wanting to make it worse, I obliged and sat in one of the two chairs that sat across from her. We stared at each other for a few more seconds before she began to speak. "Judging by what Bruno told me, you must be pretty confused right now." Her hands rested on the desk.
I nodded, but didn't say anything.
"Hm. Well, before I tell you anything, you must answer a question from me first." Her glare intensified. "How did you get in the village?" I shifted slightly under her gaze and gave a half-hearted shrug. Her brow furrowed. "Don't play with me, outsider!" She raised her voice.
"I'm bein' serious." I replied. "This don't make sense to me neither." I proceeded to give a short recap of the things that had happened to me so far, starting when I read that fuckin' note.
...Speaking of, I don't seem to have it on me anymore. I couldn't remember dropping it. Then again, I didn't see it after I arrived either. Weird.
"Hmm..." The captain hummed. "That is... not something that has happened before." She sighed. "Most of the outsiders in Gensokyo die before they even find the village. You're lucky that you just showed up." She scratched the back of her neck and stood up. She was around my height. "I'd interrogate you more, but I'm way too tired." She yawned and began walking to the door. "Come, I'll show you where you'll be staying."
I raised an eyebrow. "You're letting me stay here?" I stood.
"Well, it's necessary. You are still undocumented, and I don't entirely trust your story. It'd be best to keep you close for the time being." She moved to open the door, and I followed her.
"...Makes sense." I uttered. I then wordlessly followed her through the winding hallways until we reached one with a series of rooms.
She turned around to face me. "This is where our soldiers sleep. One of the rooms opened up recently, so I'll let you stay in there until things get sorted out." We then walked a bit further in before she stopped and pointed to a room with the label "1224." "This is where you'll be staying. Make sure to remember the number so you don't get lost."
I nodded, making a mental note of it. "Uh... thank you."
She didn't acknowledge my thanks. "I know you just woke up, so I doubt you'll be sleeping any time soon. Therefore, I'll allow you to get yourself acquainted with the village. However, I expect you to be back by sunrise." She glared at me again.
"...Really? What if I just... don't come back?" I questioned.
She smiled a bit. "We have eyes & ears all over the village. If we want to find you, we will find you."
"...Ok." I didn't really have anything to say to that.
She once again stared at me for a few seconds before turning to walk back to her office. "If that's all, then I'll be going." She began moving.
"Actually, I have one more question." I stopped her. She turned around to look at me. "...Where's the restroom?"
She sighed and pointed down the other end of the hall. "Down that way, take a left. It has a sign out front, can't miss it." Her eyes then widen a bit. "Ah, damn it, I forgot to ask your name." She looked at me expectantly.
"...Henri." I monotoned. She raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
"Very well, Henri. I will see you in the morning." She then began walking away. "You can find the exit on your own." With that, she disappeared around the corner.
Sighing, I began my journey over to the restroom. After following her instructions, they turned out to be accurate. It only had one door, so I assume it's intersex.
Stepping inside, it seemed like your typical modern bathroom, porcelain and everything. Weird, considering how everything else was built. Although, it's best not to think about it right now, cause I had something else to do.
I stepped over to the toilet and threw up. The contents of my stomach spilled out of my mouth like a waterfall. My heart sank below my chest; my throat & mouth burned painfully as stomach acid ripped its way out of my body. It stopped for a moment and continued again. My entire body twitched as I heaved, and my arms struggled to support themselves on the edge of the toilet bowl. Even when I had nothing left to expel, my body still heaved and twitched as if it wanted my organs themselves to exit from my mouth. After a long few minutes, it finally subsided.
I fell backward and sat against the wall, my knees curled up to my chest and my hands clutched to my head. Sweat dripped across my face, and I didn't even bother to wipe the saliva from my mouth.
That woman mentioned something about a "Gensokyo," and how "outsiders" like myself would commonly die before reaching this village.
...Die from what? Wildlife? That doesn't make sense. She made it sound like it was rare for anybody to find this place. If it was just simple wildlife, surely more people would end up here?
More importantly, what the hell is Gensokyo? Is that the place I'm in? The village? The country? The architecture outside was vaguely Japanese, but they're still speaking English.
And the biggest question of all:
How the FUCK did I get here?