King

Part 1 , Chapter 1- Awaken

Pain.

The dull, aching type. Not so intense that it brought tears to your eyes, but just noticeable enough that it hurts to move. That's how I would describe the feeling that shot through my body the second I gained consciousness.

Dull, aching pain that was focused in my arms and head. Sounds fun, right?

A slight wince echoed out of my throat as I slowly sat up, taking a second to process where exactly I was. Cold air filled the open space that I sat in, grey concrete resting underneath my palms and legs. My vision was still slightly blurry as I looked around this unfamiliar place that currently imprisoned me.

The grey concrete that made up the floor was also the material that the walls were. All of the walls and the ceiling, that was, except for the wall to my right. A bright reflective light bounced off of it and into my eyes, not exactly making my headache more manageable. The wall was transparent, with a room looking like a mirror image to mine on the other side of it. The only difference being a small heap of muted green cloth in a corner that looked strange, but wasn't attention grabbing.

It was only at this moment that my brain began to process the details of my surroundings. One of those details being an obnoxious beeping that made my head throb even more than it had been previously.

God. That noise makes me want to eat a bullet.

I slowly began to rise to my feet off of the floor, deciding to ignore the quiet screams that my body's making that tell me to stop. My eyes scanned the room in an effort to locate the origin of the noise that was currently driving me crazy, and eventually landed on a virtual clock that hung towards the top of the wall in front of me.

5:00.

4:59.

4:58.

It was counting backwards.

An ominous feeling quickly washed over my body as thoughts started to rush into my head.

What happens when it reaches 0?

I don't know what could possibly happen, but given the situation I'm in as of now, it can't be good.

I stepped back against the wall and took a second to evaluate the information I've gathered since I woke up.

I'm in a room. Alone. With no memory of how I got here. Or who I am. I just suddenly woke up in a fucking isolation chamber with no damn context whatsoever. Great. My eyes began to roam the room again, looking for anything that could give me a possible hint as to what the hell was happening. I found nothing.

The only thing I could think of doing is glancing back at the transparent wall that separates my room from the next- its reflective surface giving me the first look at myself I've gotten in I'm guessing what's been a while.

Everything looked just about the same, except for the variety of bruises that covered parts of my bronze-ish amber colored skin. The mess of deep brown curls that was my hair looked as frizzy and unkept as always. The only thing that was new were the endless amount of dirty bandages that covered the entirety of each of my arms, almost going up to my shoulders. The bandages were stained with what appeared to be blood and random filth. I had no recollection of what had happened to them that caused a need to be bandaged, but based on the pain in my arms and the stains on them, it couldn't have been pretty.

Just as curiosity was about to get the better of me, and I began to unwrap the bandages from my hands, a loud rumble started to shake the room I was in. In a state of alarm, my head whipped to the right. The thick glass wall that had been separating my room and the one next to mine was rising, removing the divide between me and the nothingness that occupied the next room.

However, as the pile of green cloth in the corner of the room to my right started to shift and stir, I soon realized that my assumption of it being void of life was more than likely wrong.

As the pile of cloth rose off the floor and turned towards me, its features became much more defined.

The pile of cloth was not in fact an inanimate object, but a small, chubby person. Short and wave-like blonde hair framed their circular face, going down to a bit above their shoulders. Their feminine facial features resembling those of a person of East Asian descent. Freckles adorned her cheeks and nose, right below her eyes, which twinkled a pale violet. Her physique overall reminded me of a small rabbit.

Before I could muster up the courage to speak, the girl quickly snatched a slingshot and a medium rock out of the pocket of her oversized sweatpants and aimed it directly at my face. Her body took the stance one would take to prep a bow and arrow, ready to shoot me.

"Who are you? Are you the sorry son of a bitch that brought me here?!", she demanded, though her voice and hands were shaking more than a chihuahua.

Ignoring her failed attempt to be intimidating, I slowly raised my hands up in surrender, trying to show her that I wasn't a threat.

"Look.... I'm in the exact same situation that you're in, buddy...", I say in the calmest way I could, taking a minuscule step in her direction, "Put the weapon down, and I'll tell you everything I know."

Which was, ya know, nothing.

The girl's stance subtly wavered, and soon enough, she lowered her sling shot and hesitantly walked towards me. I took a seat on the floor, my back leaning against the concrete wall. She stood in front of me, and although I was sitting on the floor, she wasn't much taller than me.

"Talk up...", her voice was softer than it had been before.

"Let me get this out of the way. I just woke up here. I have no memory of where I'm from, or how I got here. And I'm guessing the same goes for you....", I looked up at her, waiting for her to fill the blank in my last sentence.

"Genesis.", a stray strand of her hair was swept behind her ear by one of her frail fingers, "My name is Genesis."

"Ace.", I reached my hand out to hers, giving her a nice and formal handshake.

She let out a sigh and sat on the floor next to me.

"Well, Ace, I guess we're both kinda fucked."

I couldn't help but laugh a bit at that.

However, my laugh was cut off by a noise that made my blood run cold. The loud beeping of the timer that just hit 0.

My glance shifted over to the clock, then back at Genesis, who looked like she had just seen a ghost.

"......What happens now-", she began to say.

Her statement didn't get the chance to be completed, as the concrete floor abruptly dropped from underneath us, and we fell into the darkness below.