The sky was grey and cloudy. Not the sky of Naara City.
Charles looked around and found himself beside a wooden house with an empty farm. There was a scarecrow on the farm.
There were sights of houses in the far distance. A row of pine trees completely blocked off the other far side.
Charles saw someone else walk out of a house also. A woman. Her house was quite far away from his.
Charles ran over to her and waved his hand.
"Hey! Where are we?!"
The woman saw him and immediately ran into the house and shut her door.
"Miss?!"
Charles ran to the door. He wasn't that fit so a short run already made him gasp for air. He stumbled to the porch of the other house.
"Miss! Please open the door! I mean you no harm. I was also kidnapped here!" Charles shouted.
"You were also kidnapped?" The woman's voice came from behind the door. "We were kidnapped?"
"I don't know for sure, Miss. But I woke up in the same wooden house just like you and I don't remember how I got there."
Charles managed his tone to be slow and low, offering as much reassurance as possible.
"If I was the kidnapper, I wouldn't need to say anything, right? I can just kick the door down and enter. Your door is just as shabby as mine."
"Right…"
"Can you come out, Miss? We need to figure this out together. We need as many allies as possible to get back to Naara."
"Yes. You're right."
The noise of the wooden bar slid down from the door. The woman pushed the door open, revealing the inside of her wooden house.
It looked exactly like Charles' house. Only a little bit different here and there. But it had one straw bed, a fireplace, and a metal pot just like his house.
"Huh… Your house has the same things as mine. Its arrangement is only slightly different."
"Oh?" The woman looked into her house. She didn't pay much attention to it.
She had just woken up similar to Charles and was in a panic. When she saw him, she thought he was the one who brought her here so she ran.
The woman was young. Her clear white skin was complimented with her silky blonde hair that reached her bust.
"I'm Charles Iris. What is your name, Miss?"
"I'm Anna. Anna Crawford."
"Nice to meet you, Miss Crawford."
Charles reached his hand out to shake her hand. His hand crossed the border of the door and went inside the house.
Suddenly, an invisible force came at him. He was sent flying backward and rolled a few times on the ground.
"Ouch!"
Charles slowly got up, while holding his hand.
"Oh my god! Are you alright, Mr. Iris?"
Anna ran out to check on him.
"Just a little pain on the wrist. Luckily it is still okay. No sprain."
Charles rotated his wrist a little bit. When he landed, he used his hand to catch himself so it was a little painful to the wrist.
"What just happened?" Anna said.
"I think I might know why."
Charles approached her house once again. This time, he took a closer look around. He noticed some kind of amulet hanging on top of the doorframe. It was a triangle within a circle with the eye in the middle.
"What is that?" Charles pointed at the amulet.
Anna shook her head. "I… I don't know."
"The eye… The eye?!"
Charles checked his body. He found the envelope from before in one of the pockets.
"You also received that?" Anna blurted out.
"This envelope? You also have one, Miss Crawford?" Charles said.
"It appeared in my mailbox earlier today." Anna nodded.
"Check your pockets and see if your envelope is there with you." Charles said.
Anna did as she was told. Her envelope was also in her pocket.
Charles took her envelope and compared the two.
"Same seal. Same material. Same handwriting. This is sent by the same person." Charles said.
"What does it mean?" Anna said.
"I don't know." Charles shook his head. His eyes lingered on the short content of the letters, 'You are invited to the game of destiny'.
"Game of destiny… I'm afraid we have caught ourselves in deep shit, Miss Crawford."
"Is there someone trying to kill us?" Anna covered her mouth and gasped.
"If they wanted to kill us, they would have done it already. It is something more complex. A game."
Charles looked at the amulet above the doorframe again.
"Please stand a little bit farther away, Miss Crawford. I need to test something."
Anna stepped back. Her eyes stayed fixed on Charles.
He came to the door again and slowly reached his hand inside Anna's house. He braced himself for impact.
The amulet above the door lit up.
Once again, an invisible force pushed him back violently. How, he was ready this time so except falling on his butt, Charles didn't suffer any injury.
"Are you okay, sir?!" Anna came at him again.
Charles got up and dusted his butt. "Yeah, I'm alright. And you can just call me Charles."
"Okay. Then please call me Anna as well. What did you learn, Charles?"
"I learned that I can't enter your house. And that thing," Charles pointed to the amulet, "is the culprit."
Anna's eyes glanced at the amulet. It looked ordinary, nothing special. But both her and him could feel a sense of dread by simply looking at it.
"What is going on?" Anna teared up.
"I don't know. But we need to move, Anna. There must be others out there."
"You think there are more people like us?!
Charles nodded. "Look around. This is an entire town. Two players would be too small for this town. There must be more.
Before we go, please follow me, Anna. I want to test something."
Anna nodded.
They both returned to Charles' wooden house. Above the doorframe was the same amulet as before.
"I have a favor to ask you, Anna. Can you try and reach your hand inside the door?"
Anna snapped her head at him. "You think that…"
Charles nodded. "But we don't know for sure. We need to test it. I will stay behind to catch you, Anna. Don't worry."
"Okay…"
Charles stood behind Anna as she slowly reached her hand inside the doorframe of his house. An invisible force shot out once more. This time, Charles caught her from behind. They stumbled back a few steps but none fell to the ground.
"As I suspected. We can't enter each other's houses." Charles said grimly.
"What… What is this technology? Forcefield? Gravity manipulation?" Anna mumbled.
Charles looked at the amulet again. He didn't have the heart to tell her that they were a bit far from that kind of science-fiction technology. There was no scientific way to explain the power of the amulet.
The most reasonable explanation was supernatural forces.