Shifters

A New Lead

The moment his eyes closed, instant regret set in as rather than being graced with a blissful dream, a nightmarish wave of flashing lights emitting from multicolored crystals shone directly into his face. Acutely aware that his eyes were still closed and his body was inert, the boy caught a flurry of movement out of the corner of his eye. Focusing a bit more the blurred scene blossomed into what felt like a prerecorded, visual message. Standing in front of him was the very same girl he'd seen earlier staring down at him from the ceiling.

"You," he began, "you're that girl from the mirror!"

Despite his certainty that he'd in fact spoken aloud, a look of surprise crossed his face as no audible words exited his mouth. Temporarily ignoring this fact however, he gave his undivided attention to the girl, who's form increasingly became clearer. Switching his gaze to her lips, he realized that she was trying to communicate with him, however, no words could be heard. Miming his inability to discern her words, the girl promptly flashed an understanding look, staring into space as if searching for an answer. After a momentary pause, the girl extended a hand, nodding to it as if beckoning him to grab hold.

Without any hesitation, he attempted to take her hand, however, the moment he drew closer, the light refracting from the crystals at his feet abruptly intensified at an uncomfortable rate. Closing his eyes in order to avoid the discomfort, the boy felt around blindly, stumbling as he struggled to find his target. Taking an educated guess as to where her hand was located, the boy leaped in that direction hoping that he was in fact correct. Unfortunately, rather than securing a landing, a sudden weightlessness overtook his entire body as if he'd entered a state of freefalling. Opening his eyes as traces of the once blinding light disappeared from his perception, a look of horror crossed his face as the scene of a rapidly approaching floor greeted him.

"Ouch," he grunted as pain erupted from his arms due to a hasty blocking maneuver.

Flipping onto his back as he recovered from his unplanned nosedive, another groan escaped from his lips as he noted the bed which he'd just plummeted from mere seconds ago. Partially sitting up in order to glimpse a view of his digital clock, he let himself fall back onto the floor as it read 2:12 am.

"It was just a dream," he muttered, placing a hand over his face before continuing, "and here I thought I'd be able to gain some clues pertaining to my situation."

Despite his relief, he'd secretly hoped that this entire ordeal in itself was just a dream and that he'd have woken up by now, however, as fate would have it, this was not the case.

"Looks like I'm still stuck here!" he cursed softly.

Deciding to recap what he knew rather than simply despairing, he rolled through what little he had to go on mentally, 'Let's see. I still don't know where I am,' he thought, staring all around him, "check," he muttered aloud, 'still have no memories?' he inquired mentally, attempting yet again to remember anything at all, "check," he continued after another failure, "Still massively screwed," he mouthed bitterly, "Check!"

Before he could progress any further, a sudden tug erupted from his gut, causing his eyes to open a bit wider, "Let's add a strong urge to use the bathroom to that list!"

Finding the strength to jump off of the cold floor, he rushed to his door, opening it noiselessly before stepping into the dim hallway. Although far darker than it was during the day, he was still able to spot two doors, one of which he concluded to contain what he needed. With the urgency of his bladder spurring him on, he rushed to the nearest door, twisting the knob silently only to reveal an exceptionally tidy and girly room. Situated in the center was a bed which held his supposed mother who slept peacefully in its embrace with wired earphones plugged snugly in her ears.