Laying on the floor, Neal shivered before rubbing aching sides of his body with his hands. Up until this time, he had been unconscious on the cold solid ground. As his eyes opened in a slow manner, he proceeded to blink his eyes in quick intervals.
'Where am I?'
Neal could not help but ponder this question just a few minutes upon waking up. Just then, he could feel his head throbbing in pain. Pain he was sure he had never felt before. This caused him to roll on the ground uncontrollably; however, this soon came to an end.
The short experience he just had with this mysterious pain had caused beads of sweat to form on his forehead. Neal at that moment knew he never wanted to feel like that again. Though the question was, "why exactly did it happen in the first place?"
Getting to his feet, he shivered once again as what felt like a gust of wind hit his body. Soon enough, he realized in an instant that he was naked. The reason as to why he did not notice in the first place was unknown to him, though this was the least of his worries.
Neal's eyes surveyed the environment, taking as much detail into his head as he possibly could. From the few seconds he looked around, he noticed that he was in what appeared to be a cave.
The only thing that would make him think otherwise were the glowing blue crystals scattered all over the place. The crystals appeared to be embedded deep in the walls and ground, taking away the possibility of removing it from them with his bare hands.
This didn't seem like any cave he remembered though, not that he actually had any memories of one in the past. Trying to think back, the same throbbing pain from earlier hit him hard. The only difference this time was that he did a better job enduring it.
"Don't tell me.." Neal spoke in an almost inaudible tone.
At this point, he knew there was no mistaking it. The throbbing pain only occurred when he tried to think of what had happened before he appeared in this so called cave.
Neal couldn't grab the concept as to why this was happening. It was not as if any glimpse of the past tried to reveal itself at those moments anyway. Wiping the sweat off his forehead, Neal decided it was best to live in the present than in the past. This was due to the fact that the past actually hurt now.
From the corner of his eyes, Neal soon discovered a staircase that lead out of the cave to a section below. From the cracks and breakages that were prominent on the passageway, he could tell straight away that this place had been around for a very long time.
Having no other option, Neal went down the stairway ready to encounter whatever was below. Since the moment he had woken up in this strange place, he could not put his finger on why he was so calm and composed.
With no form of explanation to lean on, Neal convinced himself that it was some sort of "soothing magic" the cave possessed. Not that he actually believed it to be the truth.
Each step Neal took, he was sure to connect his bare feet with each step of the stairway. Besides, he was never in a hurry to go down in the first place.
After what felt like minutes of him walking down the stairs, he finally entered the next room. This room was totally different from the other as it was completely engulfed in crystals. It almost seemed as if the crystals had been melted to the walls.
Neal could not identify any form of aging in this room; however, he knew this was due to the fact that crystals didn't really age. The room was large in size but not incredibly massive, though it was able to contain multiple doors which arranged in a round manner.
Neal counted the doors around the room and noted that they were twelve in number. Each door seemed to have a unique symbol of it's own emblem on it, symbols that he could not really understand. Though this was not the only thing that caught his eyes.
Large gaps the size of a basketball hoop were prominent on the cave walls, and Neal saw this as a good thing. Taking stride after stride to one of the holes in the wall, he looked through it in a hurry.
Just then, Neal's eyes widened as his gaze came upon the outside world. From what he could see, the place appeared to be void of any form of life.
The wall outside seemed to contain only crystals as far as the eyes could see. This crystals unlike the ones he had seen previously were enormous in size and where responsible for the huge mountains that were standing tall outside.
Thick and massive icicles clung over the crystal surfaces as a result of the winter that seemed like it went on forever. This made it clear why he felt so cold in the first place. Neal could tell all of this at first glance, the reason as to why was a complete mystery to him.
What frightened him was not the fact that the world outside was now uninhabitable. It was the fact that the tall crystal mountains paled in comparison to wherever he was currently in. Compared to the structure he was in, the mountains looked like a set of huts that had been arranged down below.
"What the hell is actually going on here?" Neal questioned as the fear he previously lacked had began to sneak into his mind. "So much for the cave's soothing magic."
With no form of warning, Neal's head began to ache uncontrollably. Along with the intense pain in his head, a feeling of nausea rushed through him as he came to his knees. From what he could tell, it was worse than the two previous ones.
'Why is this happening? I am pretty sure I didn't think about anything relating to the past.. Why?'
Neal struggled with this unpleasant feeling until his blurry eyes came to a stop on one of the several doors. At that point, the pain came to a halt, releasing him from it's clutches.
Standing to his feet, Neal could not help but feel this was the structure's way of telling him to pick one of the doors already. The question though was "how exactly was he supposed to do that?"
Anything could be behind any of those doors, and that fact only made him hesitate all the more. Moving his gaze along the whole room, his eyes eventually fell on a door that had a symbol similar to an X on it.
For some unknown reason, he felt a strange force compelling him to go into it.
'What is this feeling? Is this how I am supposed to pick one of these doors?'
With no other way to decide, Neal stepped forward, opening the door and entering into it with no form of hesitation. He felt it was way better to face the unknown than to suffer another surge of the structure's unbearable punishment.
The interior of the room was pitch black and the door he had previously come through seemed to disappear as he could not find it anymore. Unlike the room before, trails of sweat formed all over his body. At that moment, he could not help but feel relieved that he was actually naked, not that it changed anything.
Out of thin air, multiple tiny glowing red particles swirled in the air all around him. At first he was astonished, though he soon noticed some kind of beauty in their movement. After a few seconds, they surrounded the whole area before injecting themselves into his body bit by bit. He felt no pain as this happened; however, a sense of warmth filled his depths.
Since he came to this strange place, Neal considered this to be his first pleasant experience. The particles entering his body made him feel like he was high on some kind of drug; however, this wasn't why he felt so good.
It felt like a rush of dopamine began to circulate all through his body. Funnily enough, he wanted this to last forever but it was obvious that all good things come to an end.
The particles stopped sipping into his body eventually, creating a doorway which lead out of the room. Neal did not waste anytime as he proceeded to head out of the room.
The moment he came out of the room, the same glowing particles from before tattooed the X like symbol on his right palm. Sadly, this did nothing to solve his issue of being naked.
Neal soon came across a room filled with crystals that reflected his imagery.
"Now that I think about it, I don't really remember how I actually look.." Neal spoke as he felt a surge of pain in his head.
Neal was not the best looking individual, he could tell at first glance. Though what stood out to him was his physique and hair color. He was not to ripped physically; however, he wasn't out of shape either. His hair appeared to have a strange mix of white and black, with his dark colored eyes matching his hair perfectly. For some reason, he didn't believe this to be how he looked originally.
Neal soon continued walking through the crystal path until he eventually came out of it's exit. The room he entered soon after caught him by surprise, ultimately causing his to widen his eyes in shock.
"Is this real?"
Before him was a cave a hundred times larger than the previous ones. A scenery of green plants and trees infested the planes of land below. Two separate waterfalls could be seen falling from two floating rocks above, which were covered with the green as well.
Other floating pieces of lands could be seen; however, those two were the ones that stood out to him. Before he could make out the rest of the scenery before him, he was greeted by the presence of another individual.
Shivers ran down Neal's spine as he took a step back. He was so focused on the environment he didn't even notice that someone was there. The worst part about everything was that he was still naked.
In an instant, Neal covered his vulnerable part before blushing in embarrassment. He was pretty sure this was going to scar him for life.
"Uuhh, no need to be alarmed. My name is Evans. What about you?"
After a bit of hesitation, he decided to mention his name. "My name is Neal."
Just then, Neal was shocked why he was actually able to remember his name but nothing else. His surprise was clear to Evans as his facial expression told the whole story out loud.
"We were expecting you," he spoke as he threw some clothes to Neal.
"We?"
"Yes. Get dressed, afterwards I will take you to meet everyone and probably even take you through the basics of how things work over here."
"Basics?" Neal couldn't help but have his doubts; though, he didn't really have much of a choice in the first place.
Evans was the first human being he had seen in this strange place, it was only wise to follow him and find out what he knew.