Eight – White Box

Think of a night, just an ordinary night. You left the lights of your room open then you fell asleep. Then you woke up with seeing nothing. There is a blackout. You can’t fall asleep again because it’s too dark and you can’t see anything at all. But after some time, the lights came back while being awake. Was it hard to see because it’s very bright?

Yes, it is.

It’s so bright that I can’t properly see after I opened my eyes. I kept winking and winking so that I can clearly see this mysterious room.

Finally, my vision has cleared.

“W-What in the…

White…

It’s all white… Does this mean this room is just a white room with four walls?

Now that I’m seeing this…

This room is unbelievably huge!”

I kept looking on my left and right, back and front, up and down to see if there is anything here except the lone door.

I’m seeing nothing but a room with immaculate white walls. There is not a speck of dirt or stains that I can see. It’s like the perfect laundry soap for cleaning white cloth that I saw in the commercials. But this is way beyond that!

“Seriously, this is the same size as a mansion. If only I can get the area of this room…

Hm?

I can’t see any light source, so where is the light coming from?”

I looked down to my feet but I can still see my shadow underneath. It should probably mean that the lights are from the ceiling, or the ceiling itself can be a huge light source for this. But I expected this to at least release heat, but there’s nothing.

“I should probably check the ceiling once my body heals completely.”

▪ ▪ ▪

I’ve been here for a solid twenty minutes. I wonder if thirty minutes here doesn’t take a minute in the outside.

…

“Now then, what should I do now…?”

I grabbed the notebook and a pen in my bag and started writing about my first impressions in this place.

0827, year not to be defined.

I entered a very mysterious room and discovered that it’s only a plain white room. Nothing more, nothing less. My only companion here is this locked door. That’s it. All I can see is white walls.

I’ve spent 20 minutes in this room as I’m writing this. I wonder what time is it in the outside world. There are no gravitational changes yet.

I closed the notebook and grabbed a marker. It’s not an ordinary one. Its tip is the same size as my thumb.

I went to the nearest wall to me…

Just walking makes me feel tired because of how big this room is.

I reached out my arm as high as I can and wrote a vertical line that symbolizes my first day here and I will repeat this 729 more times until I leave this place after two years.

“What an idiot. I shouldn’t be thinking of getting out of here right now. Two years is a long time for me to spend here…

Wait, how should I take a bath?

I need to start a fire so I can cook. My food supply right now has protein and calcium. I need more vegetables.

But drinking milk is a must everyday for two years. I need to restore my bones to its former glory. I want to beat my vertical leap record.

Wait…

How would I take a dump here?”

▪ ▪ ▪

It’s a good thing they gave me a clock exclusively for this time-accelerated place. It’s been two hours since I entered, and I am getting really tired already.

1:30am, 0828.

“I really should sleep now.

Wait…

Can this clock set alarms?”

Another good thing is that the clock is a mobile terminal but I don’t have to worry of it running out of power since they said that while I’m here, it will continue functioning just like it’s an entity from this room.

“Ya~wn…

I need to prepare the sheets and get to sleep quickly. Fortunately, it’s a bit cold here but not chilly. I can use a blanket to get comforta-

Blanket…

Good grief. How can I wash my clothes without water and how can I sustain a drinking water for two years?!”

I guess I should sleep and think of those things after I woke up this morning. I won’t set an alarm so I can get a lovely sleep.

▪ ▪ ▪

No birds chirping.

No sounds of a noisy electric fan.

No dry smell of mornings.

No sun.

But it’s still cold.

10:43am, 0828.

Oh yeah, I’m not on the usual bed I used to sleep on. This is not my house.

How strange it is to be in a room without any windows. This is bad. I get to spend two years in this blank place without my skin touching the sunlight.

…

"Was there a time that I wasn't exposed to the sun for a long time?"

My eyes aren’t completely open so I tried to blindly get my bag.

But I felt something cold: A metal tube.

…

It’s a faucet.

“What the heck… Is this a joke…?

How in the world did a faucet suddenly popped up in a white wall in an unknown dimension?”

I twisted it to test if there is water or it’s just a joke.

*Sha―*

There is water. Seriously.

I hope it won’t break. I have no experience in plumbing.

“Oh, eggs. I need eggs.”

Every month, the door opens up so that I can get some things dropped off from the outside. But the catch is it’s just a one-time deal every time. Whenever the door opens up, I only have once chance. So the ways I have thought of are boxing the supplies and kick it in to the room while I’m at the midpoint room. Once I enter the midpoint room, I can only go there just one time. So I need to leave myself there whilst transporting items.

But today, the door opens up again for me to get more supplies. This will be tough.

▪ ▪ ▪

2 dozens of eggs, cracked. 3 dozens, safe.

5 kilograms of meat. Good grief, I don't have a refrigerator.

Vegetables, specially potatoes.

A handful of utensils.

Two sacks of rice.

One hundred pieces of axed logs.

“All check.

Hahh…

Hiro, Sean… Are you seriously making your patient do heavy work even when he just got his bones intact?”

Thankfully there is a cart for transporting things from midpoint room, and a rope to be tied to it so I can pull it back.

I guess I should also leave a note if I need something for next month.

“Snap, I need to prepare lunch. I’m hungry.”

~ ~ ~

August 28, Monday.

I gathered some supplies from the midpoint room. It’s a little difficult knowing that I can only enter and exit once in a month.

Gravitational changes: None.

A faucet suddenly appeared after I woke up today and surprisingly, the water is drinkable. It’s like water from the river a thousand years ago.

As expected, I didn’t do well at cooking my lunch and dinner.

▪ ▪ ▪

0912, Day 17.

“Hahh…

Even though I’m alone in this plain room, I’m still doing schedules…”

I never thought that I would compare this accelerated room to our house.

It’s only been 17 days since I entered, but just thinking about the outside is really getting to me. I really miss the people I left behind to accomplish my dumbness.

It’s depressing to think that I have already spent 17 days here but this doesn’t even count as a day outside.

“713 more days, huh.”

▪ ▪ ▪

0926, Day 31.

There are still no changes in my surroundings.

The pain in my body lessened after 31 days. I’m now used on living with myself here, seeing no reflection of mine, but only my shadow underneath my feet.

I chose not to stain this place with things that is out of place so I started a new way of living for me: Minimalism.

I have no problems in space since I hardly even use the other corners of the room.

Tomorrow is the time where the door will open again.

I have survived a month in this unknown dimension.

▪ ▪ ▪

The next day.

“Ya~wn… Urk…

…

Why is it harder to get up now?

What the… This isn’t my imagination. My body seriously feels heavy right now.”

No, it’s not because of laziness. I managed to get up but it’s like an idiot’s luck. Somehow, the blanket felt like it weighs double of its original weight.

(!)

Oh great.

My body is starting to be affected. If not because of my proper recovery, I may never use my limbs ever again in my life.

I think the time finally came for that.

“The door shall open anytime soon…

…

Who would’ve thought that I will still be alive after a month trapped in this bright white box.

Two years.

Twenty-four months.

One hundred four weeks.

Seven hundred and thirty days.

One million, fifty-one thousand and two hundred minutes.

Sixty-three million and seventy-two thousand seconds…”

I’ve been doing nothing for the past month and now I’m just lying on this pure white floor muttering words that I shouldn’t even say out loud.

This weight is really something. I can feel the floor sucking down my whole body until I sink. It’s like I’m being squashed by thin air.

But regardless of that, I have never once forgotten to recall the people who were around me before that grotesque accident happened.

Seriously… I really missed them.

My family, my friends, acquaintances, and anyone who had a connection to me…

I really missed them.

It feels so lonely.

I haven’t talked to anyone but myself. I can’t say what I want to the people I wanted to commend. It’s very quiet. So quiet that it feels like I can’t hear anymore.

It’s lonely.

I’m so lonely.

I am alone.

▪ ▪ ▪

Finally the door opens up.

My legs are shaking as I am attempting to stand up and walk to the doorway. Just a few steps and I will be at the midpoint.

“Wah…”

Even if it’s subtle, I felt that it has gotten a little lighter. I guess it’s just a simple application of common sense on why does this happen in the midpoint room.

The middle room is not totally affected by the occurrences from here or from the outside world. If the door is open in my side, the time in the middle accelerates. If the door from the other side is open, then the time is just normal.

Simply putting it, this middle room adapts to its present surroundings. The door is like a barrier that doesn’t let the presence of the two dimensions meet. If that happens, it may just form a distortion that will heavily affect both of the dimensions.

Without that door, I’m probably turned into dust the moment I entered this room.

▪ ▪ ▪

0927, Day 32, Month 2.

The gravity finally changes.

In my estimate, it’s probably double the pressure of the gravity of the outside world.

If the acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 m/s2 in the outside, I hypothesized that it is 19.6 m/s2 in this room.

But just so you know, I suck at physics so please don’t expect this to be correct. I'm only a (dropout) in my fourth year in junior high.

As expected, it has gotten harder to move, but I hope I can adapt to it after some time.

I shall expect that the force of gravity will increase every month. But the main problem is if it will be arithmetic or geometric.

▪ ▪ ▪

1015, Day 50, Month 2.

I finally got the hang of moving around in a chamber which doubles the gravity of the Earth.

It feels like it’s just the same force of the normal gravitational pull of the Earth. Adaptation is needed if you plan on staying here for a long time.

The condition of my body, on the contrary, has gotten better instead of getting worse. I can’t tell the details because I have no equipment to check myself up. Sorry about that, Hiro, Sean.

▪ ▪ ▪

1027, Day 62, Month 3.

Today, I turned 16, but with cruelty.

As expected, 2x gravity is a goner. But it feels a lot heavier than last month. That I can tell since training my body to adapt to the squashing force.

But this one has a lot more pulling force. I think I was right that the pull force is increasing geometrically. I would say this is 4x gravity.

Fortunately, my body is holding out better than last month. No skeletal malfunctions, as far as it is concerned.

To think that I will spend my whole sixteenth year here and turn seventeen in an isolated place, I will definitely feel very lonely. But this day is just an ordinary day. October 27 is just a day where I add up one year to my age. Nothing more, nothing less and no celebrations. I never celebrated this day since I was born.

This day is just a normal day.

▪ ▪ ▪

0215, Day 173, Month 5.

VOID

▪ ▪ ▪

For that day, that is the only written word on Gin’s journal. That word occupied one whole page of his notebook. It was not written with the usual rich black ink nor written with a pen. It was only written with one finger. The absolute white room where he is spending his two years…

Is now stained red with…

Blood.


Chapter Message:

You've finished reading chapter 8!

I mostly identify the length of my chapters through the number of pages, then second is through the number of words in a word processing software.  This chapter has 9 pages... And I do feel like I owe you an apology with the drastic change of length for the next chapter which is 20 or so pages, so it will be veeery long.

Then I realized that chapter 9 may not be the longest one. Oh.

Thank you for reading!

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Nine: A room... with no one but only myself.