Act I. Part II

[Meanwhile at the school]

"Here we go sir, all the permission slips from our class." Said Mila as she handed the forms in her hand to Laveda who was seated by his desk.

"Thank you very much—" As Mr. Laveda was thanking Mila, his calm expression changed to one of worry and fear. "Did someone go out during the rain?"

"No..." She said slowly. "Actually, Ryu left right before it started." She blurted out quickly after remembering.

Mr. Laveda got up from his desk and walked up to the coat hangers that were in the corner of the faculty room, and gently pulled out his brown trench coat, as well as an umbrella that hung next to it.

"Hurry, we have to go find him." He said to Mila with a stern expression.

The two begin running through the school's corridors. As they were rushing through, they passed by Toshiko. He took a look at the two and noticed their troubled expressions.

"What's happening?" He asked, but they didn't even hear his question and passed him by. "Hold on!" He shouted as he also began running.

[Back at the street]

Mr. Laveda, Mila, and Toshiko arrived to see Ryu, completely soaked by the rain. They ran towards him with expressions of worry, paying no heed to the woman beside him,

"What happened to you? Didn't I tell you not to leave until the rain passes?" Mr. Laveda scolded.

Ryu scratched the back of his head, let out a breathy chuckle, and began to explain what happened,

"All things considered I'm fine, just cold." He finished as he shivered.

"As long as you're alright, it's okay. Make sure you leave immediately because you don't want to catch a cold." He said with a smile. "I'll take these two back with me. After all, all their belongings are still at school." Finished Laveda.

Ryu felt comforted to see that his teacher and friends cared that much about him. As he watched them leave, a small warm smile formed on his face.

They were one of the few things that brought color to his life.

The warm and fuzzy feeling was quickly interrupted when he let out a loud sneeze, immediately remembering he was still soaked. But he remembered another thing as well. He quickly turned around,

"I never got your---" He said as his words disappeared as quickly as he said them.

He looked around for the woman, but she was nowhere to be seen. She was just gone.

Ryu then began to run towards the train station which was close to where he was, he didn't actually go very far during the rain. He arrived at the now-open station and reached the platform just in time for the train. The inside of the train was packed, meaning he had to stand.

"Strange, I don't remember seeing this many people outside. They must have stayed indoors... unlike me." He thought to himself as he let out a small laugh.

The train conductor announced their departure and the train began to move. Ryu stared at the windows by one of the doors, that had the sight of the station platform slowly moving away from view. This was a sight he was met with every day for the last four years of his life. The whirring of the wind, the metal chugging sound, the noise of a full cart. He let out a deep sigh.

But today something caught his eye, he stared dumbstruck by the sight on the other side of the doors of the train, it was the woman he met out on the street. She now stood on the station platform looking into the cart. Ryu could only think she was there for him. She seemed to be saying something, but he couldn't hear her at all. Despite this, he knew what she said. He heard her voice as clear as her being directly in front of him. But the train soon left the station behind it as it picked up speed.

After a while, Ryu found a place to sit, and he did what he would normally do in that noisy train car.

Sleep.

[Black]

[Opens eyes]

Woken up by odd silence, raised his head to check where he was. To his surprise, it was empty. He got up and walked to the end of the cart and peaked through the doors leading to the other cart, and it was empty as well.

Ryu started to panic. He took a seat to collect his thoughts – But there was no point in doing that, he thought to himself. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. While his eyes were closed he began to feel a strange sensation. One that could be likened to feeling a small tremor. He slowly exhaled and opened his eyes.

What he saw he couldn't describe, it was like the air before him was vibrating, leaving squiggle-like patterns all around him. But these vibrations were concentrated right Infront of him. The vibrations became stronger and the squiggle patterns began to violently move. Ryu stretched his hand out to the concentration before him, the moment he made contact, in an instant all the light, color, and sound around him was swallowed up. It was all gone.

He opened his eyes and before him was a dark and desolate place, with what seemed to be pieces of land hanging in the air. The sky was pitch black, no sun, no stars nor moon could be found. He then looked at his feet and was under him changed from metal and cabling to a glowing, glass-like, white floor. Before fear and uncertainty, Ryu felt wonder and awe. The floor looked like it had what was in the sky underneath it. Despite the glowing of the floor, it didn't seem to illuminate the space it occupied.

Ryu started to walk and the instant he placed his foot on the ground, ripples followed. He knelt to touch the ground, that action alone sent larger ripples across the floor but to his surprise, it was as hard as thick glass. He stared at the floor in confusion but soon got up and began walking.

After an immeasurable and uncertain amount of time, he started to make out structures in the sky of darkness, above and below the glowing floor. He began hearing indistinct noises as soon as he started to see the structures, and as he moved closer, he seemed to move further away at the same time. He followed the noises for what seemed to be forever without its source being found.

He found himself on a hill and was finally able to see where the sounds were coming from. He peered over the hill and saw people moving around. He couldn't make out what they looked like because of the nature of the light, but as soon as he heard their voices, he knew Toshiko and Mila were down there.

Overjoyed by this discovery. He started to call out to the people below him, as he ran down the hill. He slowly started to recognize some of the other figures, and he realized his father and siblings were there. He started to laugh out of relief.

"EVERYONE! Is everybody okay?" He asked with a smile.

"Ryu? Where did you come from? His father asked, overjoyed as well.

"I was on the train and I fell asleep. Once I got up, I was here." Ryu answered.

"And yes, everyone here is okay. We all found ourselves here." Added Toshiko's grandfather. He was a surprisingly fit and energetic man, despite his old age.

Toshiko's grandfather began to do a roll call and the people present were; Ryu, his father, and his two siblings. Toshiko, his grandparents, as well as Mila, and her mother.

Toshiko's grandfather seemed to have automatically elected himself as the leader and no one minded.

"Before we move onto any other topics I'd like to do a count of the facts in our...peculiar situation." Said Toshiko's grandfather. He spoke in an authoritative tone and everyone knew they were in good hands just after that.

"As of now, there are no facts for we all know nothing of this place so even if you say that.." Said Mila.

"The solution to that problem is by asking the most important questions," Said Ryu's father who looked like a scruffy and clean man all at the same time with his ill-shaved beard. "Where are we, how did we get here, why are we even here, do we have food and water, and finally what time it is."

"Why is the time important?" Asked Toshiko with a confused expression, wondering at what the priorities were.

"Shush Toshiko he's right we do need to know the time to plan against things like the creatures of this strange place. Sadly, my watch stopped working."

"Do you think it's because of you coming here? Because my phone has been off since I came here" Asked Ryu's father.

"Oh no." He laughed, "My watch stopped working 30 years ago long before any of this."

The interlude broke and the group ran through the questions, and Toshiko's grandfather moved on to assigning roles to quickly prepare for the common threats despite the concept of day and night being foreign there.

Ryu sat next to his siblings trying to keep them distracted. Ryu's father had taken a seat earlier because he felt weak but he got up and added,

"For now, our immediate concern should be looking for drinking—"

But before he could finish, he started choking and spitting out blood. He fell to his side and continued coughing out blood. Ryu rushed to him trying to help his father but was ultimately clueless.

He raised his head to ask for help but could only see his brother and sister. He stopped panicking for a split second as he kept his eyes on his siblings, Their eyes began to turn completely red, blood then started to run down their cheeks like tears.

It was in the rest of the very second that their eyes met. Their upper bodies slid off their torsos and made a dull thud sound as soon as they hit the ground. They were both split cleanly in half. It was as if time stopped before because he could see their faces quickly transition to pain-filled expressions as if they weren't laughing a minute ago. His heart stopped and thoughts went into a flurry, he began to grind his teeth and hold his throat about to scream, but no sound came out of his mouth, as he watched the horrific scene unfold before him.

At that moment, a figure behind his brother and sister's corpses became clear. A figure he could make out more clearly than anyone he had seen since coming to this unfamiliar world... A tall dark-skinned man in a black turtleneck, worn under a long white trench coat with black buttons. He had slick, short, ash-colored hair with shaved sides. Ryu locked eyes with the man and the man responded with a menacing, and domineering smile.

In a matter of seconds, his head was filled with one thought and one thought only. Self-preservation had completely taken over him. His entire body screamed at him to carry out the one thought on his mind...

"run"

He began to run, run, run, run and run until everything went back to the first landscape he had seen. Dark. Empty. Upside down.

He began to hear a scream, the loudest sound he had heard since arriving in that strange place. Struck by a feeling of heaviness, he collapsed. Every part of his body felt stiff. Still hearing the scream, he began to ask himself,

"Where is that scream coming from?

Oh, that's my voice isn't it?"

He lost consciousness after this realization.

end