It's all Inside

Chapter 2

       We ran. We ran as far as we could go, and we're still running straight into the unknown. Something dark and unsettling is taking place here. I can't shake this feeling. This all seems too surreal and moribund, the world spiraling out of control, but is it really? Or is it just the world in my head? How can Airan be here anyway? Is this even Airan? No. I have to get my mind away from this clinging paranoia, like a leech attached to my back that I can feel but can't reach. Now at least I have an answer to a question I was, eventually going to ask at one point in time. That is: Is there anybody else here with me? The answer, as I discovered just now: Yes. For better, I hope. Airan did save me, now that I think of it. What was that back there? Was it just my imagination, and was I seeing things? And... did Airan see it too? No... It's stupid to ask. Of course he saw it too. He's running with me for fuck's sake. 

      We're running side by side when I decide to say something to him. "I uh... sorry I punched you back there. I thought you were, um-"

    He's not saying anything, instead he wheezes and puts up a hand to my face for a second and runs ahead of me. It's windy, now, and the wind whisks what I say next into the wind.

    I noticed earlier the world changed when I ran from that scarecrow. I have no recollection of how it happened, and I try to rationalize it, but to no avail. How can everything change from a butterbur field to a bamboo forest in an instant?

    Maybe that... thing, was the killer? I'm lost. I guess you can say it kills yet I don't think these two things are related. 

   Airan slows to a stop and we're at the edge of a cliff. I spin around and just like last time, sure enough, everything has changed and apparently we went up a trail. Only I know we didn't. Did we? I'm positive we didn't. We were running against the underbrush and stems of bamboo trees. "W-What?" I can't help saying. 

   Airan turns to me and I get goosebumps. I have no idea what to expect, but he says "Sheer insanity isn't it? We stretched our limbs to get this far. How is your health?" Yeah this is the same old Airan.

  "I should ask you if your mouth is okay. Sorry about that. I thought you were the killer," I reply.

   He picks at the mark I gave him on his lower lip. "No need to fret, this isn't such a serious injury. Desperate measures have to be taken when... events, happen."

  "What was that back there, Airan?" My eyes widen and we stand against a wall of some sort, presumably hiding, I don't know. He can see the intensity in me to know and he shakes his head, his expression grim and unsure.

  You know, it appears to be impossible to tell the time here. Looking around and at the horizon, anyone could get the same impression. Can't explain how weird it is, but I can say it's something like being in the lobby for an emergency room all night by yourself waiting for news of how someone is doing, not once thinking about how long it has been. Then you fall asleep and wake up to the window showcasing stars.

  I... have no idea why I thought of this.

  "I do not know. I haven't the slightest clue, as well," he puts his hands in his pockets and kicks at rocks, lost in thought. "Something occurred... and we were, transported here I believe." He looks up at the sun in the sky setting, indicating it will soon by night time. "My memories are tampered with."

  "Tampered with?"

  "Yes-"

  "Mine are too."

  "What?" He stares at me in disbelief, and kicks a rock off a cliff.  "It appears this is true, then. The three of us are here with no memory... there are more out there. But-"