My eyes opened to find myself in a bright white room. Underneath me, a soft cushion-like feeling made my head ache less. In the room, there seemed to be no door, just a single window opening up to a courtyard. To my right, a guy with golden hair slept in the bed next to mine, with a single toilet next to it. Everything was pure white; it almost hurt my eyes. I sat up in my bed and scanned my body for bruises. The worst seemed to be a slight sting by my thigh where I was Tazed earlier at the ice cream parlor.

I walked over to the window to get a better view of the courtyard. There were trees that flickered on and off every few seconds, tables that looked a bit too-plastic for my taste, and a field of grass that couldn’t have been bigger than a fourth of a football field. A few people sat at the tables and ate what looked to be their lunch. At the far end, a guy dressed in a guard’s uniform waited by a door, my guess: the way out. He didn’t seem to have a weapon or anything to defend himself with besides a vest that might’ve been bullet proof.

 “Don’t even think about trying to escape.” The guy in the bed said next to me. He sat up and his features became a bit clearer. His hard were both floppy and choppy and his eyes looked like they pointed to 10:10 on a clock. “The name’s Hoshi.” He smiled, pushing his cheekbones up higher, closing his eyes even further. On a totally unrelated note, his face looked incredibly squishy. Looking at him, I wanted to touch his face and see if it was actually as squishy as it looked.

“Hello, Hoshi. I’m Wonwoo.” I said and we stared at each other blankly for what feels like minutes. What was I supposed to talk about with him? Should I ask him what he’s ‘in’ for? I see that a lot in movies and television shows about prisons. But what if he tells me and it’s something scary and I have to dorm with like a mass murderer or a guy who robs banks? “How’s life?” I asked and realized how stupid of a question it was.

“You’re funny. It’s great so long as you follow the rules. We get to have free time, food, sleep, everything.” He laid back on his bed and yawned. “What are you in for?” He asked me and I realized how accurate television actually was.

I sat back on my bed and told him the story of the old Medusa lady caused me to take the blame for the boy’s death at the ice cream parlor and he just laughed. Apparently, stone employees are a laughing matter in this prison. After telling him my story of how I ended up in prison, he decided he would just tell me his story. Turns out, he isn’t a mass murderer or a bank robber, though he did pull a lot of pranks on people and he got caught.

“Yeah, that’s right. I can turn into a puddle of liquid-me. I’m the coolest guy you’ll meet around here.” He smirked and closed his eyes, falling back to sleep instantaneously.

Suddenly, a red light flashed all around the room, waking him up. His body melted and a puddle of Hoshi poured out onto the floor. When all of his liquid was off of the bed, his body solidified back into the chubby-faced Hoshi I met just five minutes ago. He looked at me and I followed his lead, without the whole “liquefying my body and solidifying it to reach the floor”. A second later, a dorm formed next to the wide window and guards ran into our room, flipping over our nicely-made beds. I have no idea what they were looking for but apparently they found something.

“Really, Hoshi? What did we say about holding extra food in the cells?” One of the guards said and Hoshi giggled.

“I was hungry!” He defended himself while rubbing his non-existent belly. Surprisingly, he was skinny for a boy who eats so much. Perhaps his liquefying also comes with fast metabolism.

“Don’t make me write you up for a shot.” The guard took the food and looked at me. “What are you looking at?” He said and I looked away, causing him to laugh. He left and Hoshi hopped onto his bed.

“What’s up with the guards? Why don’t they carry weapons?” I asked Hoshi.

He went on to explain that the guards don’t need weapons because they’re already weapons. Like us prisoners, they are also super human except they’ve been in prison longer than the rest of us and have been upgraded to be guards. After a while of serving, they are upgraded from ‘Prisoner’ to ‘Prison Guard’ and get a bigger room. They are basically paid by the government to keep the prisoners at rest while staying quiet themselves.

“Have you ever tried escaping?”

“Duh.” He looked at me like I only asked stupid questions. I probably should have assumed so. Who would want to purposefully stay in prison? “But the guards are too strong to beat alone. The only people that might be able to take on the guards are the prisoners in level one security.”

“What’s that?” I asked yet another stupid question.

“Gosh, you’re ignorant.” He said as he went on to explain the three different levels of security. Level three security is for people with ‘stupid’ powers such as sprouting flowers and turning into liquid—no offense, Hoshi—basically the least dangerous. Level two is for more severe threats that are dangerous but containable. Level one is for the monsters of the super human family. I presume powers such as Demon possession, hulk-like strength, and the ability to create black holes at will.

“Wait—does that mean I’m in level three?” I asked and realized I was placed in the same security level as the guy who turned into a puddle of liquid person. “DO THEY ASSUME I’M WEAK?”

“Not exactly. The guard, S.coups, didn’t believe your power was ‘turning people to stone’ so he threw you in with me.”

“I make bombs out of seeds I need to be placed into a higher level of security!” I hollered and he sat up in his bed.

“Now does that even make sense?” His eyes lit up as it looked like an idea came to mind. “I’ll make a plan. In the meantime, it’s time to meet some friends.”

Hoshi walked up to the side of the window and tapped the wall underneath it. Suddenly, a door formed and opened up an entrance. That explains how the guards just walked in. I followed Hoshi to the courtyard where three other boys sat down and ate their meals. None of them looked at all terrifying, but who am I to judge who looks terrifying and who doesn’t? The guy sitting on the very left from where I was standing had the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. The guy sitting in the middle had long luscious hair, he looked like an angel. The guy on the right, however, caught my eye the most. His handsome features made my stomach tingle in a weird sensation.

“Hi, I’m DK.” The smiling boy said.

“I’m Jeonghan.” The angel spoke.

“I’m Mingyu.” The last guy spoke and my heart almost melted.

“What are you in for?” The four of us spoke in unison and laughed afterwards.

We all took turns sharing stories on how we ended up in prison. DK was caught controlling his puppets during a ventriloquist show and freaked out the entire audience when one of his puppets decided to dance on its own. Jeonghan was caught up in a tough situation where he had to expose his power to protect his family. Lucky for him his power came in handy and he successfully used his force fields to protect his family from an unexpected gunman who didn’t know what he got himself into. Mingyu, on the other hand, had an interesting story to tell. Apparently ants live inside of him and he’s basically a nest. Just the thought of ants crawling inside of my body made my skin itch. Did I have butterflies in my stomach or did I have ants in my pants?

“Alright, we’re all freaks. Yay. Can we escape?” I asked enthusiastically.

“Are you crazy?” Jeonghan looked at me and frowned. “Hoshi, he is going to get us all killed.”

“Don’t worry, he might die later today when the guards throw him in the pit with a level three.” DK reassured Jeonghan.

“What’s the pit?” I asked and gulped for what was coming next.

. . .

“WELCOME TO THE PIT, NEWBIE!!!” A video clip of the security guard who punched me in the face played on the wall next to a rack of weapons. “PICK YOUR POISON AND TRY TO SURVIVE AGAINST ONE OF THE OTHER PRISONERS. IF YOU SURVIVE FOR THREE MINUTES YOU GET TO LIVE! I CAN’T WAIT TO WATCH THIS ONE DIE” He turned away from the camera, unaware it was still streaming. “I want him to fight one of the deadliest creatures we have and bring me a hot dog.” He turned to the camera. “I mean—BRING ME A HOT DOG!!!” The video clip stopped playing.

I looked at the wall of weapons. Weapons from wooden swords to steel scimitars hung from the wall. None of the weapons seemed to be of any use to me. If I am going to survive three minutes against a monster, I was going to need a bag of seeds. I walked around the wall and looked from something that might have been of use. On the bottom corner, I noticed an empty bag that could be closed with strings. If anything, I could use this to collect seeds, if there were seeds on the battlefield, that is.

After collecting my ‘weapon’, I followed the sound of a roaring crowd. Upon approaching an empty wall, I remembered the trick of tapping it to open. I clicked it and the blank white wall opened up to a colosseum full of people. They didn’t seem to be prisoners. Did people watch prisoners fight for sport? The environment of the arena made me a bit happy. There were trees of all variety, which means there were seeds to be harvested.

I walked closer and the door closed behind me. I don’t know who I have to fight but as long as I have seeds, I should be fine. As I made my way to the empty patch of ground in front of me, the door on the other side opened, revealing my opponent. I could have sworn the security guard requested the deadliest monster in level one security. Instead, a boy with pink bowl-cut hair walked forward. From a distance, he looked like a small fairy child. Am I supposed to beat this child up?

“IN THE LEFT CORNER, WE HAVE THE NEWBIE, WONWOO! HE CAN TURN PEOPLE INTO STONE JUST BY LOOKING AT THEM!” The host’s voice spoke across the entire colosseum and people looked away in fear I’d turn them to stone. “WORRY NOT, THE FORCE FIELD WILL PROTECT YOU!” He said and everyone sighed and continued watching and cheering. I glanced to the audience and saw a slight reflection of myself. The force field was either glass or some weird technological machine. “IN THE RIGHT CORNER, WE HAVE THE ADORABLE, BUT DEADLY, WOOZI!!!” The audience roared in favor of the fairy child. “YOU ALL REMEMBER HIS POWER, RIGHT?” The host asked and everyone cheered.

“HUH? I DON’T KNOW HIS POWER? WANT TO TELL ME?” I yelled into the air and the audience laughed.

“ANNNNNNDDDDD! FIGHT!”

Suddenly, fear began to spread throughout my body. Was this fairy child really as scary as they make him sound? Instead of waiting to find out, I ran over to the nearest tree, climbed it, and picked some seeds out of the bark. Luckily, the trees weren’t holographic like the ones in our courtyard. After my bag was full of seeds, I closed it tight with the strings attached to it and fell on my . I looked up to see the tree turn into paper.

“YEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!” The audience roared. I glanced over the Woozi and saw he was just sitting there. Is the host messing with me by turning trees into paper?

I ran up to the adorable fairy child and threw seeds at him. Instead of them hitting the ground, as intended, they hit a wall of random appearing paper and smoke began pouring out of the seeds. Huh? I grabbed more seeds out of the small pouch I grabbed from the weapon room and threw them in his direction. Instead of requesting smoke-filled seeds, I threw Molotov seeds. A small fire was visible through the smoke and the audience sounded confused.

“WHO SAID YOU COULD USE FIRE?” Woozi screamed in rage.

Within a few seconds, the smoke began to move out of the way to reveal a flying Woozi. A pair of paper wings, double his size, were attached to his back. His eyes stared deeply into my soul. Every so often, they would flap and small pieces of paper would land casually onto the arena floor. Woozi’s feet also dropped small confetti-like particles as he was levitating in the air. I grabbed more seeds in my pocket and threw them onto the ground as I expected his next attack. A tree began to grow at my feet as Woozi’s angelic-paper wings shot out paper airplanes. The tree grew to full size in a matter of seconds, stopping a few of the paper airplanes. However, the planes that weren’t halted by the tree changed their direction and flew around the tree and right into me, rendering me unconscious.

QUESTIONS:

What do you think Hoshi’s plan is?

Why does everyone think Wonwoo’s power is turning people into stone still?

DID WONWOO DIE???