I was back in the chamber. I scanned the walls, the securely shut door, and myself. I thought I died, but I was all alone. No friends. No family. Neither angels nor anyone around here. Just me and this lifeless green room. Is this heaven? No, heaven was always clouds and sunshine or whatever they said. You're having weird dreams again. Get out. Get. Out. GET OUT! GET OUT!!
Creak.
The door slowly opened. Numerous colors bursted into my eyes as I tried to cover them with my hand. The same doors appeared again as I adjusted my vision. I walked with short intervals, counting every passing second and checking for anything unnatural or out of the ordinary. At long last, as the gleaming rainbow of doors came closer, I was out. I turned my body against the green room. I was free. Free from that damn asylum. I laughed to myself.
This was all just a joke. How stupid not to realize that sooner.
"You belong with us," a menacing voice called out. The door was still open, its beaming color falling into the darkness. I peered closer, placing my head forward. A finger stuck out. Then two, four, until a full hand. Growing out of the side, an arm reached behind the door. A gray figure emerged before my eyes blinked, its face resembling the same dude at the diner. "Belong with us."
"Shut up, asshole!" I yelled. He wasn't stopping. His pace increased. My feet weren't moving, leaving themselves in a sedentary position. Something glued my shoes to the ground.
The doors melted as smooth as wax, mixing themselves into a gooey substance. I was petrified. The Denny's dude was right in front of me, melting into a face with large eyes and gritted sharp teeth.
"You bitch!"
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"You're up early."
My eyes unveiled a strange environment. My wrists felt skinned, throbbed, and pulled from behind. I moved my left arm, yet there was a metallic clank while I guided my hand, inserting more pain through my nerves. Glancing down, I found myself in a bed that definitely didn't feel like mine. I looked up and found a girl sitting on a wooden chair. Examining up and down, if she stood, she would've been shorter than I, maybe even Puneet. I was about 5' 8", which I guess was taller than average. A thin light yellow scarf encoiled her throat. She wore a bright yellow on her leather jacket and white leggings. Her hair reflected off the sun's rays from a circular window, gleaming a brilliant shine from her blond hair.
"I'm Alice. You must be the remaining ones to carry our league," she introduced with a foreign accent.
I gazed at her hazel eyes and asked, "What do you want?" I searched for a door, which was only a couple feet away among the peeling white paint. My pockets felt odd, so I settled my hand near the hip, trying to feel it. My phone. It's not there. Did she confiscate them? Well, shit. No one knows I'm here. Not even my mamá will receive any texts...
I aimed to get out of bed and my legs took control. They ran without thought, until the girl in yellow grabbed my right arm, then the side of my head, causing havoc on my hair. We struggled, grunting and pushing each other with immense force.
"My! You're strong! No wonder-" she cut off mid-fight from a punch in the face, shielded with nothing. I pushed her away with my other arm as I crouched, one knee and both hands down, her expression not one bit tired from the front. "You aren't aware of the power you'll obtain. You'd be insane out there!"
I ignored her regards, reaching for the handle as she wrapped her arms around my neck. I promptly clutched her waist from behind, attempting full force to flip her over, but instead had little strength to use my back in doing so. I breathed quick breaths. C'mon, it's just like boxing and wrestling. Just do it. Flip her ass over.
I almost had it. Using all of my strength, I pushed and pushed. However, her weight pulled us to the left, leaving us tumbling across the ground. We let each other go.
I landed face down, gingery lifting my head to the wall. It wasn't until I finally crawled myself, reaching the white door. I grasped the knob, yet turned unrelieved afterwards.
It was locked.
I turned the round knob as much as I could, yet it didn't turn 90 degrees to unlatch itself. Of course. Nowadays, kidnappers or whoever these people are weren't stupid. At least right now.
I needed to get out. Alice appeared back in the chair, head down to catch her lungs. For the most information possible, she had answers. I almost couldn't beat her due to my lengthy doze. So, with only three words, I asked the following: "Where are we?"
Alice crossed her legs. "Nothing. I can only tell that you're in a different country. A famous one through thousands of years preserving its status." She averted her attention towards a sky blue curtain, discovering another bed as she unveiled another person. There was a girl laying sideways, resting with her arm supporting her head. I immediately recognized her dark hair and lavish lashes. Puneet is here with me. That wasn't a fake occurrence. The drinks really poisoned us to be taken anywhere in the world.
"She'll wake up at any moment," Alice noted. "Kyleigh estimated both of you fainted around ten seconds of each other."
Do I even remember anything like that? From pondering, the other bed never squeaked. Not even the buzzing of flies were heard. Puneet's body was still. A centimeter did not budge as she napped.
"You two will receive much responsibility. Especially among the other four." Alice beamed towards Puneet. "It's best to stay aware of each other."
"Other four?"
She was dumbstruck, thinking I was a whole different being. "He never told you two?"
"Who's he?" I was confused. When was the last time we saw a man? I contemplated for a few moments. I recalled the alarming figure from the back of my head. "Hold on, Kyle?"
"Who else back in America?" she retorted as if questioning a kindergartener.
We sat in silence for a few minutes. I kept my eyes on Puneet, waiting for her to get up. In the meantime, Alice mingled with a wooden arrow from a drawer, spinning it around her fingers. In just a few moments, Puneet's eyes twitched, opening into shock. She was highly alert of our surroundings, raising her upper half and reflecting hysteria.
She greatly perceived the room with great confusion and concern. It was evident that she knew her position, yet wasn't sure about her opinion on the girl in yellow. She urged at my arm and pulled me closer towards her. She kept herself facing Alice. "You locked us in here?" she finally spoke.
"To keep you from escaping," Alice replied. Her eyes narrowed, her mouth frowning the more she glanced at my friend's grave situation.
For interruption, I put up a little interrogation: "What are we here for? An illegal experiment? Murdering us?"
It seemed appropriate to ask, but not in Puneet's eyes. She looked at me with stern, narrow contact. "How long were you awake?"
"Only 15 minutes."
"She could've killed us before you got up. Also, you don't have your phone either, right?"
Alice joined in. "Alright. Enough of this reunion. You haven't seen this place yet, dame." I thought she cussed us out for a second, but I decided to brush it off. She included, "Technology goes haywire where we're about to travel. Last time someone brought their cellphone, it exploded her hand into pieces. Don't want to upset nature."
"Do you know her?" I slowly asked. If a phone could explode onto their palms, imagine the blood. The skin and tissues splitting apart, damaging them their whole life. Now I was concerned about our phones if we still had them. Exploding into metallic portions, cutting through our fine skin.
"She's still here. When you meet her, you'll find the scratched remnants," she assured.
We followed where Alice treaded. She extended towards the handle, surprisingly opening the door without any keys. As it opened, a shine of white and smooth beige welcomed us to the land.
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Alice led us through numerous pathways, trailing left, right, anywhere they stretched. The sun was mainly blocked by the scattering clouds, swirling and playing in the air. I stayed close to Puneet, scanning up and down the pillars and squishy snow.
"Is this the first time you're seeing snow in real life?" Puneet wondered in curiosity.
I once bore in mind how I never felt the cold, slushy flakes. "I've obviously seen it before. It feels wet from it leaking into my shoes." Obviously, the snow was melting from us remaining in the warm room. It caught up to my white pants, freezing my legs the more we pursued. We continued onward to a certain pillar, shaped into a horizontal rectangle. It brought back the doors, teleporting me from place to place for many years.
Alice turned around and quizzed us. "You two recognize this area?"
My friend and I investigated the area, finding a large stone circle formed below us.
"There are letters or symbols here," Puneet confirmed. I conceived the concentric inscriptions surrounding our feet.
"Right. Do you know Greek?" Alice pondered.
Puneet answered first. "Well, not enough to be fluent."
"I have no clue about it. Don't even know what it looks like," I followed up.
The letters seemed like those symbols in Egypt. If I remembered correctly, they were called hieroglyphics, some ancient way the Egyptians communicated way back, about thousands of years ago.
"Just repeat whatever I say. You'll see why we brought you here," Alice ordered. She pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from her belt pocket, scribbled with blue ink as it bled through the page. As she was about to signal the first word, we heard a cry from the distance.
"Hold on!" A distant voice pleaded. Puneet and I immediately peered behind our backs, seeing a man running at the speed of light. Literally, he went from a tree a few miles away yo here in seconds. "You got the recruits? Also, sorry for almost poisoning you two," he admitted, "but we're good now."
Bewildered by his sudden arrival, I exclaimed, "When did you get here?!" He brought back those terrible dreams of himself, melting along the wax-like structures, screaming with empty thoughts.
"Let's just say...I got here by boat," he responded as he broke my trance. Instead of his baggy hoodie, it transformed into the same leather material as Alice's. Only the difference was it was gray along with blue pants.
"A long trail of snow went flying as you ran through here," Puneet stated. "What are you two playing at?"
Alice prompted, "Look. It'll be hard to believe, but just follow what we're doing. Hold on, where's Kyleigh?" she faced Kyle, who answered quickly.
"She went back. Had to notify everyone that these two are coming."
If there were Greek letters down here, and Kyle mentioned his way of travel, then that would mean...
"Oh god, are we in Greece?" I blurted out.
"After looking at the letters it seems obvious we are," my friend replied. "I can tell what they are, but not exactly their pronouncing aspect."
"At least these two know more than we can say. Tell us more, Mojca!" Kyle exclaimed.
"Stop referring to my surname, Müller," Alice pleaded. "You three, place your right arm on your heart, and repeat after me." She also provided two additional copies of paper and offered them to us.
Everyone did exactly that, and I tried to look at the paper. I neither read nor understood the language inscribed onto this small, thin sheet. It was embedded exactly like this:
Οὐ καταισχυνῶ τὰ ὅπλα τὰ ἱερὰ, οὐδ' ἐγκαταλείψω τὸν παραστάτην ὅτῳ ἂν στοιχήσω· ἀμυνῶ δὲ καὶ ὑπὲρ ἱερῶν καὶ ὁσίων καὶ μόνος καὶ μετὰ πολλῶν. καὶ τὴν πατρίδα οὐκ ἐλάσσω παραδώσω, πλείω δὲ καὶ ἀρείω ὅσης ἂν παραδέξωμαι. καὶ εὐηκοήσω τῶν ἀεὶ κραινόντων ἐμφρόνως καὶ τοῖς θεσμοῖς τοῖς ἰδρυμένοις πείσομαι καὶ οὕστινας ἂν ἄλλους τὸ πλῆθος ἰδρύσηται ὁμοφρόνως·καὶ ἂν τις ἀναιρῇ τοὺς θεσμοὺς ἢ μὴ πείθηται οὐκ ἐπιτρέψω, ἀμυνῶ δὲ καὶ μόνος καὶ μετὰ πολλῶν. καὶ ἱερὰ τὰ πάτρια τιμήσω. ἵστορες τούτων. Ως προστάτες στα καθορισμένα μονοπάτια μας, άντρες και γυναίκες, όλοι χαίρετε τους θεούς!
As we ended our vows, I glanced down. The circle glowed a bright blue, each letter glowing brighter and brighter. The rectangular pillar structure did not turn see-through to witness the blue lake behind. It became a blinding portal, transmitting rays of white light.
"Ready, you two?" Kyle checked on us. "You can easily walk through, no pain guaranteed."
I gave one last look at Puneet, wearing a neutral expression. She had a touch of concern, her eyes creasing from the immense glare. Alice boldly walked through the light, fading away until we couldn't see her.
"C'mon. It's that easy," he ushered. I didn't want to, but we had no choice. If we ran, there was no destination. What use was there? No one knows where we are. We're deserted, left in this stupid forest in freaking Greece. I shut my eyes, treading towards the pillar portal, only followed by the footsteps of Puneet and Kyle as I passed through.
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I slowly slipped open the tightness of my eyes, viewing a world I have never seen so...heavenly.