Omniscience

No Good Ending: Part One

Darkness, enveloping my sight in an inky embrace.

Yes, I know. That's what you call sleeping. But it didn't feel like that. More like someone - something was forcing my eyelids closed.

Then they opened.

Light rushed in and I gasped, in equal parts from the sudden - forced? - awakening and the sky above me.

I put my hands to either side and pushed myself into an upright position. Though a thought still nagged me.

Something's wrong.

With more important things on my mind, I shoved it aside.

I gripped the grass below me when it truly sunk in. I wasn't at home. I wasn't even in the garden, or in the same city, unless there was a secret cluster of tiny houses tucked away somewhere.

And if there was, why would I wake up here? Did someone take me here?

I stood up, unsteady for a few seconds. Wherever I was, I wasn't in any danger.

Who says? You?

"Shut up." I whispered.

And now you're talking to yourself. Because you won't let yourself believe that you're actually in danger.

I exhaled and set off to the nearest house.

I circled around the tiny building (seriously, why?) until I ended up on a street. All the doors faced it, including the largest, strangest looking one, with a sign saying LAB.

Hesitantly, I pushed down on the doorknob of the tiny house and the door opened immediately, revealing an equally tiny - but sort of quaint - living room. Only a living room.

I stepped into the room, and noticed something. There was dust on a few surfaces. How would it get there, if the others...

I went straight to the coffee table in the middle of the room and looked closely to it's surface. In places, there was patches of slight dust interwoven with clean streaks, as if someone had brushed some of the dust off the table a bit with his fingers and blown on the rest of the table in an attempt to clean it.

Now that I was really thinking, all the dust would be on places not accessible, such as the top of the cabinets, or where people wouldn't usually go, such as the edges of the corners.

I stared at the room. There had been people here. Was that good, or bad?

Turning on my heel, I left the room, which was leaving the house as well.

I entered the house to the left of the one in which I had just been, and then the next one, and the next one. The only thing I found in all of my searches was a lot more dust.

Oh, and some colorful posters depicting... colorful creatures? Anyway. It wasn't in any way useful, so I left them.

Finally I decided to go to the largest building, the lab.

Pushing open the still-unlocked door, I was greeted by the first useful object I'd seen. A brown, sturdy backpack.

I crossed the room straight to it and looked inside. Nothing, unfortunately. Except for a small note.

You left this at home.

My brows furrowed against my will. I was very confused. I'd never seen this bag before.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

Wow, you figured it out! A sarcastic voice said. Whoop-dee-doo, it only took you half an hour to realize you'll probably get sawn into pieces and killed!

Wait. Okay. Maybe I just forgot? I thought.

And someone just decided to kidnap you and take you over here, but isn't planning anything else at all?

I stumbled backwards, breathing accelerating.

Maybe it's a dream. Maybe it's all just a dream. 

I hit the wall, heart beating so fast it felt like I was running for my life. Still staring at that bag. I couldn't see that note from here, but I knew it was there. And that reminder merely sped up my breathing all over again. 

I sunk to the ground limply. This was it. I was going to die. 

The inside of my eyelids felt prickly. Why hadn't I just run? I'd spent precious time exploring for God's sake! How could I be so freaking stupid? Did I really think- 

Wait. I could still run. I'm not dead yet. 

I'm not dead yet. 

I forced myself to stand up and moved to the door, limbs heavy with fear. 

Taking a deep breath which did nothing at all because I was so scared, I opened the door and ran. 

I ran through the street, passing all of those tiny houses, and promptly hit an invisible wall. 

I bounced backwards, pain radiating from my skull. I stared at the air, like I'd stared at the backpack. 

There was a boundary. Impossible, but true. 

How? How the hell had they done it? And why make it invisible? Just to mess with my head? 

I covered my face with my hands and sobbed. I was well and truly trapped.  

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