Lock and Key

Part 1

Blue. The colour blue was all i remembered. Everything was so......blue. Various shades of blue bled through my vision. Teal and cyan and turquiose and sky blue and navy blue and....... So many shades of the same colour assaulted my vision, overloading my processing abilities. I woke up on what felt like wood. I slowly opened my eyes, each eyelid feeling unbelievable heavy. I pushed myself up into a sitting position, my back aching. A fog covered my eyes, and all I could make out was shapes and colours. Slowly, my vision cleared, and I began to discern the surroundings. I was on a ship. On the deck of the ship, to be precise. The mast was an impressive boreal, reaching through the sky with majestic, crimson red sails at each side of it. The entire ship was coloured black, even the wood. Far to the end of it, I could see a door. Probably leading into the inside of the ship. From what little I could see, cannons lined the sides of the ship, each cannon polished to a shining finish. I stood up, legs protesting, and looked around. From where I was, my vision was limited to only the sides of the ship. A bluish mist permeated everything else outside of it, completely obscuring any signs of the environment the ship was in. I walked to the side of the stern, and peered into the fog, trying to make out a shape. Make out anything. Nothing. I could see nothing but the fog. With an unsettling feeling, I realized that it was completely still. The ship did not move at all. No lapping of waves against the sides of the ship, no cries of the seagulls, nothing. Complete silence. I could hear nothing, feel nothing, see nothing. The length of the ship was about 20 feet, and took me 5 minutes to walk the entire way to the other side of the ship. The ship was also eeriely empty and quiet. No one was on the ship. Not even a steering wheel adorned the helm. All I could see was the door at the end. 

I made my way towards the door. Maybe someone was inside. Maybe something was in there. A map. Anything. Anyone. As I got closer to the door, something in my hand began to heat up. The nearer I got, the warmer it became. I looked down at my hand, and found that I was gripping a small key. The key had ornate carvings on the head, and the entire length of the key felt like nothing I had ever seen in the world. It looked like metal, but the texture suggested it to be of cotton when I touched it. How long had this been in my hand? Ever since I woke up? I looked at the tip of the key. It was smooth. What kind of key doesn't have cuts in it? How was it supposed to open anything? A lock? I stared at it for a while, puzzled. While looking at the key, I suddenly noticed what I was wearing. My shoes were leather, like dress shoes. My shirt was plain white, cotton. My cargo pants were sea green, with a multitude of pockets adorning it. How had I gotten here? I wondered for the first time. Where was I? What was going on? Why am I here? I continued towards the door, and by now the key was steaming. When I reached the boreal wood door, I searched for a keyhole or a doorknob, but all I found was a smooth surface. Up close, it looked less like a door and more like a solid wall. What is this thing? I wondered, and looked around, scowling. I looked up, and my eyes picked up something that resembled a rip. Like a rip in a piece of cloth. Except this one was floating in the air. I frowned, trying to understand what it was. Without warning, the key I held in my hand starting pulling me towards the rip. My entire hand followed its motion upwards, and surprised, I let it guide me. My arm stretched towards the tear, and my key was just short a few inches of touching it. The key was now physically on fire, but I felt nothing. In fact, it now felt cold. Flames curled off the entire length of the key, and the key was pulling on me, but my arm had reached its limit. I was now on tiptoe, but so close to the rip. I jumped in an attempt to reach it. I jumped, my feet leaving the floor, and when I landed, it took less time to land than it did for me to jump upwards. I looked down and saw that I was levitating. Freaked out, I panicked. My immediate thought was that I was falling, but when I took a step back, I was still on solid ground. I examined the ground more carefully. It was as if I was standing on a plank, a completely transparent plank. I turned my attention back to the rip, and now the rip was at the height of my head. I reached up, and touched the key to the rip. The rip swirled, and formed a perfect circle. Just right for the key. I slid the key in, and turned it. The key slid out, and the tear dissolved. Reality began to fracture, a giant gash in the air appearing right before me, and I backed away. Where my feet anticipated solid ground, there was none, and I found myself falling backwards into nothingness as reality continued to break and crumble. I fell through the ship as if glitching in a video game, and continued falling through the mist. I was surprisingly calm. I closed my eyes, willing wherever this fall would take me to take me there quickly.

"She has discovered what the AI can do. We'll just have to wait until she finds us." Mogar stood up from his chair and walked to the window opposite it. The walls radiated all shades of blue, from teal to cyan to sky. He signed, closing his eyes from the view outside. "All we can do now is wait."