Gaps

TIME: UNKNOWN

DATE: UNKNOWN

LOCATION: UNKNOWN

NAME: TENDRA

AGE: 16 - 18

GENDER: FEMALE

The man who had just asked us about the number on the screen looked tired. When I say that, I don't mean the level of tiredness that you feel waking up at seven o'clock on a Monday morning. No, what I'm talking about is the kind of tired you feel when nothing's going your way in life. You know the type, when big bags appear under your eyes and living just feels like going from one place to another. There's no sense of progression or loss, you're simply eating and sleeping because otherwise you would die.

That's the kind of tired that the adult man who had just walked up on the stage seemed to be.

He had black hair with small dots of white here and there. The crew cut he was boasting, in combination with the roughness of his face, made him look like a generic military general from some war movie.

He was wearing a red suit with yellow buttons. On his arm was a... Watch! It was a digital watch, but nothing un-ordinary. It seemed like something you could have found in your normal electronics store. Although the strap seemed weird. I couldn't see it to well from where I was standing, but it had a color very similar to his skin.

Anyway, let's see what time it is... 1:00!? We're awake in the middle of the night?

"That's to bad. Shall we begin then?", he uttered when no one responded to his question about the number.

A door opened behind him and two guys, wearing black suits, entered the room. They had black shades and seemed to be perfectly synchronized. In their hands, each of them held a cardboard box about half the size of the ones you use when moving. Both of them stopped behind the tired looking man, one on his left and one on his right.

"Each of you participants will now be given a gift. It's something that I want you all to treasure. Come on up here, one at a time please"

"Excuse me, but who the hell do you think you are?!" It was one of the other three people who had been here before we arrived. He had long black hair with purple stripes in it.

"You're going to act as if nothing's wrong here?! We have been kidnapped and now you expect us to simply follow your orders?!"

The three men didn't seem to have heard the valid accusation thrown at them, but instead they just continued.

"You may start", the man in the red suit said while staring directly at the angry teenager.

"Haha, very funny! If you want me to get up on that stage, you better start explaining yourself!"

A smile spread across the old man's lips, "I understand your concerns, but you don't have to worry. You're not the victims of any kidnapping"

Long-hair started to walk towards the old man. The two guys behind him reached for the insides of their suits, but the old man simply raised his hand and they stopped.

"You like keeping your secrets, don't you old man", long-hair was now standing face to face with the man who had been ignoring him.

"Do you really think that I'm going to believe your bullshit!", he grabbed onto the old man's suit and stared him straight in the eye.

"Your name's Periwinkle and you can't remember anything, correct?" Long-hair, or Periwinkle?, nodded in response. "Thank you, now let me explain. Just like everyone else in this room, you choose to be here out of your own volition" the old man said like a teacher who was lecturing a student.

No one knew what to think, or at least I didn't. Was this all just some kind of act?; maybe an experiment by the government? I mean, why in the world would anyone ever sign up for this kind of thing. Although, who am I to say that. Maybe I'm the kind of person who would sign up for something like this, 'cause in the end, there's no way for me to know...

"Like I'm going to believe that crap!", he's grip tightened around the suit, it was clear that Periwinkle didn't know how to respond.

"You're missing a toe, the left pinky to be precise. You love K-pop and wouldn't stop talking about it when we first met" It was clear by the look on Periwinkle's face that at least one of the facts were true.

The thing that bothered me the most from what we had just been told about Periwinkle, wasn't the fact that he apparently was a real talker. Instead, it was that I could clearly remember what K-pop was, but no matter how hard I tried, I wasn't able to recall a single thing about myself...

"You're not trying to trick me now, right?!", Periwinkle said, unsure on what to make out of the situation.

"You have my word boy and that's not something I take lightly. Unfortunately I can't tell you any more, but this is all for the purpose of the test"

Even though I couldn't remember anything, what the old man said all seemed to make perfect sense. I didn't know why, but it just did. As if my body could remember it, but not my mind. Still, what reason did we all have to agree to something like this?

"I know it's hard to believe and especially since I can't tell you anymore. Nonetheless, you will all just have to trust me"

Periwinkle released his grip on the old man and made an angry grimasch towards him, "I don't know why, but I believe you. So if I find out that you're lying...", he didn't finish and got down from the stage.

The old man clapped his hands, "Oh! Goodness, I didn't even introduce myself. I'm Menteur, nice to meet you all!"

I was still busy thinking about the information that we had just been told to trust and to my dismay, it just seemed to fill my brain with even more questions.

"Ahh! You, the young lady over there. Come on up here and receive your very own gift" He was pointing towards... Me! I was unsure on what to do and just followed his instructions.

When I got up on the stage, Menteur guided me towards one of the guys holding a box. He made a gesture, telling me to open it and I did. Inside was a rectangular box made out of black leather.

"Open it"

I took it out and slowly opened the lid. Three watches were inside, these were also digital ones like Menteur's. They all had different colored stripes, the colors were, blue, green and silver.

"Choose one"

I didn't have to think about it, I took the blue one and handed the box over to Menteur.

"A good choice", he said and made a faint smile. "Now, put it on"

I did as he said and attached the watch to my wrist. A little sting went across my arm, the metal on the back of the watch must've been sharp. As I tried moving the watch, I noticed the time, 1:15.

Everyone got their own watch, Emeralda got the one with green stripes and Mercury got the one with silver colored ones. The time was currently 1:34.

"Now that everyone have received their gift, I think it's about time we moved on...", Menteur made a big smile and yelled, "To the dining room!"

The dining room wasn't that big, actually, it was really claustrophobic. Even though it was about five times as big as the rooms we had woken up in, now that we were six people, not counting Menteur and his buddies, it was still really cramped. The food had already been cooked and was standing on the table when we had entered. Did Menteur prepare this beforehand? Although, that didn't make any sense. Since the food was still hot, someone else must have cocked it, but who?

"We're not the only ones in this facility, are we?", it was a girl who I hadn't greeted yet. She had taken the words straight out of my mouth.

Her flame colored hair almost seemed like it was floating as she spoke. I thought her eyes were going to set Menteur ablaze any moment.

"You would be correct in assuming that, although, there's no need for worry. They're simply here in order to help us with our goal...", Menteur didn't so much as flinch at the burning glaze directed towards him.

"What's this goal you're talking about? I'm guessing it has to do with the thing we signed up for..."

"Menteur grabbed the girl's shoulder, "Thank you for understanding... Let's eat up everyone and then it's time for training!"

"Whatkindoftraining?", Mercury blurted out, quicker than I had believed humanly possible.

"Well, you have already found your pearls so it's probably going to be a walk in the park..."

"What does the pearls have to do with anything?", the flaming girl asked, irritated from her previous rejection.

"They're your links to this world and the second one..."

No one responded.

Menteur smiled, "You're all very special people. You don't remember, but a gap between our dimension and another one opened about two years ago. We call this other dimension, " the Incoherent One". These pearls were some of the items that overlapped into our dimension during the opening..."

"What the hell are you talking about?", it was Periwinkle who had lost his patience once again.

"I'm sorry if you got lost, but in short, the world you remember is no longer an accurate representation of the current one..."

"So... What is an accurate representation of our current world then?", I couldn't not say anything after hearing all that.

"It's no longer the same... Let's keep it at that for now..."

We started eating in silence, but everyone seemed to enjoy the food. There were five big limps of bread and some green soup to go with them. The soup was actually really good and together with the bread it made for an awesome combination.

I was really happy that we were doing something normal for once. I got a nostalgic feeling, even though I couldn't remember anything I was sure that my family and I had shared a dining table lots of times. At least the current me hoped that we had.

TIME: 2:33

DATE: UNKNOWN

LOCATION: UNKNOWN

NAME: TENDRA

AGE: 16 - 18

GENDER: FEMALE