A Strange Room, Where Am I?

Quietness. The quietness of the room created an unsettling and eerie setting.

The events following Fang having a panic attack were unclear to him. His last memory before suddenly becoming unconscious was falling weakly onto someone's flat chest. Who the person was was unclear to him.

Sun rays entered the room from the rectangular window, illuminating every corner. It was a sunny day in the capital.

Miscellaneous things created light buzzing noises or soft ticks.

There was a bed on the side of the room with its headboard resting against the wall. It was an enormous bed, to say the least.

For its large size, it had very little to make up for the ungodly amount of room. Only a white pillow was in the center, as well as a worn-out blanket.

Resting on the white pillow was a young, adolescent boy. His face was completely unresponsive, and his black unkempt hair became flat whilst laying on the lonely pillow.

That boy was Fang.

Shortly after falling on Salika's body, he suffered a horrible seizure caused by a nerve cell interruption in his brain. The mysterious images detailing the death of Fang's mother, as well as the voices in his head probably had some sort of connection to it.

When Fang fell into his seizure, it caused Salika to panic at first. Thanks to her quick thinking, however, she was able to identify it and cleared the forest ground of any safety hazards with wind magic. She created a bed of moss, resting Fang down.

Once Fang's seizure subsided, Salika quickly checked on him, trying to wake him up. She tried shaking Fang and poking at his body, but quickly realized that he wasn't going to respond any time soon.

Fang had fallen into a coma.

It was from there that Salika took it upon herself once again to take care of Fang and make sure nothing bad happened to him. Luckily, she remembered she was still in contact with her sister, Porch, through a spacial communication device.

She demanded that Porch come back to Monjee village and pick her up, purposely not mentioning Fang. Porch, although arguing back and forth with her sister and hesitating at first, finally gave in and agreed to come back and pick her up, only after a series of explicit threats.

Another problem occurred in Salika's head however as she ended her spacial communication call with Porch. If she was to bring Fang onto the carriage with her, she would have to do something about his Cerulean eyes.

That's right. The sky-blue eyes of a Cerulean differentiated them from all other races and made them easily recognizable that way. In order to not cause a stir with her sister and those at the capital, she opened Fang's eyes and carefully wove her magic into them. The final result that came was Fang, who now had brown eyes.

Salika at that point began walking on the dirt road that led to and from the village, holding Fang up by her shoulders. It wasn't until sometime in the afternoon that she finally saw the carriage she had ridden in when she arrived at Monjee Village not so long ago. The person driving the carriage stopped in front of her, waiting for her to get in, but she chose to let Fang get in first.

Madam Porch stopped Salika from hauling Fang into the carriage as she was obviously suspicious of the boy. She shouted at Salika asking if it was the Cerulean she was "fawning over," and wouldn't let either of them on. After facing another threat, this time coming from Salika's wand, she finally was forced to let the both of them on.

Whilst in the carriage, Salika was able to cover for Fang's identity. She explained and showed to Porch by opening Fang's eyes that he didn't have sky-blue eyes, as well as mentioned how the boy with them now was somewhat clean, unlike the Cerulean she met before in the cage inside the village (Fang's now clean body ended up changing his appearance significantly, making him almost unrecognizable to Porch).

Thanks to Porch's bad memory, she was able to conclude that the boy Salika brought with her was just a lowly peasant from the boonies. For whatever reason, she didn't question this. It could be assumed that the fact that it wasn't a Cerulean was good enough for her.

Together, the three of them traveled in silence as they headed back to the capital. Only a few words were exchanged, usually involving asking the other person to stop making such an annoying noise, or stop acting the way they were acting. The bumpy trip ended up taking about three days and three nights but was quite unproblematic considering the relationship between Salika and Porch.

∗ ∗ ∗

Tick, tick, tick, tick.

"It feels so hot..." Fang thought to himself.

Fang squinted, protecting his sensitive eyes from the brightness of the room. He stared at the intricately designed and decorated ceiling.

"An unusual sky. Am I back in another prison?"

He tried moving his body, but something was off.

"My arms aren't moving. Is it possible that I might be paralyzed?"

To test his theory, he decided that he'd turn his body around to roll over on his stomach.

"On three I'll move. One... Two... Three..."

Fang gritted his teeth. He squeezed his eye together, using all the power that he currently had in his body. Slowly, his stomach began rising in the air, shaking intensely.

"I guess... I wasn't actually paralyzed then..."

His body rose further up. His first goal of figuring out if he was paralyzed was already answered, leaving only one last objective. Where was he?

"Just a little more..."

One last push was all it took. As he was turning, he began seeing more of the room. To his surprise, it was a lot larger than he expected it to be.

Fang fell off his pillow and lay on his stomach. There was now a new issue at hand.

"Can't... Breathe... My entire face is stuck... My nose and mouth can't take in the air..."

As the last bits of air left Fang's lungs, his body felt a shock through him. Perhaps it was because he felt like he was in a dire, life-threatening situation, but he suddenly felt control over his body again. His fingers twitched first, and his entire body followed in pursuit.

Fang got up, now standing up straight. His eyes closed and he bent his arms, puffing up his chest. He opened his nostrils as wide as he could, and huffed in as much air inside the room as possible.

A sigh of relief finally came out of him. For a moment, he thought he was going to die painfully from suffocation.

"A little too daring...! Even for me," Fang said, still slightly out of breath.

Too daring indeed. It wasn't until the events after his bath that he remembered. Suicide was always a readily available option for him. It was because he was Cerulean that he felt this way; he couldn't take on the world after losing his mother. Each attempt he tried at it though, resulted in him waking up, disappointed.

There was only one wish that Fang wanted before he died. That wish was to die as painlessly as possible.

The short time he had with Salika had ridden any bad thoughts in his head. For whatever reason, she was able to bring Fang into a mood that didn't make him feel sorry for himself.

"...How did I end up in a place like this?" Fang said to himself, looking down at the white pillow and blanket he was sleeping with. He rubbed his eyes, clearing the bothersome goop retained from his long sleep. "I should be more careful... Each attempt I try at ending it all results in me waking up in the strangest places..."

A depressing feeling clouded Fang's mind. His face became pensive.

Fang closed his eyes and put his hands beside his head, shaking furiously to wake himself up. He then turned himself around to get an idea of where he was.

Paintings of mythical creatures like dragons, griffons, and sea serpents lined the room's florally decorated walls. In one corner of the room was a tall, healthy potted plant, and in another corner was a fish tank making an irritating buzzing noise.

Fang's pensive expression suddenly became an expression of curiosity.

To Fang's left was a wooden door and two sets of bookcases completely filled. To his right was a large, rectangular window and a wide-open space that looked like furniture still needed to be added. On the side of the bed, to the right, was a small desk.

A concerned look came on Fang's face and he got off the bed. "I should get out of here before it's too late. Was I kidnapped? Is that why I woke up in this room? Maybe I died and someone took me in without knowing I was a Cerulean... Wait, no, I don't remember dying though..."

He began walking quietly toward the door. He made sure to consider everything that could've possibly happened.

He stopped suddenly, however, as the room became brighter. It was the window.

"Maybe I should check where I am first..." he said and began walking to the window. "Maybe I'll get a hint there."

The window sill was large enough for Fang to climb and stand on, and so he did. He looked out the window and became overwhelmed.

Fang was looking over an enormous city from hundreds of meters in the sky. It looked like a festival or parade was going on. The city reached past the horizons, showing no end. Within the city streets were tiny people who looked like ants, and above it were flying blimps.

"A city...? How did I end up in a city...? Wouldn't it make more sense for my captors to send me off a different way?"

He quickly jumped off the window in a panic and ran towards the door, grabbing the doorknob. But another realization came to his head.

"If I leave now and escape, I'll be met with people who won't hesitate to attack me for being Cerulean... Considering how I was so high up in the sky, could I be in... A castle?"

He shook his head.

"No, that couldn't be the case. I can't be in a castle. It wouldn't make sense for my captors to do this. It wouldn't make sense either for people in a castle to willingly let a Cerulean in..."

A worried look was followed by a scared smile. "If I get caught by the people in this castle, whether it be my captors or the residents here, who knows what they'll do to me..."

Stuck between crossroads with outcomes that didn't favor him, Fang had to seriously think.

"I'll stay in the room for now, I guess... I'd rather not want to deal with what's on the outside."

Memories of his past as a child wandering the streets left him feeling depressed. Getting assaulted constantly and being shunned for something he had no choice over. If he had no place in society and lived to be hated by the world, he'd be better off being a hermit, secluded from everyone else.

Or better yet, dead.

Fang slowly walked back from the door, before sitting on the edge of the bed. He let out a sorrowful sigh. A tear managed to squeeze out of his eyes and ran off the side of his face.

"I want to die."