Door to Blankia: The Blank Pages

“Ouch!”

Jurie slumped on a foamy yet sand-like surface and grunted. She reached for her back to massage the painful part only to realize she wasn’t really hurt. It was just her brain telling her to feel pain from the fall.

“Shh!” A chorus hushed her grunting.

She scanned the place and gasped when she saw nothing but white surroundings. She couldn’t even discern whether she was indoors or outdoors. Then, a synchronized tapping of fingers on laptop keyboards played in the air like a melody for the hopeless. The tune was somber and  monotonous, making her feel like the world spun as slow as the hour hand of a clock.

“Why are you on the floor?” A child’s voice whispered in her ears.

She jolted back to her feet when she saw an all-white humanoid with no face. It wasn't a child. It was literally a creature who stood four feet tall, like a paper doll outline cut from bond paper. It had no ears or hair. But it had five fingers.

“You should keep writing, or they will arrest you!” The creature assisted her to stand.

“Who will arrest me?”

“The guards. And then, they will feed you to the Censor Beasts! Stop asking too much.”

She stared at the humanoid and realized that it had no mouth. They were talking through telepathy.

She felt lightweight, literally so light that a sudden gust of wind almost blew her away. She tried to fix her clothes only to realize that she had become like the creature who talked to her. To prevent herself from making noise, she bit her lips. Shocked at her transformation. She touched her face just to realize it was blank.

“Keep working,” the androgynous creature said. “Remember, you should produce the same output as ours. You’re new here, so be careful. Just follow what we, Blankians, do.”

She scanned the surroundings once more and finally understood that all the beings in the place, including her, looked exactly the same. They were all seated on white monoblockchairs in front of white tables, similar to an office setup. Each had their own white laptop.

She reached for her chair and sat in front of her desk. She started typing, but no text appeared on screen. She didn’t even know what she was typing because she couldn’t see the letters on the keyboard, which was also white.

While she was still bogged down by what was happening, an origami bird rested on what she believed was a leafless tree and chirped twelve times. Like the rest of them, nothing set the avian apart from its distinguishable shape.

“Blankians, it’s lunch!” the bird announced. At least that was what Jurie thought because its beak moved as the words were uttered.

She observed as her colleagues stood and queued towards a long table. Blankians weren’t 2D creatures as she first thought. They were also 3D, only with thin dimensions. Their width was about nine to ten millimeters.

‘So that’s why I felt lightweight earlier,’ she said to herself.

“Blankian, aren’t you eating?” It was the same creature who helped her.

“Are we in an office?” she asked.

“Yes. You know what? I’ll tell you a secret.” The Blankian walked closer to her. “I was actually surprised that you heard me. I mean, I talk in my head. The others here don’t know how to do that.”

Jurie nodded.

“You’re new here. Where did you come from?”

“I don’t know if you are aware that another world exists aside from this one. I’m from that place. I don’t even know how I ended up here.”

“So, you don’t have a place to stay yet? You can stay with me. I live alone.”

“Are you sure you’ll take me in? You don’t know me.”

“You look like us. That makes you a Blankian.”

*****

Jurie accepted the Blankian’s invitation. After all, she didn’t have anywhere to go.

The new world was similar to the world she came from. It was filled with buildings, facilities, and amenities. They only differ in color and vibrance. The rules in the new world seemed unreasonable  and senseless for Jurie; she didn't have any choice but to follow.

“We are not allowed to think and have our thoughts,” the Blankians said. “Unlike you, who swooped down in a void, I just woke up here. The fact is I still remember who I was.”

Jurie kept listening, eager to learn more about the place so she could find a way to escape.

“My name is L. I’m an author who suffered from writer’s block. You see those marks on my wall?” L pointed to the right side of the bed, down the lower portion. “I carved the number of days I’ve been here, right at that specific spot.”

There were vertical lines grouped by five. It totaled ninety-one sets of five.

“You’ve been here for roughly a year and a half? So that means you’ve learned many things about this place.”

“A little, yes. But not that much. Because if I had, you wouldn’t have found me here.”

Jurie was about to ask another question when a thundering roar from a wild beast broke the stillness of the surroundings. Though they couldn’t discern night from day as the entire place was just white, the origami bird would tell them the time.

“What’s that sound?”

The ground shook violently, hinting that whatever walked on the road was massive.

“It’s the Censor Beasts!” L beckoned Jurie towards the window. They ducked under to stay hidden when the laser eyes of the beast scanned their house. However, when it walked to the next house, they gradually peeked outside. That was when they saw another Blankian running for his life.

Terrified, she covered her mouth not to make any sound. The monsters made of torn paper and red ink were doing their night rounds. They were the size of a mastodon with red, fiery eyes scanning every house. They had faces and sharp teeth like a shark’s and manes like a lion. Their body was filled with spikes similar to a porcupine. They were hybrids composed of different animal body parts, more like a queer type of chimera.

“Don’t worry. It can’t hear or see what’s in your head.Some of us can speak, but we choose not to because we’re ordered to be silent. We only speak in unison when we’re told. But once we—”

L wasn’t able to finish his explanation when a scream percolated in the air, followed by a Censor- Beast’s roarish growl, its saliva showering the area. On its toothy jaw was a screaming Blankian, dragged out of his house. Jurie was surprised to see his body covered in texts. He was beginning to have black ink in his body.

“Oh, no!” L shook his head in disbelief. “That guy finally found his voice! He might’ve spoken his ideas out loud without realizing it.”

“What do you mean?”

“When a Blankian voices out his unique ideas, he’s executed by the Censor Beasts. They want everyone here to think and behave in unison to avoid conflict. They’re perfectionist beings. Unfortunately, as ideas strengthen in our minds, it will show in our skins. That creature can read texts even from afar. Its eyes are like lasers.”

“What would happen to those with prints on their body?”

L shrugged. “Who knows? Only those who are caught would know what fate lies ahead of them.”