♠ ♦ Alice in Borderland ♣ ♥

4

'Kairi, you need to wake up.'

Immediately, I do what my brother's voice has told me to do. My eyes shoot open, searching wildly for that one face I've so desperately missed every day for the past three years. In vain. Kaito isn't really here.

That realization isn't the only thing that gives me a knot in the stomach. Suddenly the images from the ceiling coming towards me and landing on top of me come back. What happened? How did the ceiling fall apart and how did I survive? No, not only did I survive, there's not a scratch on my arms or legs.

Effortlessly, I lift my head and look, but there's no sign of any kind of impact anywhere. Yet the impact must have been great enough to destroy this building. That didn't happen. The ceiling is even completely intact. A little dusty and worn, but still intact.

Have I gone mad? Didn't it actually happen?

I look around and see everyone in my group of friends lying on the floor. Pure shock and fear starts flowing through my veins when I see my cousin. My arms and legs prop up the rest of my body and I quickly approach him. 'Soran?' I ask concerned, but he doesn't respond. 'Soran?' I put my hands on his shoulders and gently shake him from side to side.

I'm back on the street, watching my brother get taken to the ambulance on a stretcher. The employees look at each other and shake their heads. No, that can't be true. I call my brother's name, who always responds when I need him. But this time, he doesn't respond. He'll never respond again.

'Soran!' I can't lose him, too. I just can't. My body begins to tremble and I feel increasingly miserable the longer he remains unresponsive. 'Don't yell like that,' I hear Eymi groaning a few feet away, but I pay no attention to her. 'Soran!'

'Hhm?' he mumbles. I never expected that a cry like this could bring all my hopes back. I didn't realize I had tears in my eyes until I force them back. My throat starts to sting. 'Kairi?' Soran mumbles when he has opened his eyes and looks around questioningly. 'What-'

He grabs his head, as if he felt a sting there, and then looks at me in astonishment. 'I could swear I was crushed by the ceiling...' Only now does he look at me closely. I can tell he's confused by my reaction: I'm kneeling next to him, concerned and relieved at the same time, fighting back my tears. 'I thought you might not...' I start to explain superfluously, but my voice can't follow through. He puts his hand on my arm and lifts the corners of his mouth slightly to reassure me, but I can still tell from him that my reaction surprises him.

The others around us are also starting to wake up, all without a scratch or broken bone. 'What the fuck,' Reo mumbles. 'It's like we've had one big LSD trip. You also saw how those fireworks came straight at us and created a big, gaping hole, didn't you?' Of all the people out there, he looks at me, probably because he thinks I'd be the last person of all of us to do drugs. Although I haven't seen the gap, I understand the gist of his question very well. I nod. 'Yes,' I reply, 'that really happened.'

'And yet the ground outside is still intact,' Asami says before looking up, 'and the ceiling hasn't collapsed.' Half of the group react annoyed. 'If it's some stupid joke of someone, I'll end him.' Reo looks around and walks down the hall, looking for other students or teachers. 'Hey, you think you're funny, huh?!' he yells, but there's no response. We arrive at the room where we sat before I started to feel the vibrations. Our stuff is no longer there.

'Shit, do you know how expensive my bag was?!' Yoshua exclaims in annoyance. 'If I find out who stole it...' he threatens. Several members of our group go back into the hallway, but I keep looking at the tables. There are all kinds of stuff on the floor that hadn't been there before. Our own stuff is gone. How is that possible? Something's wrong.