Chapter 1 - Sleeping For A While

It was a normal day for Liliana Goldbrone— as normal as it could be for her at least. She was in her room doing what she normally did, which was to scroll through the endless abyss that was the internet in hopes of finding purpose in her meaningless life.

Or at the very least something to pass the time with.

Liliana's life was the definition of meaningless— boring if you would say. She would do the same things over and over again until they became boring.

That's not to say she hadn't tried doing other things before— in her short 18 years of life she had tried to do so many different things to pass the time, and yet it all just came out meaningless in the end.

From mountain climbing, to sky diving, to even hunting, and art.

All becoming boring after a while.

It wasn't like she had a bad life, in fact, she had a rather boring life, a meaningless one. It was neither good nor was it bad— she had neither friends nor bullies.

It was just plain— empty. It was like she was living without truly living.

Her parents tried to make her enjoy life, at the start at least.

When she was rather young they would spend time with her, play with her, but as time went on they became more distant and less caring.

This never bothered her because even from the start she found herself lacking something. Something that made her feel empty, a missing piece of herself.

She couldn't quite explain it, but it was one of the reasons she was always looking for something to make her feel alive.

But none of that mattered anymore.

For today as she was scrolling through her phone— all this changed.

She slowly felt herself drifting away, a wave of drowsiness overtaking her as she felt like passing out.

She assumed it was just due to the fact that she hadn't slept properly in a long time, and the sleepiness was catching up to her.

So without thinking much about it she closed her eyes and drifted away.

As she drifted away she could feel something overtaking her body.

A feeling to be exact.

It was a hard feeling to explain because it felt like a lot of things all at once, like relief, happiness, or a sense of belonging.

Above all else she suddenly felt like she was whole again, like a missing part of her had been reconnected and that she could finally feel all her emotions like she was supposed to.

It was exhilarating, she had never felt such emotions before, and she couldn't help but relish in the feeling for hours.

She didn't even know how long had passed since she was enjoying the feelings, hours, days, maybe even months. It felt like such a long time had passed— yet at the same time, it felt like no time had passed at all.

She didn't want to leave even after all this time had passed, yet, she felt something calling her to wake up.

Opening her eyes by force, she was met with a liquid that covered her entire body, and she was trapped inside this liquid inside of something else.

She couldn't tell what color the liquid is because she was inside of it, but thanks to her ability to see the black solid encasing around her she could only assume it was transparent to some degree.

She didn't panic— she was in fact oddly calm in such a situation where one would normally be freaking out.

She didn't feel like her life was in any danger.

Logically she could understand that if she was meant to be dead she would've already been dead. Whoever trapped her within this encasing could've killed her while she was unconscious if that was their intention.

And it was clear the liquid wouldn't drown her since she could breathe within it perfectly fine.

Which she couldn't understand but she didn't have time to question it.

Her first course of action was to assess the situation, rushing into doing something could turn out dangerous and prove more detrimental than it would be useful.

And while she may not care about living, she didn't want to die either. Life was a fickle thing, and she had no interest in wasting it on something so foolish.

So she calmly thought about the situation, trying to recall anything that came to mind after she passed out.

Yet nothing came.

The last thing she could remember was going through her phone and then passing out due to drowsiness.

'Did I die?'

No— that shouldn't be it.

She could still feel emotions like she used to, and even her body still had its senses.

She could see, albeit, in a dark enclosed space— she could feel the liquid on her skin— and she could taste and smell the liquid with each inhale she took.

She could even hear the beating of her own heart.

She wasn't dead, so she had to have been kidnapped and encased in something.

But why?

Who would go through the trouble of kidnapping someone as insignificant as her, and why would they do it?

Her life was utterly meaningless to everyone. She never stood out— she never tried to.

She had no reason to be taken, so it seemed unlikely.

So she decided to rule out the whys and hows for now and instead focus on the more important question.

How was she going to get out?

While the place wasn't dangerous right now, she had no idea if that would stay the same for long.

Who knows what would happen if the person that kidnapped her decided to take action.

Not to mention she had no food, water, or any essentials she needed to survive in here.

And she was starting to feel a hunger overtaking her.

She had to get out of there before the hunger made her unable to think rationally.

So she extended out her hands in order to feel the thing that was encasing her— and while she couldn't see it properly, she could feel it.

'It feels weird, it's hard but at the same time, it feels sort of flexible. What is it?'

She questioned herself internally as she felt the odd texture of the thing that encased her, realizing that it wasn't as hard as she thought it would be.

She was sure it would take some effort, but she was also sure that she could break it if she tried— so she decided to attempt to break out without hesitation.