The room.

I don't know what day it is. I don't know what time it is. I don't know where I am.The last thing I remember is the weight of the shopping bags in my hands, the smell of freshly baked bread wafting from the bakery on the corner.Then I don't know how I found myself in this dark room. Not being able to see where I am is much more disturbing than I imagined. I can't figure out how big this room is, if it has a ceiling or if I'm in the middle of cosmic nowhere. The only thing I can feel is the cold concrete floor beneath my feet.At some point, in the center of the room, a candle lit. Who lit it? I wondered, but there was no one near the candle.Finally, light illuminated the room; it was perfectly circular, without doors or windows. The ceiling faded into darkness, as if the walls stretched on forever. A feeling of claustrophobia tightened my throat. No escape, and a void above my head. But most importantly: I'm not alone in this room.Besides me, there are three other boys and a girl about my age. Most of them are asleep; I wonder if they remember how they ended up in here. From across the room, the only boy awake was staring at me, sitting cross-legged. After some thought about how to ask the guy for directions, I forced myself and asked:"U-hey..." My voice came out weaker than I intended."Do you know where we are?" My voice was barely audible, but I managed to speak. However, I received no response, just a long sigh. His eyes were piercing me, cold and unmoving. My heart was pounding in my ears, like that day in the woods. Only then, the trees were hiding me. Here, however, there was nothing. Just me and his gaze, pinning me to the wall like an insect. I'm sure that if I hadn't come out soon, he would have eaten me alive. But I tried to push this thought out of my head and searched for any crack in the room, for some clue, anything. But it was all in vain; the room was perfectly sealed. I hope the air doesn't run out. Maybe there's a hidden ventilation system up there, but how can I reach it? The walls surrounding us are brick, but I'm not athletic enough to scale the wall. I whirled around to see the boy staring at me, fearing he'd crept up. Instead, he was still sitting, motionless, but now staring at the ceiling, as if he, too, wanted to scale the wall.
-1-

The tattoo on his shoulder didn't bode well: a winged creature covered in black scales, a dragon with gaping jaws that seemed to be coming to life and attacking. He was sitting against the wall, and I couldn't figure out what that tattoo was. Any movement he made would have made me run away in panic. After a few minutes, another boy woke up too; he was tall and slender.He was just as confused as I was; waking up in an unfamiliar room is quite terrifying. He whirled around, casting menacing glances around."Does anyone know where we are? Or how we ended up here?" The tall boy's voice was tense but controlled. Typical of someone trying to rationalize horror. Again, the guy sitting didn't respond, not even a nod. So I turned to the tall boy and shook my head. Probably none of us know how we ended up in this room or what will happen to us."Aaaah." A female scream. The girl had also woken up and was in a complete panic. She had long hair that fell over her shoulders like a cape. I thought she was pretty, but something in her gaze told me she wasn't a sweet young lady. Her lips trembled as she stared at us. Her expression was one of contempt rather than fear."What have you done to me?!" Her voice was a hiss, her eyes darting between us as if we were caged beasts. "If this is a joke, it's not funny.""If you think we kidnapped you, you're wrong. No one knows how we ended up in here." the tall boy explained calmly.The girl was speechless, clutching herself as if to protect herself from us."My name is Kaito, I'm 18, nice to meet you." The tall boy introduced himself, extending his hand to the girl. She hesitated but then grabbed his hand to pull herself up."I-I'm Isabella. Nice to meet you." She said, looking away, almost embarrassed."What's your name?" Kaito asked me with a reassuring look. I took a breath and said,"My name is Issei.""What do you mean, you don't know how you ended up here? You're lying to me, right?"Isabella said incredulously. But what Kaito said was completely true."I wish it were so, but no. We need to stay calm and figure out how to get out of here." Kaito said, trying to calm the girl, who was still traumatized.The candle in the center of the room flickered, then went out with a hiss.
-2-

The darkness engulfed us again, thicker than before.Then laughter echoed through the room. We all screamed in unison except the tattooed boy, who remained composed without moving a single muscle.Our screams woke even the last of us, who was visually the youngest. He groped the floor with his hands, as if searching for something to hold on to. When his fingers found nothing but cold concrete, he cried out. A strangled sound, like a wounded animal. Then he turned toward us and burst into tears. The situation was making me very uncomfortable. I stepped back a little to get closer to the wall, and someone behind me touched me."Boo." Someone whispered in my ear. But when I turned around, there was nothing.Then another childish laugh broke out.An orange glow reignited in the center of the room: the flame flared up, higher than before, revealing the ghost of a child floating above it."You're all finally awake, how wonderful!" the spirit said with a disturbing grin. He floated in midair, his legs dangling as if sitting on an invisible chair.Meanwhile, the waking child's cries grew even louder. If the room were made of glass, we'd be falling into the void, I thought.The ghost approached the child and put its fingers in his mouth, distorting his face. The ghost's transparent fingers moved left and right across the child's face. I saw the eyes, nose, and mouth move all over the child's face in a horrifying manner. After a few moments, the mouth completely disappeared from the child's face. The screams stopped, but the terror grew enormously. The child's eyes were overflowing with tears and fear. We all remained silent, mouths agape at such a disgusting sight."Now be quiet, Sora," the ghost said with a creepy grin. Sora's hands felt his face, searching for the now-vanished mouth. The ghost turned toward us, checking us out one by one. Everyone took a step back, shaking like leaves, including me.None of this is real, I repeated to myself, but everything was so real: the concrete floor, the brick wall, the cold air—which wasn't bothersome, though—the people next to me. It was all so real, yet it seemed like something out of a horror story."Welcome to my playroom!" the ghost said in a high-pitched, joyful voice.
-3-

What games is he talking about? I wondered.The spirit's smile was so wide it reached his eyes, he looked like a child who, after a long time, has someone to play with.After a few moments of hesitation, Kaito, trying to remain calm, said:"Why did you choose us for these games?" His voice, despite trying to be calm, trembled. The question was something different from what one would expect from a normal person; perhaps he's some kind of genius who knows how to use words to get answers. The ghost laughed as if the question had an obvious answer."It's simple, you're here to repent of your sins." The spirit's expression changed from that of a happy child to one of disappointment. Repent, huh? What do you mean? I don't think I've ever sinned in my life; if I did, it must have been something so trivial that I'd forget about it."Issei, don't think you're innocent." The ghost said, approaching me quickly. I fell to the ground in fright, and the spirit came even closer, staring into my eyes.I hope he doesn't intend to disfigure me like he did with the crying child before.Luckily for me, Kaito asked another question to distract the spirit."What are these games?" he asked, his lips still trembling. The ghost whirled around, falling into Kaito's face."Do you want to know how you must repent of your sins?" He answered with a rhetorical question. Bricks began to fall from the ceiling, as if the structure were falling apart, then the floor began to crumble, and in an instant we found ourselves falling into darkness.In the void, however, a red light began to appear, and then we fell into a desolate land with volcanoes heating the air and filling the sky with red.Where the hell are we? I asked myself, my heart in my throat and unable to breathe."This is the hell you'll soon end up in if you don't repent." The ghost smiled again, its creepy grin getting on my nerves; I couldn't stand it anymore."I-I understand, can we start these games?" I asked, not breathing properly. I was about to choke, but I remained standing, staring at the demonic spirit."Good, good, good! Then let's start the games!" The ghost looked even happier than before; if it smiled again, its mouth would be over its own eyes.
-4-

With a snap of his fingers, the walls around us reappeared and the ground turned to concrete. Everything was back to normal, even the candle in the center of the room was back, lit and shining.Without realizing it, I was alone in the room. The ghost whispered in my ear: "You stay here and watch."What should I watch? Does that mean I'm safe? Or is the game turn-based and this is the time I have to wait? I have too many questions, but no one to talk to; they've all disappeared. I'm alone again.
-5-