The Reality Hole

The Prompting

I groan, laying on my back. My entire body is flaring with pain, and my eyes feel glued shut.

There's a shuffling of feet off to my left and I try to turn to see who it is, but my head won't budge.

I think I broke my neck.

A light but strong voice emits from the direction of the shuffling feet. "Stay still."

Like I can't.

I snort, sending a flare of hot pain up through my neck.

"I said stay still ma'am."

Through the heat that is pulsing through my body, I feel a prick on my left arm.

The person, who I am assuming is male, turns my neck straight and I muffle a cry of pain.

"Be quiet. It'll stop hurting soon." He says quietly.

From the pinprick I felt in my arm, a coolness starts to spread. It climbs up and down my arm and flows like water over rocks into the rest of the pain. It makes my fingertips tingle.

It goes up my neck and my head last, and my pain is completely gone.

I gasp and sit up.

The man is gone.

I rub the back of my neck, my body temperature has returned to normal.

That wasn't weird.

I check my arms and my legs for pain, as if whatever was injected into me didn't work. Everything felt fine, almost like I had just woken up in a perfect state.

I stand up to brush off my clothes to find I'm in a different set of clothes. A black t-shirt and pants, but I still have my boots.

I suddenly feel extremely insecure and cross my arms, looking around.

 Who replaced my clothes? Where am I?

In front of me, there's what looks to be a stainless steel wall with light emitting from the bottom.

When I turn around, the entire corridor is doors, switching opposite sides. They all have something a little different. One has an old looking lantern shining yellow light on the hallway, and if you looked closely there was another door with carpet peeking out of the crack underneath. Another door has water leaking from the bottom, an unusual murky color. One even has a fingerprint I.D. scanner.

I walk up to the door with a lantern on it, and I put my ear to the door. I hear faint music coming from inside and put my hand on the knob.

"Do you really want to chose that one? I don't tend to like that one as much as others." A honeyed voice says from down the hallway. It's different from the one that put the medicine in my arm.

I step back from the door. "Where am I? Who are you?" He's a black man, with a completely black outfit, except with an extremely bright white tie, a single glove on his right hand, and pin, which I couldn't see clearly from where I stood.

He shrugged. "That's not relevant. I'm here to help you with your issue." He made a thoughtful face, pouting his lip. "Issues. Your issues. Now as to where you are.." He gestures a gloved hand towards the doors that line this endless row of steel. "Welcome to the Prompting."

I stare at him, trying to keep my face blank. My heart seems to want to leap out of my chest, it's beating way too fast for a hallucination. I study him, trying to get a reading off of what he's wearing, anything. But there's nothing.

"My name is Boone. It's so nice to finally meet you Andrea." He tips his black fedora.

Okay, maybe I am crazy. This is one crazy reality hallucination.