So you want to know how I got myself into this mess huh? 

It's a long story so get comfortable, maybe get yourself something to eat and drink, maybe some apples and tea? 

Where was I?

Ah yes, the very beginning -

I was in my late teen years, the economy was in ruins, global warming and all that, trash every few meters,  Good ol’ 2010.

That year my aunt who immigrated to the U.S. of A. decided to take me there for the summer, but it wasn’t out of the goodness of her heart - she just wanted to have an extra worker for her delivery service as I would find out.

Even knowing that I still decided to go so I could lessen the burden on my parents.

And that's how I began my summer hell - driving around on a crumbling rusty bike that was probably found in some abandoned building and delivering takeout. 

At least she fed me and gave me my own room.

Never mind that it was just an empty storage room she put a mattress into…

So you get the idea, an introverted teenager in a foreign country delivering takeout -

not that original but that was my life. 

Ok, enough about my misery from back then.

It was the last month of summer - and if I remember correctly it was Wednesday.

I was going to my next client with an order of two large pepperoni pizzas, 5 portions of Chinese takeout, and 2 giant cider bottles.

I knew that Americans liked food but it was almost puke-inducing thinking about how they gonna shove it all into themselves in the same evening.

I stopped by the building and left my bike by the light post - I didn’t have a lock for it but after so many months I knew nobody would even try to steal this pile of rust.

The client lived on the 7 floor and the elevator was broken - of course, so I had to walk up the stairs.

 By the time I got to the correct floor I was out of breath and had to sit down for a moment, but as I was about to do that the lightbulb illuminating the staircase exploded getting me scared enough to back away and fall down the stairs. 

It felt like forever, maybe because It was pitch black?

When I finally landed the first thing I thought was

'Thank whatever it is that created us that I didn’t crack my skull'

It still hurt a lot don’t get me wrong. 

As I opened my eyes I was greeted with darkness, I instinctively reached for my phone that was in a side pocket of my pants, but I was instead greeted with a shocking realization that I had no pants or even underwear on.

 I quickly got up and patted myself - only to get a confirmation that I was Completely naked!

 To say that I was panicking would not give it justice - I was terrified and started screaming at the top of my lungs, I thought I blacked out and was abducted and going to be gutted for organs, if not worse. 

Not hearing any response was one thing, what got me more scared was that after all the screaming the echo was still going so it seemed like it was going for several kilometers. 

Being utterly confused and scared I tried to sit back down to calm down a little - but instead of hitting the floor - it gave way and I got submerged in some kind of liquid. 

Moments later I was flailing my arms and trying to get out, being out of breath because of all the screaming didn’t help with staying afloat at all.

After I finally got out of it I just layed down and broke down into tears while coughing out the liquid that I accidentally gulped down while almost drowning. 

And that is how I got there.

It took me some time for my eyes to adapt to that place, even though it was pitch black I still could see the endless horizon.

I was walking there for god knows how long.

Days? Weeks? I didn’t want to believe that this was happening.

Sometimes I wondered if I was in a coma, but almost drowning earlier proved that theory wrong.

So the biggest question that was lingering on my mind was - where the hell am I? 

I had a few theories -  some horrible psychological experiment by the US government or some corporation,

or all the myriad of anime cliches. 

Whatever the answer was - I was there and the only option for me was to walk and try to reach the corner of this place.

I would walk as far as I could until I got tired of walking and layed down on the ground to rest again, rinse and repeat, For hell knows how long.

The weird thing is even after all this time I didn't feel hunger or fatigue for that matter, the only reason I rested is to not go insane infinitely wandering that place.

It felt like I was on a beach shore - the liquid that I mentioned earlier would sometimes rise right to my chin, or sometimes the ground would liquefy right under me, because of that my walks never had a set pace - it was like walking around the frozen pond. 

Now that I think about it - it wasn’t even a liquid, it wasn’t wet and it didn't give any reflections at all, but at the time I was more worried about not drowning instead of all those details.

Sometimes I wished I could find another person around, but then I would brush off this thought because who knows for how long they would've walked around here, they may have gone crazy for all I know.

I tried to not forget the world I lived in before this, my big brother with his weird sense of humor, my mother and her beautiful garden, and my father and his obsession with vinyl records.

I didn't live a perfect life, but I had enough moments not to regret living it at all...

Yeah….. took a dark turn there huh? Well, that’s how it was for me at the time.

But worry not, because it kinda took a turn for the better after my face met the end of a hunting rifle.