Stall 12

A megaphone echoed out across the soccer field "Welcome everyone, to the fifth game of the inter high school soccer tournament. We'll be kicking today off with our senior teams shortly."

Crowds of people chatter; bustling around food tents and the seating stands.

"Alright boys, you heard the megaphone, hurry up and finish getting changed" coach Hughes calls out, standing just outside the doorway of the change room.

Today wasn't anything special, just your average weekly weekend match between competing high schools. The team had so far found itself undefeated, largely due to our exceptional captain Noah and certainly no help from myself. I'm just a sub, and not a very good one at that. But hey, I enjoyed the sport regardless.

Today I was changing in the toilet, the twelfth stall to be precise. All the way down the end of the change rooms in the furthest corner from the door. I've never exactly been fond of changing in front of people and today wasn't going to be an exception to that.

Undoing the tie at the top of my bag I began to sort out my uniform. Shirt check, shorts check, shoes.. check, and erm, socks.... I know I packed them in here somewhere...

Turning my bag upside down I emptied its entire contents onto the floor of the stall. Nothing, no socks at all. How is that even possible, I specifically remember packing them last night... I paused for a moment, giving myself some time to think... They must have fallen out of my bag in the car or on the way to the change room maybe. "Guess I'll go check the car" I begrudgingly mumbled.

As I unlocked the stall and pulled the door open a gust of wind blew across my face. Thinking nothing of it I stepped outside, just.. there wasn't anything to step on to. The floor was just gone, the change rooms were just.. gone...

You know that feeling when you miss a step walking down a stair case? The fleeting moment of dread that wells up in your stomach? That's the feeling, just.. there wasn't a third step to catch me.

"What in the F*CK" I shouted as I found myself falling at a near 90 degree angle, destination unknown. Face against the wind my eyes refused to open any more than a sliver, whatever it was that lay below I certainly couldn't see it. Tilting my head either side proved to be just as fruitless as all I could make out was a blur.

A few seconds passed as I continued to plummet, then, appearing out of nowhere and rapidly approaching I could just barely make out a white surface.

OOMF

I'd landed.. I'd landed and I wasn't dead. Jumping immediately to my feet I slapped the palms of my hands to either side of my face. I was still intact, I was still in one piece and to my amazement I was completely unharmed.

Thankfully it would seem what ever the hell I'd landed on was soft. As for where I was, that was another question entirely.

As the residual adrenaline surged through my body I took a moment. A moment to process what had just happened. Seconds ago I was in stall 12. I was on my way out to go find my socks and before I could react I was falling. Now I'm here, standing on the soft surface that had saved my life.

Looking down at the surface it appeared to be made of large, tightly woven threads. Just, the threads were a lot larger than any thread I'd ever seen before. Oddly enough, it smelt good too, a floral clean scent that reminded me of fresh laundry.

"C'mon Lewis! Finish changing already, everybody but you and Ryan are out on the field warming up" a voice boomed from behind me.

Startled, I spun around to the direction I'd heard the voice. There, standing in what appeared to be the doorway to the change room was Mason, only he seemed so far away. On top of the distance was he bigger? Like A LOT BIGGER? Rubbing my eyes I attempted focus as I stared in disbelief. There's no way...