ALL CHARACTERS ARE ABOVE THE AGE OF 18
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I woke to a whiteness so blinding it took several moments before I could do anything but squint. My eyes eventually adjusted to the pain enough to open fully, but the brightness never dimmed.
I found myself on my back, looking up at what should have been a ceiling, or the sky, or ...well, something. Anything. Instead, all I could see was an unbroken field of white.
Was I awake? Maybe I was dead. I felt disembodied, and there were several failed attempts by my brain to send signals to my limbs before I could finally recognize the existence of them.
"Okay," I thought, "so I'm not dead. I'm still in my body. And I don't think I'm dreaming. But that doesn't mean anything. You always think a dream is real until you wake up."
I tried to sit up but couldn't. Pins and needles wracked my body as numbed nerve endings slowly came back to life, once again providing sensations.
With an effort, I managed to move my head. The whiteness where the ceiling or sky should have been continued on forever. There were no curves, no edges, no corners that I could see. Not a single crack or flaw to provide any sense of depth or scale. It was unnerving. I felt nauseous, my head spinning out of control.
Without warning, the blinding white went black as I slipped into unconsciousness.
I had no idea how long I was out. When I regained consciousness, I felt more solid and whole in my body, no longer floating in nothingness. But when I opened my eyes, the endless white space remained.
Feeling less lightheaded, I tried to sit up, in the process discovering I'd been laying on some kind of flat platform, similar to a bunk or shelf. It was the same white as the ceiling, but, as my eyes focused, I made out its edges.
Cautiously, I lifted myself into a seated position, easing my legs over the edge of the platform, unsure there would be anything to rest my feet on until they made contact. The floor was as white as everything else. I couldn't see where it met a wall, or a wall made way to a ceiling. It was utterly disorienting, and I once more felt my head spin.
My head between my knees, I took several deep breaths to keep from hyperventilating. When the spell had passed, I sat up and again tried to comprehend my surroundings.
It was a physical space, that much I could decipher. I could feel the floor under my feet, and the platform I was sitting on. Putting out a tentative hand, I made contact with the wall my platform connected to. The seam where they met was the only thing that gave me any sense of solidity. My hand slowly traced the edges to where it ended in a rounded corner.
Looking down, I saw my feet; felt the solid surface beneath them. But my brain still couldn't grasp that there was a floor, nor could I see where the floor ended and the wall behind me began.
I tried to stand up and felt yet another wave of nausea. As solid as the floor felt, my mind still refused to acknowledge its existence. I sat back down on the only surface I trusted to exist, the platform.
It was only then that I realized I was completely naked.
"Where...the hell...am I?" My voice was a shaky rasp.
That's when the screaming started.
Startled, I instinctively covered my ears and closed my eyes. It took several moments to realize the screams were not my own.
Opening my eyes, I was shocked to find a young woman lying supine directly across from me. She at first appeared to be floating on air until I made out the shape of the platform beneath her, exactly like the one I'd woken up on.
Had she been there earlier? Had she just appeared? I had no answer. But she was there now, solid and whole, a physical thing my mind could focus on and help ground me to reality.
She was as naked as I was.
"Hey! Hey!" I tried to speak, to get her attention, to calm her cries despite my own sense of panic.
Her shrieks suddenly ended. She, as I had done upon waking to this madness, had blacked out.
The room was now deafening in its silence. I listened for a sound, any sound; a creak, a rustle, the hum of electricity, anything. Yet there was only the whisper of my breathing, and that of the young woman's.
Focusing on her gave me a better grasp of the room. She appeared to be only several feet away. It would have been impossible to judge the scale of the all white space without her as a focal point.
I tried my feet again. Keeping one hand against the wall that supported my platform, I slowly started to traverse the space. There were no corners, only the gentle slope of the surface, guiding me in an eventual half circle, where I paused near the unconscious woman's side.
She appeared to be in her late teens, perhaps early twenties. Her long hair fell in random strands around her expressionless face. It was only the gentle rise and fall of her chest that told me she was still alive, her breath slow but steady. I felt a twinge of embarrassment when I again noticed her nudity, instinctively averting my eyes.
Not yet having the courage to move without a constant grip on the wall, I continued my journey, moving past her along the surface of the space, eventually coming back around towards the other side. I'd pause every few steps, feeling for a door, a seam, or anything that might hint at a way out. I found nothing.
Arriving back at my original starting point, I collapsed on the platform, exhausted. I estimated what I now understood to be a circular, enclosed room at about ten, maybe fifteen feet in diameter. Not very big at all. Still, I felt like I'd just run a marathon.
Now having some sense of scale, I found it easier to look more closely around the room. There were no lighting fixtures. Whatever was illuminating it appeared to be coming directly from the solid surfaces of the room itself. There were no power outlets, no switches, no air vents.
Every surface I touched felt the same; solid, yet soft. Pushing against the wall, it gave slightly. I hit it, gently at first, then several more times with increasing effort. It withstood the pounding with no damage. In a sudden rage I punched the wall with all my strength. If it had been any other surface, I'd likely have broken my hand, but there was barely a sound, and I felt no pain.
Testing the floor the same way, I stomped my feet with all my might. Both the energy and sound were absorbed by the strange surface. I sat back down, trying desperately to shake off the fear now gripping me.
"Hello?" Her voice was timid, meek, barely above a whisper.
The young woman was sitting up, her face a mask of confusion and horror. Her arms wrapped tightly across her chest, hugging herself, not, it appeared, from any sense of modesty, but from fright.
She was looking directly at me. "Hello? Who... who are you? Where am I? What's going on???" Her voice trembled, the pitch rising higher with each question.
Taking a deep breath, I steadied my own nerves before responding. "My name's Nick. I'm sorry, but I have no idea where we are or what's happening either."
Her body trembled uncontrollably. "Did... did you bring me here? Why are you naked?" Looking down at herself, she finally realized her own nudity. With a wail, she curled up into the fetal position on the platform, futilely attempting to cover herself as she cried.
I tried to reassure her. "Listen, I didn't bring you here. And I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just as confused and afraid as you are, okay? But I'm not going to hurt you, I promise. Just try to relax."
She gave no indication she'd heard me, only lay there, holding herself, weeping uncontrollably.
I had no idea what to do. Going over to try and comfort her would only make things worse, especially given my nakedness. She'd probably think I was attacking her. She was simply going to have to come to grips with this as I had.
I lay back on my platform, eventually dozing off to the sound of her continued sobs.
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When I woke, I found the young woman again sitting up, looking at me.
She still looked frightened, but she made no move to cover her body, even as I sat up to face her.
"Where...are we?" she asked.
I shrugged. "I have no idea. This is the most impossible room I've ever seen. If you can even call it a room."
"It... hurts my brain," she grimaced. "I can barely look at it. If you weren't here to focus on, I think I'd go mad trying to comprehend it."
Silence hung heavy for several moments before she spoke again. "I'm Chloe."
"Hello, Chloe, I'm Nick. I'd say it's nice to meet you, but..." I gestured at our surroundings.
That brought a small smile to her face. "How did we get here?"
"I have no idea. The last thing I remember is..." I paused, struggling to actually recall my last memory before waking up here.
It came back to me slowly, in fragments. "I was... home. Cooking dinner. A steak, I think. I remember hearing a humming noise coming from my yard, and seeing a bright light through my kitchen window. I thought maybe a power line had gone down or something. I remember stepping out on my patio to investigate, and then...and then I woke up here."
Chloe nodded slowly. "I was just getting home from shopping. I was struggling to open my front door with an arm full of groceries when I heard the noise. A loud humming. I remember seeing a light coming from behind me, which was strange because it was very sunny. I thought something odd may be happening to the neighbor's house across the street. I turned around to look, and... and then I woke up screaming."
I've always been a rational, logical thinker. Our stories were both very similar, and I put my mind to work, trying to figure it out. "So neither of us recall being attacked or abducted. We were both alone, saw and heard the same thing. Where are you from?"
"Sacramento, California. You?"
"Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Opposite end of the country. It's not like we were close enough to be taken by the same person. This may seem odd to ask, but do you remember what day it was? The date and time?"
Her face twisted in thought. "It was... Friday. September 10th. I don't remember the exact time, maybe 4pm, 4:15? Why?"
My brain did some quick math. "That sounds about right. Same day for me, somewhere around 7pm. It's a three hour time zone difference."
Her eyes went wide with comprehension. "We were taken at the same time."
"Yeah, but that's impossible. Unless..."
