It was cold, he idly noticed. The rain was far colder than anything he'd grown up with in Florida. He scrolled social media mindlessly as he tried to pass the time while waiting for his family to order coffee, a crowd buzzing around him. 'Seriously, what is taking them so long?'It was bad enough they dragged him to France for a vacation, but making him wait so they could get their dirt water? Great. just great– " Aah!".
The sound of screams and shouts tore him away from his sulking "He has a knife!" he heard someone in the crowd shout before he noticed the sound of footsteps pounding toward him, splashing in the fallen rain. He saw it in slow motion, the sounds of the pouring rain and the chaos of the people faded away.
He froze as a hooded figure dashed toward him faster than he could think, smashing into him with a punch, knocking him to the ground, and leaving him gasping for air with a sharp, burning, pain in his chest. Unable to get a single breath and with the taste of iron crawling up his throat, he looked down to where he had been hit. 'Blood?' He felt panic grip him while he looked at the red fluid pour out of his chest, still unable to breathe. "Ghrk". 'Please, help me,' he called to the crowd. Was he going to die? Why was no one helping him? Why was this happening?
"James!" Without oxygen he felt his mind begin to slip away, the edges of his vision darkening and the sounds becoming distant. "Come on, Kiddo stay with me! Oh god, oh god.". In the last seconds of his life, he recognized a distantly familiar figure holding him as his whole world faded to black.
The first thing he saw was the popcorned ceiling above and the sunlight peeking through the shuttered window lighting up the dust in the air. He blearily sat up on the mediocre bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. 'Ugh, I feel like hammered shit'. He stretched, yawning before suddenly jerking up, realizing what had last happened to him.
'The knife! The blood!' He lifted his shirt to check where he had been stabbed, "What… the fuck?" he said, finding bare, undamaged skin. 'What? I'm certain I was stabbed! Wait, where's Mom and Dad?" Quickly, he got up and searched the room. Seeing no immediate sign, he moved on to the open bathroom. Was he in a hotel? Couldn't they have–.
His blood ran cold. In the mirror, something was wrong. He wasn't greeted by the same face he had seen his entire life, inside the mirror was someone different. Someone he never before, had seen in his life. The colors were wrong, Gray hair, gray eyes, and if that wasn't enough, a wholly different face with sharp features and a fairly built frame.
"Wha-..." he trailed off, staring at the unfamiliar sight. He brought a hand to his face, watching the man in the reflection do the same. He leaned in, close enough to see the pores on 'his' skin. "... How? What even?". 'Wait. Haven't I read about this before?' His heart dropped at the revelation. 'A man goes through some mortal ordeal and wakes up as someone else, in a completely different world?'. Did he die? Was this purgatory? Or hell? No, He needed more information, for all he knew there was a perfectly good explanation for all this.
He turned on the tap while he tried to get his thoughts in order. 'Okay, what do I know? I was stabbed, suffocated, passed out, and woke up in a freaky Friday situation.' Alright, not looking so good on the 'Perfectly Explainable Circumstances' front. He splashed water on his face, trying to let the liquid soothe him.
"Alright," he said, clapping his face. He stepped into the bedroom and looked around. It was a dingy thing, with mindnumbing-beige walls, an old yellowed carpet, a chair with frayed seams, a beat-up table, and a full-sized bed that had seen better days, and an end table. Next to the bed, were two cases. A regular suitcase, and what appeared to be a long firearm case. Longer than any gun he'd seen. Not that he'd seen many. Naturally, his interest was piqued by the latter.
Unfortunately, the firearms case had a padlock on its latch, barring entry. Moving on to the suitcase, he flipped it open and sifted through its contents. Inside, were clothing and other traveling necessities, along with an identification card, forty-six dollars worth of bills that were completely foreign to him, a small steel bar with a camera on it, and a key. 'Wonder what that's for.'
Starting with the ID, it read:
Last Name: Grayson
First Name: Rain
Date of birth: 04/12/20XX
Ht: 5-10
Wt: 160
Eye: GRY
Sex: Male
"Rain? Who the hell names their kid something like that?". Unsurprisingly, the photo matched the face he was currently wearing. Moving on to the bar, he fiddled with it until he eventually found a seam down its middle. He pulled gently at both sides and, seeing that it hadn't broken, he pulled it to its full length to reveal a glass panel that lit up with a bright display that showed the time and date; Arabic numerals, and English characters, 8:12 AM, May 7th. Gregorian.
He held it up, 'A smartphone?'. Testing his theory, he swiped up on the screen for the facial recognition that opened up the home screen. He was lucky it had it, otherwise not knowing how he would unlock it. He held his thumb above the tell-tale web browser icon and sucked in a deep breath to calm his growing nerves. 'Alright, here goes nothing.'. Bracing himself, he tapped the icon.
It was… mundane. Political articles, Recipes, and plenty of ads. "What now?", he said dumbly. 'First things first: what is the planet called?' he felt stupid typing it. Looking at the results, he saw a 'Colorpedia' article titled 'Remnant'. He bit his lip and pushed aside the feelings of dread welling up within him. Maybe it meant 'Remnant of Earth'? 'It doesn't matter, either way, it isn't my world.' Scrolling down the page was a hyperlink, 'A Brief Recollection of the History of Our World, By Dr. Bartholomew Oobleck '. 'Huh, that's convenient.'.
"What. The. Fuck." He'd reached the end of the article after a not-insignificant amount of heavy reading and was too stunned to even begin digesting it. Magic rocks that had the power of various elements, magic powers that made people superhuman, animal people, giant freaking monsters? Humanity living in four walled cities to keep said monsters from destroying anyone and everyone? He knew the whole 'other world' thing might be possible but seriously? This was practically an apocalypse, albeit a forestalled one.
What was he supposed to do? He had barely any money, no friends, family, education, nothing. He didn't even know how much longer he could stay where he was, on top of being hungry. He was completely adrift with no way home if he was right about how he got here. With nothing else to do, he grabbed the key and moved over to the firearm case, unlocking it.
His breath hitched at the sight of a beautiful silver spear with some kind of mechanism integrated into its structure and engravings down its length. 'I guess Rain was training to be a huntsman.'. He contemplated the career path, 'It's dangerous.' he warned 'But what choices do I have? I have no other resources than the spear and no connections.' he argued. 'Anything would work! I Could flip burgers, wash dishes, anything would be a better idea.' he chastised. 'But I do not want to be unable to protect myself. Not like last time. And not in a world like this.'. He admitted. 'Besides, where do I begin? How do I find someone who could or even, would train me?'.
He wasn't even sure he accepted all this as reality, let alone plan such a ridiculous future. What he needed was to solve his immediate problems, i.e. food lodging, and work. 'Well,' he sighed, 'time to see how long I can stay here.'.
Hello if you've made it this far! This is my very first writing project, so please, any advice would be great, and don't go too hard on me. I realize it was a bit slow, things took longer than I thought to play out. It's also a bit short at 1300 words but it felt like a good enough stopping point, I felt things would drag on from here. Anyway, thank you very much for reading, I plan on uploading at least once a week. I hope I make something You can enjoy, take care. :)