Chapter 1: ??? Hour – A Countdown to MIDNIGHT [00 minutes]

??? POV

Where am I?

         …

              Who am I?

                     …

                       What…am I?

                                  …

                                  Time ticks…

                                           The world is black. No. It’s not completely black. It’s just so pitch dark and grimy that my eyes have trouble adjusting. The world is like an enfolding blanket, suffocating me with its thick ropes of fabric and teasing me with whispers of life.

The clanking of chains behind me, the shuffling of feet in the far distance, the chilling ring of cold air passing above me. Everything around me sounds amplified, as if my ears are magnifying all the possible dangers around my blind self.

Fear creeps into me, much like mist does into your heart. I can’t control the sensation and it takes all my will to not tremble. To not shake. To not be weak in the face of the unknown.

Get a grip, I whispered to myself and clenched my fingers tight.

Just that simple movement sent waves of pins and needles down my arm and reverberated throughout my body. I felt bruised and battered, like a loser dropped down from the boxing ring. My whole body was stiff with cold and lack of movement. Moving myself felt like trying to unwind frozen sausages, tough and resisting to touch.

But move I did.

I had to get away from this encroaching fear, this terrible sense that if I didn’t move, I would never be able to leave this place of darkness.

I struggled to my feet, ignoring the spikes of pain that shot up through my protesting feet. Doing so though with a half-deadened body wasn’t exactly the most sensible idea. The lurch made me lose my balance and I toppled to one side.

Horror shot through me as I realized I was about to fall back onto the unforgiving stony floor, but then my body crashed into the wall. It was equally remorseless in the harsh touch however. I winced and grabbed at my sore shoulder, rubbing it with one hand and then reaching out with the other to touch my surroundings.

Only then did I realize how small the room was. I could barely spread both arms without bumping into either walls. It was small and cramped and completely and utterly pitch black. Only a small slice of light seeped through the bottom of what I assumed was a door. And even that light was dim and muted, a shade akin to grey. The material was chilling steel; not much of a difference to the stone wall, but very distinguishable in texture.

I banged on the door.

“Hey!” I yelled hoarsely, my voice rasping from lack of use. “Hey!” I repeated in a clearer voice. But to no avail. No movement, no sound. Nothing.

Suddenly the walls felt closer. More…gripping. Like a shinigami hanging over my shoulder and breathing heavily into my ears. Everything felt suffocating and my breath hitched.

Calm down, I tried to tell myself. It’s just your imagination.

But my heart raced. It thumped so loudly I thought it would burst out of my chest, the very vibrations stilled my breath and I struggled to in oxygen.

Breathe! I instructed myself, a feeble attempt to calm myself down. It’s just a small…claustrophobic…potentially my coffin-type of room…

Oh great.

My heart just thumped harder.

I gave up trying to reason with myself and curled into a ball on the floor, hoping that by making myself smaller, the room would grow larger. But it didn’t. It just felt like it was creeping closer and closer, little mice with tiny feet marching ahead. I covered my ears with my hands and scrunched my eyes close.

“Go away, go away.” I whispered feeling close to tears. “Stay away.” And I curled up even tighter. I tried to think.

What was I doing here? Why was I in this cell? In fact…who was I?

I couldn’t remember anything. Not my name, not my face. Not the reason I was in this…cell… - the most appropriate word for the situation – or what this place even was?

My mind was blank. Completely and utterly empty.

And that scared me more than anything.

In my tiny ball, I tried to shield myself against the truth – from having to think about it. It just hurt even more. And I stayed like that for gods knows how long. There was no way to tell time from this little excluded world, no sun or moon or stars to trace movements of. I was suspended in the darkness, detached and unbound. I felt myself unraveling in this hellishly blank space.

And I would have gone mad…if suddenly the doors hadn’t opened.

With a screech of iron against stone, the door swung open slowly. Almost reluctantly. The sound brought me back to reality, from where I had been wandering between madness and dreams. I turned my head to look up and was stunned.

The world in front of me was blindingly bright to the eyes that had grown used to this nocturnal world. Even if it was barely a shade brighter, I instinctively scrunched my eyes closed and my arms flew up to shield my face.

But a few seconds flickered past and my eyes adapted. Slowly, I cracked them open and cried out loud like a poor man laying eyes on gold. Seeing the world outside of my little cell was a treasure inexpressible by words.

The space, the cool air. The promise of freedom. All of it was new to me and I cherished each color, each fragment of an unknown. Like said beggar, I scrabbled to my feet, nearly falling over again in my excitement and dashed forwards, almost afraid that the door would shut right in my face as if taunting me.

But it did no such thing and I was outside. 

Outside.

Free.

Freedom.

I inhaled the sweet musty air so akin to that of caves and dark tunnels. I didn’t connect the dots then, after all right now the only thing I cared about was the idea of sweet freedom.

It didn’t last long.

Soon enough I was heady on too much oxygen and leaned against my old door and nearly fell as it swung back into place, locking my old cell behind me. I was glad to see it go.

But then I saw something new. A flash of steel that caught my eye.

It was shiny and printed in stark black.

A name and a phrase.

SEUNGHO

Was that my…name? I pondered. Seungho. A normal, nice-sounding name.

“Seung…ho…” I tried it out on tongue and was surprised with the familiarity of the vowels that easily rolled off my tongue. “Seungho.” I repeated with glee to finally have a piece of information to my own.

But then a shiver ran down my spine.

Looking at the plate and the following sentence, I realized that perhaps what I had just been in was a jail. From the cold incriminating colors of grey and black to the high-security locks and panels on the door, it all seemed like a trap.

I shuddered to think of what the words meant.

SEUNGHO.

PLAYER #5

With nothing more to work on, I turned and set off down the dusty passageway, my heart thumping the entire way with the certainty that I had just gone from one bad place to an even worse one. In my mind, a little voice whispered tauntingly. 

                Time ticks…

                                You better hurry, because time is running out…