Waking up from the surrounding noise, Nei found himself in what seemed to be a plane.
"Welcome aboard Sky Airline flight 114D, I am your captain…"
Looking around himself to figure out where the voice was coming from, Nei noticed that he was already sitting in his own seat.
"How did I come here? Wasn't I… Where was I again?" Clear signs of confusion were drawn over his average-looking but still young face.
That's when a boy sitting beside him, with a similar young appearance as Nei, spoke in a concerned voice to him.
"Are you fine? You don't look like it. Should I ask the flight attendants for some water?" The boy had a somehow familiar, but friendly way of speaking.
When Nei turned his head to discern more details of the boy, he suddenly remembered. The young boy sitting to his side wasn't a stranger.
Nei had met him before boarding the flight, his name was Nicola Breier and he was part of the same exchange program to Asia, as Nei.
Looking deep into Nicola's eyes, Nei answered politely. "It's fine, probably the fear before the flight. Thanks a lot!"
But the boy's worry made him persist. "Don't be stupid. You're so pale! Wait a moment, I am going to find something to drink for you!" Not waiting for Nei to reply, Nicola sprung up from his seat and walked through the corridor to the front of the plane.
Seeing the increasingly distant becoming silhouette of Nicola, Nei could only shake his head. Why was this boy so worried for him? Did he really look that bad?
'I do feel horrible. Maybe it's better to get some rest…' Thinking till here, Nei stopped thinking about all the questions that swirled around in his head and leaned back into the uncomfortable economy class seat.
The moment he did, however, a strong surge of sleepiness instantly rushed into him. Making the surroundings look like nothing but an illusion. Passengers on the plane became bend and stretched into positions that should kill any of them. Similar to spaghetti.
Taken aback, Nei murmured under his breath, "Am I hallucinating? This can't be.." but the next second three stretched out human spaghetti ran in his direction from the front of the cockpit and disrupted his thoughts. One of them shouting at him in a familiar-sounding voice.
"Nei! Your nose is bleeding! Oh my God look at his eyes…" It was Nicola that was calling out his name in shock.
"Shit! Is there a doctor? If there is a doctor, please come forward now!.." Another loud voice resounded through the plane.
After that, Nei couldn't hear clearly anymore, he only knew that different people were coming closer to him and started touching different parts of his body. It reminded Nei of the check-up he had at the hospital when he was 10 and broke his arm while playing soccer.
But sounds and the feeling of touch were slowly drifting away, with the fading of his conscious. Till Nei finally lost hold.
'Ahh… am I dying?... WAIT! I am not Nei! All is..." One last time ripping his eyes wide open in horror, Nei fell back into complete darkness.
…
"What am I?" A listless question echoed through the endless fog.
A man in a grey, to his ankle reaching robe, was standing on top of a weed-infested plain. Surrounding him was nothing more than yellow fog that looked more like sand. In this fog, it was impossible to look further than 10 meters.
It was exactly this straight standing man that spoke the mysterious-sounding question.
Turning his head in a circle and scanning what he could see, the man's lips parted. "My past life name should be Nei? But why do I know nothing about who he was?... I mean, I was."
That's when a piercing pain ran through his skull, feeling like it was splitting his head in two.
Falling on his knees and holding his head in pain, Nei bit on his lips with such strength that they started bleeding.
However, enduring the fierce pain wasn't for nought, because with it came a stream of interesting information.
"Grrgh!... Earth?" Nei spit out, while his body trembled in agony.
I was from Earth? Sadly the information still didn't explain where he was now, or how he landed here.
The knowledge that forcefully injected itself in his brain, was only general knowledge of things like Earth's common sense, legends and science. There was nothing about himself or his past.
It was disappointing, to say the least, but with the new knowledge, he could at the very least make some predictions of his whereabouts.
"Something unknown brought me here. But what is here…? Hell, The Underworld, The Path Of Samsara?... Or something that's unimaginable to me." Nei soon accepted the reality of things, that it was hopeless for him to waste time with questions that couldn't be answered as of yet and started contemplating about, to his situation helpful things.
"BOOOM" When a sudden sound of thunder ripped Nei right out of his thoughts, back to the reality.
His eyes piercing into the distance, through the heavy fog, to the faraway sound in the sky.
Nei noticed, that there were flashes of green lighting, with dancing shadows of different forms, that weren't there before.
If he concentrated on one of them, he could even see a clear outline of what it was.
There were beasts of Earthly lineage, with horns and gigantic teeth, which looked somehow demonic. But that wasn't all, Nei also saw things, that he swore didn't exist on earth.
Shivering from top to bottom, he spoke with great difficulty. "This can't be real, this must be a dream?!"
Petrified, he didn't believe his eyes. Was this still Earth? He doubted it. But then again, what was this place?
Averting his eyes from the terrifying things, Nei took a deep breath. Only then did he realise that his whole back was drenched in cold sweat.
'Never look directly at it again!' Nei told himself while staring at the weed under his feet, 'I have to find a way out, it's too dangerous here!'
Overcoming his instinct, he slowly lifted his head once again. However, he didn't dare to stare into the lighting once again.
"Common knowledge… It's poison to me! It scares me!" Looking around, Nei decided to search for a way out, "Where to go? Everything looks the same." closing his eyes to think, Nei sensed something in his body, a feeling that pushed him into a direction. "Should I follow my gut? Good, let's gamble then."
Moving foot after foot over the tickling, cold weed, Nei vanished into the depths of the yellow storm.
After walking for what felt to him like an eternity, Nei was short before giving up. Swearing to never believe his instinct again.
"How much longer?... No more! I can't stand this place a second longer!" Screaming in despair, Nei sat on the dirty ground in protest.
The only thing that comforted him, was that he didn't have to eat, drink or rest.
After a few days of worrying about the nonexistence of any food and water in the world of fog, he noticed that he didn't feel any hunger, thirst or tiredness, that's why he just stopped searching for any.
Looking up, to where the sky should be, Nei talked to himself to keep his sanity. "How long has it been? Without day or night cycles, I can't tell… at the very least a month?... Wait! The last time… didn't I, say the same?"
Suddenly, a strong shaking appeared under his lying body, disrupting his analyse.
Nei was shocked by the sudden turn of events and could only bring himself to say one word, "Earthquake?!" before he saw the earth under him starting to split apart.