Somewhere New

Neso woke with a start in a supine position. The ceiling overhead had lines that ran through the veins against the white and formed a pattern that his eyes frantically searched as he scrambled onto his feet. His head throbbed and getting up as fast as he did left him feeling lightheaded. The room he was in was by all accounts a typical bedroom as he could make out in the darkness a place to sleep with two slender doors to his right and one to his left. He wasn't sure where he was and as hard as he tried, his memories felt fuzzy. He pressed a hand to his temple and hunched over, wondering if he would be sick. When he finally gathered his thoughts enough to make his way from the room where he had awakened, he made his way to the left and instinctively opened the door. Peering out his eyes were assaulted by the dim lighting, a harsh contrast from the room's darkness. Neso took it one small step at a time. He heard a chattering sound and froze. He listened. All was quiet. He took a step forward and the chattering commenced again. He laughed softly to himself. It was his teeth chattering. 

~

Javen opened his eyes and immediately regretted it as what had been a gentle luminescence through closed lids became brilliant white light that sent sharp stabs of pain straight to his brain. He rolled onto his side, his body instinctively curling into the fetal position to protect the most vulnerable parts of itself. This was Javen's first clue that he had spent a significant time in either low light or outright darkness. Deep breaths in through the nose, out through the mouth. Javen took his time acclimating before sitting up. The room he was in contained nothing but the bed he'd been lying on. The ceiling lights ran through like veins, forming a pattern that tickled Javen's brain. Turning his attention inward, he poked at that tickle and tried to follow it. Which was when Javen realized he couldn't remember anything but his name. The panic he expected from that tidbit of information never came, implying this was not an entirely new state to find himself in. "How strange." Javen cocked his head at the sound of his voice. A smooth, strong sound with a hint of huskiness underlying it. Oddly pleasant, overall. Javen laughed. "Clearly, I like the sound of my own voice," he joked. Acting on impulse alone, Javen stood up and took the slender door directly in front of him and found himself in a nondescript blue-tinted white hallway. He had the grand choice of going left or right and chose right at random. Amused that "right" and "random" both started with r, Javen chuckled. There was nothing really to focus on in the hallway so he took stock of himself instead. Long legs and a confident stride that felt natural. A strong body with a bit of softness around the middle that made him smile. Javen liked himself, and that felt natural too, if a bit hard-won. He wore a muted gray jumpsuit that felt like cotton and sported a concealed zipper that would allow him to easily get in and out of it in a hurry, which was a nice feature. His hair bounced over his shoulders as he walked. Pulling a loose curl out revealed it was a rich brown color. Javen found himself wishing for a mirror. It nagged at him that he didn't remember his own face. Rounding a corner, he came face to face with another man, slighter in stature but with broader shoulders. "Whoa, whoa," Javen said, holding his hands up by his face in an "I mean no harm" gesture after the man reeled back and screamed.

~

"Don't eat me!" Neso screamed, hurling himself backward and stumbling into the wall. He had no idea what direction to turn to. What if there were more lying in wait? What if they started with his legs?

"Only if you ask," Javen replied with a rakish grin. He kept the harmless pose, giving the stranger time to adjust. "I'm Javan, by the way." He wiggled a few fingers in greeting. 

"Why would I ask for that?" Neso asked. "I am not a cannibal..." He paused. His eyes grew larger. "What if I am and I just don't remember?" His eyes frantically searched for something to focus on in his surroundings as if this somehow allowed him to examine himself. He came to a decision and nodded. "I think I would remember that." 

"You haven't been flirted with a lot, have you?" Javen asked. He wiggled his fingers again. "Can I lower my hands now?"

"I'm not even sure why you have them up," Neso said. He squinted to look further down the hallway in the direction that Javan had come from. "Do you happen to know where we're at?"

"To prove I won't hurt you," Javen said cheerfully. He let his arms fall to his sides. "I don't, no. Who are you, by the way?" He prompted. 

"Neso," he said softly. "I'm Neso..." The word sounded strange as he said it but a tingling thought at the back of his mind whispered it to him so it must be right. 

"Lovely to meet you, Neso," Javen said. He put his palms together in front of him. "Now, do you happen to remember anything at all?"

He shook his head. "I don't... I woke up and everything was a blur... It's like I know who I am but ...I can't even remember my mother's name... or if I have one." 

"I just know I'm self-absorbed," Javen says, shrugging like this absence of memory isn't a worrisome thing. "I don't suppose you have a sense of where we are?" He isn't surprised when Neso shakes his head. "Guess we're explorers now." 

"I'm not so sure I'm an explorer... I feel very much like a stayer..." But Javan was already walking ahead. "And you're walking away..." He hurried to catch up. "What do you think we'll find?"

"I dunno!" Javan said. He tossed a grin over his shoulder. "But I have to say I'm glad I'm not alone anymore."

"How long have you been awake?" Neso asked. "I don't think I've been awake very long..." He had a vague memory of waking up with chills and screaming. "Maybe in and out of sleep some..." 

"Not me," Javan said. "I slept like the dead." He paused. "We're not dead," he decided after a scant moment of consideration. "I haven't been up all that long."

Neso let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. He rubbed the chill from his arms. "And why is it so cold in here?" Perhaps he should have donned a coat. Though, he had no recollection if he even had one. 

"I could warm you up," Javan offered with a flirtatious flutter of his eyelashes. 

Neso squinted at him. "I'm starting to learn a lot about you," he said. "Do you have any idea where you're going or are you just guessing?"

"I try not to think about things too hard," Javan said. He patted his gut. "Instinct has gotten me through... I'm not sure exactly but it feels like a lot." He sidled aside to make room for Neso to walk more comfortably next to him. "We should probably stay close." He laughed at Neso's expression. "That wasn't a come-on."

"Is that another pickup line...?" Neso stopped and eyed him. "I really can't tell."

"That's fair!" Javan laughed. "You haven't been receptive, and I don't want to make you uncomfortable," he added. "I'm not a terrible person. At least... I don't think I am. I try not to be."

"We could both be ...if that helps," Neso said. "We don't know who we are... Or how we could both lose considerable chunks of memory...." 

Javan tilted his head thoughtfully. "That helps, actually. Thanks." He patted Neso on the shoulder. They walked for a time without the hallway branching off in a different direction. "This is getting boring," Javan complained. He ignored the growing feeling that they were rats in a maze.

"What are you wanting?" he asked. "Some horrific thing to appear..." The hallway was filled with doors that opened into empty dark rooms. Neso wasn't sure whether to feel relieved that there was no one to harm them or terrified that they were the only two souls there. "Wait..." He squinted. His eyesight had cleared the further they walked and the headache that plagued him had finally ceased. "Do you see that?"

"I don't want to be hunted or anything, but this all feels rather anticlimactic doesn't it?" Javan leaned close. "See what?"

"That..." He pointed to a clump in the far corner of the latest room they checked. "It's..." He made a figure with his hands. "A clump."

Javan squinted. Sure enough, there was a person-sized clump. "You wait here," he said, easing forward on the balls of his feet. He took each step carefully and quietly. Up close he saw a mess of thick black hair, a woman's face. "There's someone here. Looks like a woman... " Javan shifted his weight, waiting for an attack. Nothing. "I can't tell if she's breathing." He knelt to check for a pulse. 

A figure erupted from the puddle of bedding that the two realized had been strategically made in the corner when they were first approaching. She struck the nearest man in the face twice in quick succession, landing solid blows to his nose and forehead.

Javan stumbled back with a cry mixed with pain and confusion. "You broke my nose!"

"I broke nothing." The woman’s voice was rough from disuse and lilting with an accent. "Yet."

"Wait!" Neso shouted. "Wait!" He hurried forward, then hung back, feeling the gesture was way more brave than he was. "Look... miss... please don't break anything. We were hoping we could find another person who could explain to us what's going on..." 

She looked each man over with a practiced eye. Determining that neither was a threat, at least at present, she relaxed somewhat. She ignored the man she'd injured - and who was still clutching his face - in favor of the one that seemed more... competent, if meek. "You do not know?"

"Know what... We just woke up and ...everything was empty and dark and we saw you so we were hoping -" A sudden scream cut Neso off and he was surprised it came from him as he registered being knocked to the floor in a tackle. 

"Neso!" Javan cried, stumbling towards his companion.

"Took you long enough," the first woman said.

"I forgot if the signal was you running out of the bedding or if we had a signal..." the second woman admitted. "But you seemed to have it handled... That one's nose is bleeding..." She stood over Neso who looked up at her with wide eyes. 

"We aren't a threat," Neso said. "I'm Neso... He's Javan..." He pointed at the other man. 

The second woman stared down at him. "You don't look very threatening," she agreed, nodding. "I'm Kirbie." 

"I am Khadijah," the first woman said. She met Kirbie's eye. "We didn't have a signal. I simply expected you to act sooner."

Javan sat heavily beside Neso. Satisfied no one was going to kill anyone any time soon, he tilted his head back and focused on stopping his nosebleed.

"I'm almost disappointed," Khadijah said. 

"You'll get over it," Kirbie said. "So where have you two come from?" 

Neso pointed to the door. "Down the hallway... The other rooms were empty. Then we thought Khadijah was unconscious or dead..." 

"And your response was to render aid?" Khadijah asked, her tone making her suspicion clear.

"Obviously!" Javan said.

"I suppose that's gallant..." Kirbie agreed. "But it does not get us any further..." 

"Have you ever left this room?" Neso asked. So far he could make out the figures in the dark but he could tell that they had no problem seeing him. 

"Kirbie roamed around a bit," Khadijah said. "She came back with ‘the heebie-jeebies’ and we haven't left since."

"Anything in particular give you that feeling, or...?" Javan asked.

Neso eased to his feet and carefully away from Kirbie. "We've only gone down this hallway but -" He opened his mouth to continue to explain how it was the two of them met when a loud screeching noise brought them all into silence. “What’s that?” It didn’t take Khadijah a second to spring into action and run in the direction of the noise, disappearing through the doorway and to the right of the hallway. Kirbie quickly followed with Javan close behind. “Why are you running toward the noise?” he shouted. He reluctantly - and more slowly - followed suit. He heard Javan utter an expletive as he rounded the corner. The others came into view. Each wore the same expression. One of awe, shock, and even a bit of terror. “What’s -” he started as his head turned to the direction the others were staring. His eyes widened. “What?”

The hallway had opened into a wider hall that was lined with a thick series of windows. Outside was an inky expanse that was neverending. That wasn’t even the most unnerving aspect. As Neso inched forward, daring to get closer, he peered through the window looking down to find that all there was to see was darkness.