Beep beep beep beep
Arata awoke in a cold sweat. He felt his hands begin to shake and he began to pant heavily. I passed out, now I'm back in the hospital. Did-
His dark green eyes had lost a lot of color and were red due to frequent nights of crying. His body felt sickly and looked even worse. His wavy brown hair was disheveled.
The door slams open as a man wearing a disheveled suit runs into the room, hugging Arata.
The man shouts, "Arata, I'm glad you're alright. Thank god."
"You'll- be fine… Evan rushed you over here, so just make sure to thank him when he gets here later." Ren explains, panting a little from the rush over.
Ren, unlike Arata, has straighter, darker hair. Wearing a prim and proper suit. Despite all of that, he's disheveled as well. He looks like a wreck… I must be taking a lot out of him, too.
"Thank you for coming, Ren, that's a relief. How was the travel to L.A? This probably wasn't first on your agenda before getting back." Arata smiles, embracing his older brother.
Ren clears his throat, "No, not at all, I wanted to visit you even if the location kinda sucks."
Ren relaxed a little, signalling to Arata that everything was fine now, Arata could relax. Ren was a good doctor, even if he wouldn't be able to work on a family member's case. If Ren thought Arata would be fine, Arata would agree likewise.
I'm sleepy, I need to let myself sleep, regain my strength. Arata lets his eyes drift to sleep, slowly, the light dims.
Forbidden from rest, you shall wake.
Drip drip drip
Arata awakes suddenly, an unpleasant greeting from murky water splashing against his nose. His head didn't rest against a hospital pillow but a stone brick.
Arata wakes up, parting himself down. I feel… great, my body gained back muscle. I'm in my school uniform? This doesn't look like college though.
Arata is greeted with grimy dim stone and metal bars. The dimly lit cell replacing the monotonous beeping of Arata's heart monitor with the dripping leaky ceiling.
Maybe it does look like college…
He tried to pinch himself, not wanting to be in the dream anymore, only to feel a slight sting instead. Unlucky for him, it woke up his nervous system; the pungency of iron was striking.
I'm not imagining things aren't I- He cut himself off to avoid having to confront that possibility.
More important matters than getting isekaied, this room smelled terrible, he wanted out. Arata tries to open the door, it doesn't budge. The door's locked? I don't hear any footsteps. This place seems abandoned. I don't wanna stay here.
Arata stumbles back, a lapse in hearing creates an eerie static. Something clicks as the door opens slightly on its own. Arata spots a rabbit on the other side, which hops away. Rabbit? Did it open the door? It surely must be too small to open doors… I should investigate.
Arata chases the rabbit when it picks up speed, making its way through the prison.
At one turn, the puddles became red and his face bumped into a musky, slimy structure. He stopped and began to vomit. He saw a nest made of flesh now eternalized in hardened mucus; it was the source of the metallic smell from his cell.
He stumbled back; he had hit his nose painfully, he whined underneath his breath at the sensation before looking up. The rabbit is gone.
Assorted limbs of animals and humans were packed together with parts of bone used to reinforce parts of the structure hanging from the ceiling. He got nauseous from the sickening sight, collapsing on his back while paralyzed in fear, he forgot about the chase.
He felt a sharp pain in his shoulder; it was a bug, sinking its mandibles into his skin, causing his body to go numb. The centipede spawn poured out from cracks in the nest's walls to eat him as hundreds of thousands of legs left numb taps across his body until they settled in on a place to sink their teeth in. Slowly yet painlessly, they rip through his ribs in a gruesome manner. His vision fades in relaxation yet again.
Yet again, he awoke in a theater cast over by shadows. He clenched his stomach with a cold sweat and realized he wasn't bleeding.
"AAAAAGGHH!" Arata shouts out, his hands shaking as tears roll down his face. He almost threw up again.
The place was filled with the silhouettes of mannequins. One figure with pale skin let out an applause. The woman stretched out her shoulders, facing away, a sole wing stretched out of the back of her shirt, the canopy filled with white feathers except for a single red spot at the end. Above her head, Arata spotted a dim halo. She clicked her fingers.
Snap
The lights come on, revealing the creepy woman's soulless jet black eyes. The mannequins disappear with the lights. Her skin is like that of a corpse's. Pale, lifeless yet soft.
She wore a Victorian-style white dress shirt with a crimson cravat. Over that was a dark coat with red accents and embroidered with a laurel design. Beneath the coat was a white skirt and white pantyhose contrasted by her red dress shoes. The back of her skirt extended out into a cape of white feathers that matched her wing.
She was graceful, an otherworldly beauty, almost maddening to look at. She carried herself as though she were a piece of art, giving a muffled standing ovation for Arata, her clapping echoing through the theater's chambers.
"Bravo, human, you died twice in one day. Welcome to the theater." The lady grants him a smile.
The young woman stepped forward with a motion just as lifeless as her introduction. As a common courtesy, Arata reaches his hand out to shake hers, but she bows with her wing swatting his hand away, "Your guide, Ravenna."