Chapter 1: Where am I?

At 3 a.m. in the morning, through a window in a dorm building, a young man can be seen pacing up and down his room, looking really excited.

"Damn, that was a really good movie, can't believe they killed him off just like that," said Abel Sarkis.

In the middle of his pacing, he stops to look at the two rooms beside him and realizes he was really making some noise at this time of night. He got down, thinking to himself that that was pretty embarrassing.

"Even if the guys beside me are probably awake right now, I really shouldn't bother them," he thought out loud. "But that really was a good movie."

The young man's name was Abel Sarkis, a 21-year-old African American trying to finish his final year at his university. He just finished watching the movie adaptation of the sequel to a popular game three years ago. The new release is called Dimensions, which is also the name of the movie.

Basically, the story takes place 100 years in the future, in a world where dimensions to alternate worlds have opened up and mankind now struggles to form alliances in the alternate worlds to gain resources and strength to progress and protect their world. A fantasy story plot, basically.

"Really, I should get some sleep. I have classes tomorrow," he said.

"I really should stop talking to myself out loud."

He laid his bed, jumped in, and covered himself in sheets, then went to sleep.

"…...Yeah, right, I have exams tomorrow. I got to study."

Yeah, he was the kind of guy to study at the last minute for an exam and still somehow pass. So, he groggily sat up on his bed, drank some of that mons*er energy, and got to work.

++++++

6 hours later.

"Got to go to the exam hall in an hour and 30 minutes, got to crash, and get some sleep."

He set a ton of alarms and crashed while having a severe migraine.

"I really shouldn't have drunk 3 cans of mons*er energy."

Yeah, he really shouldn't have drunk those cans of mons*er energy. He hadn't been getting sleep due to those part-time jobs for the past week, and that's why, without him knowing it, he died in sleep.

++++++

"Damn… shut up!"

In a random act of flailing limbs, he smacked his bed blindly until he hit his phone, snatched it up, and shut off the alarm. Only to realize that his phone was the source of that blasted sound. Seriously, he started to wonder why he even chose that particular notification sound.

He sluggishly opened his eyes to find out that his phone was neither vibrating nor flashing with the notification. signaling that it wasn't the source of the brain damaging noise.

"What the hell? Where is that sound coming from then?"

His sluggish eyes scanned the room for the source of the sound and found an actual alarm clock on his bedside desk.

"Since when did I have a damn alarm clock? Fuck, it was probably that bastard Dave; he knows I leave the door unlocked; he probably did that just to spite me for last week," he said to himself.

A few seconds after talking to himself, he looks around his room, trying to come through to his surroundings, his eyes coming into focus not long after.

Immediately after, a sense of dread filled his body, turning it cold and causing his heart to beat rapidly, blood to rush, and adrenaline to kick in.

"WHERE THE FUCK IN GOD'S HOLY NAME AM I? I DON'T HAVE A BEDSIDE DESK, NOR DO I HAVE CURTAINS ON MY WINDOW, NOR JUST ONE BED IN MY ROOM!!!"

He screamed hysterically in his head as he rapidly turned his head. Upon viewing his room, he realised it was smaller, his bed larger, there was one wardrobe and a door at his right, the desk and the window at his left, and in his front nothing but a laundry basket near the left edge.

None of the stuff a dorm room for two people should collectively have.

"OKAY! OKAY!" He closed his eyes while steadying his heaving lungs.

"Let's calm down. I almost had a panic attack. Okay, let's look around the surroundings and see if I can find my way out, or more importantly, find out where the hell I am."

He slowly got out of the bed, surprised that he wasn't chained down or anything. He walked towards the window, looking out of it. He saw a downtown street filled with high-rise buildings in view, as opposed to the desolate suburban area with a bridge he was used to.

"Ok, definitely not in Windsor right now; can I open the window out?" He opened the sliding window, becoming surprised at the fact that it was neither locked nor that there were no bars or any nets stopping a person from jumping out of said window.

"Ok, maybe this isn't a kidnapping. I mean, even if the window is on the second floor, I can easily bust out through here, who knows, maybe the doors are unlocked."

Slowly walking to the door, he placed his ear on the door, listening in to check for any sounds of people outside the door. Hearing none, he opened the door slightly, which, to his surprise for the third time, opened, allowing him to enter the living room.

Surveying the living room, there were no windows. In front of him lays a single purple plush two-seater couch, nestled at the center of the room, a nice lush green carpet with soft texture, and at the forefront of the room, close to a wall, a flat-screen TV rested upon a minimalist wooden cupboard. All in all, to him, it was a pretty nice room.

He checked the place further; a room adjacent to the room he just walked out was a washroom similar to those you would find in a Japanese anime, and to the right of the living room was the kitchen, with no doors or walls obstructing entry, and between the living room and kitchen was a small passage out of the residence.

"Okay, looking around, the probability of me being kidnapped is getting lower and lower. Yep, something else is going on; all the doors are unlocked, even the one leading the way out. If I really were kidnapped, the kidnapper would be the dumbest person alive, so what's really going on?"

There was a laptop in the cupboard with the TV, but he wasn't going to be able to open it; it was locked. It was better to check the washroom and the bedroom for answers.

Entering the washroom, he saw the mirror and stopped all movement.

"Who the fuck is this?!"

Right in front of him was a sickly-looking, dark-skinned, handsome, black-haired, green-eyed man. His black hair, though slightly disheveled, was somehow still sleek, and his eyes, which were a striking shade of green, held a subdued glimmer despite the hints of fatigue they carried. The pallor of his skin hinted at his weakened state, but even in his delicate appearance, there was an underlying charm.

Abel was shocked; he couldn't comprehend why the guy in the mirror wasn't him, why he was mirroring his movements, or why he was mesmerized looking at another guy's face.

Yeah, Abel's brain had definitely taken a hit from all these events, causing him to stand there like a dumbass. His brain really did take a hit because, for the next few minutes, he stood silently before coming to a conclusion.

"I definitely must be dreaming, right?"