Chapter Text
Ryder knocked on the door, he assumed Kaiden would be in his room. There was no answer. Ryder knocked again. He still got no answer. Ryder rolled his eyes, he twisted the doorknob and pulled it open. Ryder immediately tripped and fell onto the floor.
“Ow, fuck,” Ryder mumbled. He noticed something weird; the floor was white, the floor in Kaiden's room was not white. He looked up, the walls of the room were also white. The room was practically a white void.
“What the hell,” Ryder muttered. The room was empty, except for a cloaked figure holding a staff. The figure blended in, the cloak was pure white besides some gold detailing. Ryder stood up. The door closed behind him, and disappeared.
”What the fuck is going on?” Ryder questioned. He stared at the cloaked figure. They kinda just stood there, they tilted their head. Ryder walked towards them.
“Uh hello?” Ryder waved. “Do you know why we are in a white room?”
The cloaked figure shook their head. “No,” they said. Their face scrunched up a bit, like they were confused. “Huh,” Their voice sounded like it hadn’t been used in a while.
“What?” Ryder said. The figure shook their head.
“Nothing, it doesn’t concern you,”
Ryder was going to ask them something else, but they both got distracted by a scream. Another person fell from the ceiling and fell on the floor.
“Ow,” She pushed herself off the ground. She seemed just as confused as Ryder was.
“Hello,” Ryder said. The girl walked over to them.
“What is this? Where am I?” She asked, her voice had an accent that Ryder couldn’t exactly place.
“Right, so we don’t really know,” Ryder explained.
“We literally just got teleported here,” The cloaked figure said.
“Okay… do you guys have names?” The girl asked.
“I’m Ryder,” He introduced himself.
“I’m Miso, although most people just call me The Wanderer,” the cloaked figure said.
The girl nodded. “I’m Neoma,” she said. She was wearing plain workout clothing, her hair was pulled out of her face.
“Great okay, we need to find some way to get out of here,” Ryder said. He paused.
“Do you think the walls are flammable?” He asked.
“I mean, probably,” Neoma said. “But that's a stupid idea considering we would be trapped,”
“It would be a small controlled fire,” Ryder argued.
“I doubt you will be able to control a fire,” Miso said. “You seem… inexperienced,”
Ryder scoffed. “I am not inexperienced,” Ryder said. “I am great at controlling fire,”
“You seem quite young to carry much skill,” The Wanderer said.
Ryder was about to retort, but Neoma interjected.
“What do you even mean by that?” She asked. “Why would either of you have experience controlling fires? What do you guys do with your lives?”
“I’m a prince, but it's just magic,” Ryder said, brushing his hair out of his face. Miso nodded. Neoma stared at them like they were crazy.
“What?” Ryder snapped.
“What do you mean by ‘magic’? I’m in a circus and the only magic we have is magic tricks, but that's not going to help us escape,” She scoffed. Miso raised an eyebrow.
“No we mean like magic spells, as in from a spell book or something,” They said. They looked at Ryder.
“That's what you mean by magic, yes?” They asked. Ryder nodded.
“Yeah, that's what I mean,” He thought about it for a second. “Do you not have magic? Or anyone around you with magic?” He asked.
“No! Like I said, the only ‘magic’ we have are magic tricks that Warren performs for little kids,”
“Who the hell is Warren?” Ryder asked.
“The magician at our circus. It's a very famous circus in Canada,” Neoma said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“What the fuck is Canada,” Ryder questioned. Neoma again looked at him like he was stupid.
“How do you not know Canada? The country? The second biggest country by landmass?”
“I have never heard of Canada,” Ryder said. He rolled his eyes and looked at Miso, “Would you happen to know what Canada is?”
“I do not,” Miso said.
“Okay… so are you American or something? Americans don’t know geography or anything about other countries,” Neoma theorised to herself.
Ryder’s face scrunched in confusion. He looked at The Wanderer again. The Wanderer either wasn’t confused or was just hiding their judgement better. He rolled his eyes again.
“Not sure what America is either, you know you sound crazy, right?” He asked.
“Fine! Then where are you from?” Neoma asked.
“I’m from Kleyidia, I’m one of the princes there,” He explained. Now both of them were looking at him a little strange.
“What?” Ryder demanded.
“Yeah you said I sounded crazy, Kleyidia sounds like something from a fantasy novel,” Neoma said
“Uh… okay,” Ryder dismissed the concept of a fantasy novel, he had no clue what she meant by that.
“Yeah, that sounds really fake,” The Wanderer agreed.
“Well it’s real, I’ve lived there my whole life,”
The Wanderer hummed but didn’t respond. They looked like they were thinking about something.
“Do you have friends in Kleyidialand?” Neoma mocked. “Did you fall down a rabbit hole and end up in wonderland?”
“What are you even saying?” Ryder chided. What was that supposed to mean? Ryder did not understand what she was saying.
“I’m just saying, clearly one of us is lying here, and what sounds more like a country? Canada, or Kleyidia?” She inquired. She was clearly mocking him at this point.
“Kleyidia actually,” Ryder challenged. He smiled, this was clearly making her mad.
The Wanderer but into their arguing.
“I actually think you are both right,” They said. “I’ve never heard of Canada or Kleyidia, but I don’t think either of you are lying,”
Neoma scoffed and was about to say something, but Miso shushed her.
“Just listen please, and stop arguing,”
Neoma rolled her eyes. “You meant to tell me you actually believe this kid?” Neoma asked.
“Yes, just listen,” they said. Ryder crossed his arms, he didn’t think there really was a logical explanation to this, randomly being teleported into a blank room, Neoma claiming to be from a country that doesn’t exist.
“I believe, the three of us are all from different worlds,” The Wanderer claimed. Ryder and Neoma both scoffed.
“What, like different planets?” She asked. The Wanderer shook their head.
“Not really, it’s more like different universes, would be a better way of describing it. So Neoma, you live in your world, with Canada and America and fantasy novels, and Ryder lives in his world with Kleyidia and princes, and then I live in my world with the higher immortals and the Glitch,” They explained. “These worlds, the ones that we live in, were never really meant to cross over, but somehow they did, which is this– blank white room,”
Ryder and Neoma both fell silent. Ryder was thinking about it, it didn’t really make a whole lot of sense, but nothing about this truly made a lot of sense.
“How could you possibly get to that conclusion?” Neoma commented. Ryder was still thinking it over, maybe it did make a little bit of sense.
“Just think about it,” Miso said. “You both have memories of things that don’t make sense to anyone else. Neither of us have similar worlds, it doesn’t make sense for two of us to be lying about where we came from for no reason, so it seems likely that we just… come from different universes, that randomly came together and put us in a room. I mean, maybe we’re being tested by some form of higher being,” The Wanderer rambled. Ryder shrugged.
“At this point, I’m willing to believe that,” He said. “So if that’s true, and we are being tested, how do we leave,” The Wanderer went quiet again. Neoma spoke up. “Maybe it's like an escape room, and we have to use our surroundings to get ourselves out, or complete a challenge,”
“Name one thing in this room we could use to escape,” Ryder pointed out. “Name one thing in this room,”
“Fine, I’m sorry for trying,” Neoma said.
“Neoma might actually be right, sort of,” The Wanderer started. “Do either of you have anything in your pockets,” they asked. Ryder shoved his hands into his pockets; Neoma did the same.
“I have three screws and a small piece of paper,” Ryder placed them on the floor.
“I have an empty jar and lipgloss,” Neoma offered, also placing them on the ground. The Wanderer hummed. “I have a few rocks,”
All the items were on the ground, it wasn’t much. Ryder tried to think of something they could do with this. They actually all fell silent for a minute. One thing they could all agree on was getting out. There was no solution that Ryder could see, he tried to think of anything they could make with that; but he came up with nothing.
“Yeah, I don’t think we’re getting out with any of that,” He concluded. He looked at Miso to see if they had any ideas.
“No, I don’t see anything,” They agreed.
“Great, now what?” Asked Neoma.
“I can still burn the walls down,” Ryder offered with a small grin.
“That’s a horrible idea,” Neoma said. “Even if you ‘control’ it, we will still inhale fumes, what if the walls are made with toxic chemicals and we die?”
Ryder frowned. “Fine,” he said, “Then what’s your idea?” Neoma was quiet for a few seconds, thinking about it. She opened her mouth to speak, when there was a big flash of light, and on the wall, there was a reflective black box.