I woke up at some point, believing earlier to have been a dream, but the feeling of two warm bodies dissuaded that notion. The night sky was so dark it must have been midnight, yet past the window the horizon glowed an eerie blue. It wasn’t city lights. It couldn’t be that.
We still remained in a heap, though at some point Wine and I had separated. I couldn’t remain there, and slowly I untangled myself much to their grunts and protests. I didn’t bother to find clothes.
I was really hungry… and parched.
My eyes adjusted easily enough to the dark, and there were faint, night lights along the base of the bedroom’s walls that guided my foot steps. The door, not the one to the bathroom, was easily recognizable, and so was its interface–a similar white pad like the other, though with a strong red outline.
Simply pressing the pad wasn’t enough. I don’t know what I had done, but within a minute, it flashed green, and the passage silently opened.
The new space was large and open, the floor that same polished, textured concrete, the room bending like a semi-sphere. Far off to the right I saw chairs and a long table dimly lit. A dining area.
Next to it, appliances and countertops were arrayed. The kitchen. I strode toward it, rounding its island counter space, fixated on a bowl of enticing fruit… or something which looked like fruit.
Lights from hanging conicals illuminated to a dim, warm hue. I thought one of the girls had followed me and had switched them on. A gaze around showed that there was no one here, so it must have been automatic or sensor related.
From the bowl, I picked up something that appeared shaped like an avocado. It was colored bright red, like pastel red on a painting, feeling ripe and smelling delicious. I bit straight into it, the thing bleeding purple, its meat tinted blue. It tasted like olalliberries, a sweet reminder of a pie I had once in traveling the Central Coast.
One fruit after another I consumed. One had the texture of bananas, tasting like apples. One had the aftertaste of pine but smelt of roses and baked bread. My last one was thin as palm leaves, yet the meat was tender and smooth. Half of the bowl’s contents were gone when I finished.
Cleansing myself and drinking heavily at a nearby sink, I noticed that the water tasted different, nothing like what came out of San Diego’s water pipes, as though it was from frozen ice cubes. Odd… less fluorides? Maybe no chlorine?
… Did I just drink dirty water?
I was satiated, but not satisfied and deeply troubled (and not about the water). Going back into that room is not an option. Not yet.
Pulling out one of the island’s stools, I plumped myself down, leaning forward on a polished countertop, thinking.
The fact that I was having deep regrets about earlier did little to unfuck my mental state. I had let myself loose, letting hormones get the better of me. I was terrified of what would happen. I’m not ready to become a parent… I wasn’t even ready for a committed relationship, let alone with strangers.
The court system is going to fuck me.
It wasn’t just that which troubled me. It wasn’t even my highest worry.
What happened to me? You’d think such a change in a body would be memorable, but it wasn’t. Why not? Had I been fucked with? Did God decide to screw with me? Was this some lab experiment? Was I always like this?
Who am I? Doubt drowned out any answer that could be had. I had a life before this, whatever this is. One night I'm partying with friends, bar hopping and clubbing, and the next moment I’m here. Was that all a dream, or did I body snatch someone unwillingly?
I tried retracing that night, trying to remember faces and friends.
Xander… Juane… Adam, I smiled to myself from the thought, fucking assholes.
Brook… Sylvia… Haley… crazy bitches.
… Where are they?
Where am I? This isn’t my apartment. None of what I saw belonged to me. Everything seemed rich and yet strangely alien. The fruit had definitely tipped me off on that, and the way almost everything is designed had too many subtle curves and stone and not enough sharp corners and drywall.
Was this really a rich man’s Long Beach home?
I stared toward a nearby window, one more narrow than the one in the bedroom. If the other faced north, this one was more westerly. The eerie, blue glow from before came through it, giving a tint to the floor and walls like a god ray through clouds. I hadn’t looked outside much. What was out there?
To the window I approached, eagerly taking in the scene outside. There was something that shone bright beyond the horizon, what it was I couldn’t see. But, below, there were buildings, roundish, geometric complexes several stories tall with narrow streets, illuminated by dim lights. I saw gardens, parks, and a wall that surrounded this place below like a keep. It was too dark to make out anything else.
This doesn’t look like Oceanside.
Turning around, my gaze fell upon a shiny, metallic entrance that seemed functionally similar to that of the glass doors. I noticed it as soon as I walked in. It is a double wide entry way, with two panels meeting at a center, made in a way that it invites you to step beyond its threshold. A way out.
Where would you go?
Just outside. Only a peak.
I approached it with a quicker stride than before, excitement and worry pooling in my chest. Am I really doing this?
I am doing this.
My hand reached for the whitepad, outlined in a red line. It flashed…
… nothing.
I tapped it again, trying that gesture I used in the bedroom, and it flashed again.
Still red. I looked at the entrance. Still closed.
Again I tried… nothing.
Are they keeping me here?
Where the panels met at the center, I placed my fingers, prying and pulling. It would not budge.
They’re keeping me here…
Stepping away, I gazed at the entrance to my cage. There has to be another exit.
In adjacent bedrooms, bathrooms, a washroom, a rec room, a gym(?), and others I couldn’t recognize, I looked for another exit, bouncing around like an animal trapped in a cage. There were three others I saw, all of them locked.
Ending up back in the large room I had started in, my head spun. Part of me was convinced that there was some sort of key I was missing, or that this was some misunderstanding. You don’t lock guests in against their will, part of me reasoned.
I’m a prisoner.
No, there’s something else going on, I thought as I lightly slapped myself. At the very least, this is a misunderstanding.
Back to the bedroom’s entrance I looked, realizing just how tired I was. I needed to sleep, but part of me felt repulsed since that meant I would be among them. You’re not going to fuck them, you’re going to sleep, I reminded myself.
I felt my lower appendage pulse. Stop it.
As I entered, both girls were as I had left them, Eve snoring in a cute way with Wine’s chest rising and falling to silent breaths. I had noticed the wet blankets had been tossed aside. It was warm enough that they weren’t needed, as though we slept under a mild tropical climate.
Before I could snuggle between them, the horizon beyond the window captured my gaze. I felt my stomach drop, my blood freezing, my heart skipping at that dream-like visage, letting my feet drag me toward the window.
I stopped a few feet away, gazing at a blue gas giant dominating the night sky.
…
…
… WHERE THE FUCK AM I!?