I don't know what happened during that car ride. What the men talked about or how long I was out or how long the ride was. One moment I was rolling around the inside of a van while blinded to waking up with my vision restored but looking around a room that I had never been in. I was laying on a couch that was more comfortable than the van's floor with a thin blanket over me. The blanket fell to the floor as I got to my feet. My clothes, a short sleeve black t-shirt, skinny jeans that had tears on the knees and shins, and basic sneakers, were all on with no signs of having been removed.

I walked away from the couch and towards a window. Peering through the blinds I saw we were a few floors up with a building right outside blocking my view from anything I could use to tell where I was. Turning my back to the window I looked around the apartment. It seemed completely normal and lived in. The only oddity was there were no photos of anyone I could see. Not on any shelf or table or even hung on a wall nor was there a television despite the couch being set across from a TV stand that had the room for a good sized TV. Against the walls were a few doors, three of them closed. The one opened was a small bathroom and from where I stood I saw the sink and that it had no tub but a standing shower. Two of the closed doors were basic and the third had a chain lock.

One of the basic doors began to open and out came someone who seemed much older than me. He looked at me and froze for a moment before heading towards the kitchen. It was as though he was surprised to see me up but nothing deeper. I always saw a similar look on my mother's face late at night when I was out of my room and she was sneaking from hers with a cigarette in her hand despite saying she had quit. I watched the man over the kitchen counter which was less than ten feet from me. He crouched out of sight and I heard a cabinet open then close before he rose again with a frying pan in his hand. The man turned on his stove and placed the pan on it. For a few seconds he stared at the pan then turned to me. I heard the blinds get bent and a thud against glass before I realized I had backed into the window. The man didn't look threatening nor did he sound so when he spoke.

"Want something to eat?" he asked in an uncaring almost monotone voice. All I could do was stare at him. When I didn't respond he turned back and opened his fridge, pulled something out, closed it, then placed a carton of eggs on the counter. He cracked some eggs into the pan and placed the shells back in the carton before putting the carton back in the fridge. At some point in the cooking he spoke again. "You can leave if you want."

I didn't speak or move from my spot. Not until his eggs were done and plated, he turned the stove off, and left the kitchen to sit on the couch. That was when I began to slowly walk to the door with a chain lock only speeding up for my last few steps. Before opening the door I looked at him but he only ate his eggs. Even from where I stood I could see that they were scrambled but overcooked in some spots and too runny in others. Yet he ate on. I opened the door and stepped into the hallway and turned back as I closed it. He never looked up at me.

The hallway was a straight shot down to an elevator with a dusty maintenance sign hanging from the door. A stairwell was off to the side and without a choice I went inside. Immediately I noticed a rancid smell that I couldn't describe that made me want to leave. I did my best to endure it and began to walk down the steps. The walls were covered in graffiti that ranged from gang marking, to a random kid with a spray can, to an artist using what they had. If I wasn't in a strange place smelling something stranger I would've stayed to look for more than a glance.

On the bottom floor I saw a counter with no one behind it and glass doors with iron bars in front and behind them. Luckily the front wasn't locked and I was able to step out into the world. The first thing I noticed was that graffiti wasn't limited to the stairwell and seemed to touch every building around. There was trash in the gutters and getting blown across the street and sidewalk. Despite how early it was there were still people walking or driving around. However most of the ones walking were homeless in dirty and tattered clothing who mostly stood around trying to warm themselves.

None of the buildings seemed familiar to me so I just started walking. Eventually I found a street sign but neither of the streets it listed I had heard before so I kept walking. I thought of asking someone for help. For directions or to let me use their phone or even possibly give me a ride home but I never did. No one I saw on the streets seemed like they wanted to stop for anything and none of the apartments I passed seemed welcoming.

The only piece of hope I found was seeing a parked police car outside of someone's home. I picked up my pace and headed towards it before stopping. A police officer emerged from the building with an uneven smile, a messy uniform, and even messier hair. It was as if he had woken not minutes before leaving or had never slept to begin with. A woman came out from inside the same as him but she wore nightwear and didn't smile. She seemed ashamed of what might've happened in the hours before. I waited until the cop had driven off and the woman went back inside before continuing on.

I found myself seeing the same unfamiliar buildings and streets over and over. Despite trying to tell myself that they were only similar looking I realized I was going in circles. Even with that knowledge I kept finding myself discovering a street I had never seen before seeing it several times more.

Hours passed and my legs felt flimsy as if I would fall over at any moment. My stomach didn't feel much better since I only had a few bites of dinner the night before and nothing to eat since. I asked someone I passed where I could get something to eat. They looked me up and down like they didn't know what I was. I asked again and they pointed down the street. When I looked I couldn't see anything, neither a restaurant or sign advertising one and when I turned back to the person they were already walking past me.

There was no choice for anything else so I just walked straight. A few blocks later I found a convenience store. Inside there were only a couple people besides the clerk and I went into an aisle that had no one. There wasn't any snack or candy that looked bad to me. Everything made my stomach growl. I grabbed at random off the shelves and went into the back with the fridges and got a large water bottle. Once the line at the counter was cleared I marched up and placed my stuff on it. The clerk began to scan my items and I watched as they moved bag by bag. I patted my pockets and felt nothing. I knew I had no money when I entered but I was too hungry and entered anyway. When the clerk began to turn over something in their hands while searching for the barcode I grabbed a couple of things and the water and turned to run out of the store.

I had been too focused on the clerk and waiting for an opportunity to run from them that I never looked at the door. Had I done so I would have noticed someone walking in as I tried to leave. I bumped into them hard and fell back on the floor. Looking up at the person I bumped into, I saw it was the same man from the apartment. My eyes went wide at the sight of him and his were only half surprised. By now the clerk had come from around the counter and stood over me.

"You have to pay for those," he said. The man looked away from me.

"Did she try to steal?" he asked in the same voice as that morning.

"Yes she did."

"Oh," the man looked down at me before going back to the clerk. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash and slipped a few bills from it and handed it to the clerk who looked at it confused. The man seemed a little annoyed. "Take it."

The clerk obeyed, slowly, and took the cash to the register. I don't know how much he gave him but I knew it was too much. The man reached his hand down for me and I took it. Before I could try and get on my feet the man pulled me up until I was standing straight.

"Get your stuff and leave," he said. He turned from me and walked down one of the aisles out of sight. I gathered up what I dropped and what was left on the counter and headed outside with a bag to hold it all. I'm not sure why I did it, but I stayed just outside by the door until the man came out. He had taken longer than I thought and by the time he finally came out I was sitting down and had eaten two of my snacks and chugged almost half my water. He noticed me on the ground. "Didn't I say to leave."

"I need help," I said. At that moment I didn't know why he was the one person I asked that to. As opposed to anyone I saw before or even the clerk of the store. I also didn't know why he would help me and he didn't either.

"Why?"

"Please. I just need help getting home and I...don't know where," I felt my heart begin to beat faster and I didn't know what words to say. I never looked away from the man even when my eyes began to get watery. He looked from me and into his plastic bag. He pulled out the two things he bought and handed me the bag before saying to follow him. I had to quickly put everything I had into the bag since he started to walk away without waiting for me. I had wished he stayed behind to help me get to my feet since when I did it on my own, I almost fell back down due to how wobbly my legs were.

When I caught up I walked a couple feet behind him. We walked a few blocks until we were somewhere I immediately recognized as the apartment building I woke up in. I followed him through the same areas I walked through in the morning and held my breath in the stairwell. When we were back in his apartment I stood by the door and scanned the room as if I had not been there already. He went into his room and came out to sit on the couch and looked at me.

"Why do you need help?" he asked.

"Because, I don't know where I am," I said almost stiffly. It wasn't as though I didn't care that I was away from home and lost, I did. But after stuttering at the store I went over in my head multiple times what to say when he asked me how to help.

"Where do you live?"

I told him my city, Eterna, and his eyes got a little wider. He asked me how I got lost and I told him about the events of the previous night, however I shortened it to when I was walking home. When I said how I felt someone grab me he seemed for the first time genuinely surprised and his eyes went wide.

"Do you know what city you're in now?" he asked. His eyes turned back to normal.

"Are we not in Eterna?"

"We're in Jubilife."

I backed into the door at his information. I knew of Jubilife, with it being the largest city in my state, but had never been. Though I knew it was a long way from Eterna and that it was much bigger as well. Jubilife was large enough that you could ask a hundred people from it about the city and get a hundred answers. I knew people from Jubilife who would only ever mention the negatives. Even the nicest of neighborhoods people would avoid after dark. I could tell the man had some idea of what I was thinking as he appeared sympathetic and looked down without a word. I slid down until I was sitting on the floor.

After some time, the man spoke up and asked me my name. It took a few seconds but eventually I turned to him and answered. He looked away and nodded. It was silent for a while until he spoke up again.

"I'll help you get back to Eterna," he said.

"Really?" I asked in a tone that made it seem as if I wouldn't believe him no matter what he said.

"Yeah. Tonight I was going to meet some people. They'll be able to help you," he said.

"Okay."

He nodded at me and stood and walked towards his room and closed the door, leaving me alone. I didn't realize but I had forgotten to ask his name. I wouldn't learn it until later that night.