Blank-Colored Room

Chapter One

"Tomoya."

I heard as my eyes started to blink open- everything was white around me. Someone chuckled as I tried to get a hold of the situation. Tomoya, father of two, out in the middle of white, was being summoned by some odd voice he had never heard before.

My eyes opened up in a car of sorts- there were huge seats and it was a large car. Where I was…I still had no clue. Beside me sleeping was my wife, Nagisa. Neither of our kids was there, though. Observing Nagisa, she looked just like she did back when we went to school: uniform- hair- face- everything. She was young again. I wondered if that meant I had to live through Ushio's first five years a third time, and Nami's first three years a second time. I wondered if something would change again, and it worried me.

There were a lot of other girls sleeping, too. A redhead and a blonde right next to each other, and something told me their names as if I knew them; they were Adelaide and Canberra…Addie and Cari. They were snuggled up- obviously they were close to each other. They were both somewhat attractive, and obviously foreign.

In the large passenger seat was Tomoyo, also asleep; Her light hair look messy. Another girl was curled into a ball across from Cari and Addie, another foreigner, this one with very dark skin and short black hair. All of us looked like high school students. I had a sense that we were all older than Addie and Cari, though.

The lady driving also had very dark skin, and hummed a tune that could only be described as gospel. When she noticed I was awake, she craned her head from observing the dessert road, but the driving still continued as if she was still watching.

"Hurry. Gather all that you can. You'll need it."

She nodded.
"Each guard tower has a secret button that does something different. The red one traps your soul forever, the green one opens the door back home, the blue one "
She went over some escape plan, but I couldn't understand anything she was talking about. I noticed open boxes around my feet, and reached to grab a few items out of them- Mainly pen and paper. I jotted down the unreasonable bit about buttons and guard towers.

"You can only keep the stuff you put in that crate before the ride's over." She turned back to driving and humming gospel tunes.

I don't know why, but I grabbed a few sodas and set them in the crate. I grabbed lots of CDs and hid the small slip of paper within a case. At the time, it seemed right to be cautious. For some reason- those three different types of things were all I put in the crate.

I seemed to be in a place I couldn't recognize; I saw all of the girls, and they looked back at me. It was like we were floating in this expanse, with sickly swirls and random objects. There were images of lily pads and ponds at their feet- plant leaves and a forest- a large that in which they'd be mice. They tried moving forward, but they were hesitant, afraid.

I told them it was okay, that we could all go back still. They nodded- they trusted me.
We could all go back, right?

Is this a memory…or a dream?

I wake up again in a huge room, I'm apparently the last one to wake up here- I'm on the floor, and not a single one of them noticed me stir from the floor. It was cold and stone-like, it seemed that we were in a warehouse of sorts. I got up and looked around. There was a huge mattress on the ground in front of me with fancy bedding and lacy pillows- the girls were talking and braiding each other's hair. I couldn't figure out why they were doing that.

Nagisa was chatting with Addie and Cari, everyone else was crawling around, trying to find a comfortable place on the mattress to sleep. I didn't understand what was going on, still.
Don't they care that there's a boy in here? Where am I supposed to sleep?

I wondered if they all had their memories like I did. I wondered if Nagisa was just too busy with her friends to notice me there on the floor.

Tired, I pulled myself up onto the mattress, curled into a ball, and slept.
I didn't think any of them noticed.

"Wake up~ Wake up~" I heard Nagisa sing; it was that sweet melody of her voice that willed me to open my eyes through the tiredness. She was gently shaking my shoulder, but she seemed stronger than usual.
"Nagisaaa…" I whined and rolled over, hugging a pillow. I didn't want to get up just yet, so I closed my eyes again. Bad decision: I rolled in the direction of a lamp and now the light was in my eyes.

"H-how…how did you know my name?" She sounded shocked. She was probably just pulling a prank on me, maybe her Dad finally got to her. She was fairly good at acting, too.
It only made sense.

"Well duh" I pulled the pillow over my eyes, I wasn't going to fall for it. My voice sounded strange, but I brushed it off as being groggy in the morning.

"Hey kid, get up, speak to us here." That was Tomoyo. She then pulled me up with one hand. When did she get so strong, too?
"It's not polite to turn away from people when they ask you a question." She raised her tone a little, but I couldn't understand why. We were friends; she didn't have to be so strict when I roll over instead of greeting Nagisa.

"What are you talking about?" I was still trying to wake up from my sleep. I was still trying to understand what was going on. I was still trying to let my eyes adjust, so I could find out where I was. I still wanted to sleep.

"Isn't it obvious? You're being rude." She shook me a little and my eyes started to adjust to the lighting the lamp created. It was light enough to see, but dark enough to sleep; it must have been night.

The room had a huge flag painted on the wall, red couches, and a mattress was in the middle on the floor- taking up most of the floor space. I guessed that was where everyone slept. I wondered what happened to that other place- that place with the cold stone floor and the fancy bedding.

"I'm not being rude…I'm just tired…"

"How about we introduce everyone else, first?" Nagisa's voice, this time, I could see her grass-hopper-cowlick to my left. She was probably smiling with the tone of voice she used.

She pointed to everyone in turn. She identified the redhead as Cari, and the blond as Addie. She pointed to the dark-skinned girl and called her Leah, and then she pointed to Tomoyo and introduced her.
Which was a little pointless, but I guessed it was okay.
Lastly, she pointed to herself and introduced herself as Nagisa before asking me my name.

She doesn't recognize me?