Walking through the pearl-white, finely lit corridors of what seemed to be an imposing research laboratory, or a hospital.
Walking helped me clear my mind.
"Anyway, Ari, you still haven't told me where we are now,"
"Oh right, we're currently in a Waking Center, where humans like you, those who were put to sleep in order to be perfected, are awakened to take part in the Colosseum games," she explained.
"And… how long have I been asleep?" I asked with a trace of tension.
"In human years, a full 15 years!" she said with a cheerfulness I found unpleasant, especially given the weight of that information.
'15 years,' My chest tightened as my heart began to race, I was having a panic attack.
'My family, what happened to them in all this time?!' I was surprised, and a bit disappointed, that I was only now thinking about them.I used all the mental clarity I had left to try to remember them, yet, why couldn't I remember anything? Not their names, not their faces, nothing.
The panic attack worsened. Compared to my other memories, which were fragmented, yes, but still somewhat reachable if I focused, the information about my parents seemed completely nonexistent.
'Maybe I was, an orphan?' Possible, but my heart didn't want to accept it.
"Did you do something to my memories?" I asked, suspicious.
"Not particularly, if you can't remember something, it's probably due to the long sleep. Your memories should return with time."
'Should, huh,' Her words were both reassuring and deeply unsettling. Besides, I had no way of knowing if she was telling the truth. How could I already trust her?
For now, I decided not to dwell on my past, hoping my lost memories would return eventually. After all, there were far more threatening things ahead in my immediate future that I needed to face.
"You mentioned games, but what kind of games am I supposed to take part in?"
"Finally, a smart question!"
She really had a knack for irritating me.
"But I'll tell you about the games later, in fact, I was just planning to show you one very soon," she explained.
I nodded. For now, no other questions came to mind. Apparently, my maximum window for maintaining clear-headedness was quite short. The more I tried to focus, the heavier my head became, and my thoughts grew sluggish.
...
After a walk that seemed to last forever, Ari and I finally arrived in an area that wasn't a white corridor.Specifically, we came into a large hall with a very high ceiling, a hall that, nonetheless, was also about 75% white. The wall opposite the one we had come from appeared to be an enormous silvery mirror.
'These aliens really don't have much imagination…'
To our left was a desk, behind which sat a figure that was anything but human.Its skin was green, and its face strongly resembled that of an octopus, with countless slimy tentacles for hair and five eyes arranged in a pentagon across its face. It seemed to have neither mouth nor nose.
Ari asked me to wait at the center of the room while she went to speak with the creature.As I observed their cold interaction, I wondered how they were communicating, since the green creature had no mouth.
Shortly after, Ari returned to me with a brisk pace, motioning for me to follow her toward the silver wall.
"Finally, we're getting out of this place," Ari whispered. Her tone suggested she was genuinely relieved.
When we reached the silver mirror, she didn't show any sign of stopping, I thought she might crash into it. But to my surprise, as Ari walked into it, the mirror became liquid-like, allowing her to pass through effortlessly. As she went through, the mirror rippled like the surface of a pond when a pebble is thrown in.
I stood there stunned and speechless for a moment.
'Everything feels so surreal, maybe I'm still dreaming after all…'
Shaking off those thoughts, I too passed hesitantly through the silver mirror. To my surprise, I felt nothing unusual. It was as if the mirror was merely an illusion.
On the other side, I found myself on a large balcony almost entirely covered in white grass and silver-petaled flowers, except for a circular area at the center made of silver metal with golden, indecipherable inscriptions running along its edge.
'Finally, fresh air…' I thought.
Ari was waiting for me right on the edge of the circular space.I approached her, only to become distracted by the most incredible sight I had seen since waking up, granted, I hadn't been awake long, but with all the absurd things that had happened, it felt like hours, if not days, had passed.
I walked slowly toward the edge of the balcony, marked by a black railing with intricate ivy-like shapes.Beyond the railing rose a city that defied all logic. If someone had only described it to me in words, I would have never believed it was real without seeing it with my own eyes.
From the balcony, nearly the entire city was visible. Looking at it as a whole, I realized it had been built according to a specific logic. The most obvious feature was the variety of architectural styles and building heights, which changed gradually. This transformation followed a sort of spiral, like a snail shell, that, starting from the outer edge toward the center, seemed to retrace the various architectural styles that had emerged over time, drawing inspiration from both real styles and imaginary ones from novels or video games.
The part of the city closest to me, the "outer shell," featured districts with vaguely pyramidal structures and massive buildings, where blue, gold, and white blended with the greenery of countless plants adorning them.These districts seemed to compete in beauty with others filled with buildings, squares, and grand white marble arches that looked straight out of ancient Rome or Greece.These were followed by more colorful, Eastern-inspired neighborhoods, some with Chinese-style buildings and wooden pagodas, others with architecture more typical of Indian Hindu temples.
Continuing along the spiral curve to the right, the city changed again, and so did the architecture, becoming more "modern." Unfortunately, this part of the city was less visible from where I stood; I could only glimpse buildings with countless domes.
Following the spiral back to the left, the predominantly white Renaissance and colonial-style architecture gave way to taller buildings with Gothic and steampunk aesthetics, dominated by dark gray stone and brass.
The city flowed into a more modern human age, with iron-and-glass skyscrapers.And finally, at the center of the snail-shell spiral, stood buildings in full cyberpunk style, with bright, flashy holograms.
From the city's borders, roads extended like tree branches toward massive arenas, some made of stone, others of metal.
All around, in the skies above the city, flying ships of various shapes, sizes, and colors drifted like bees. The most incredible part wasn't just seeing these vessels fly, but noticing how some of the largest ones changed shape depending on which part of the city they were flying over, almost as if adapting to match the style of each district.
I stood staring at the vast, unreal city for a long time, until Ari's voice brought me back to reality.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
I nodded in response.
"That's the Colosseum Citadel, where we're headed, and where you'll live from now on," she said.
"I'll live there? In one of those buildings?" I asked, surprised. I had expected them to lock me in a dark cell, only letting me out when it was time to participate in a game.
"Exactly."
That was a bit of a relief.
"All right, follow me," Ari urged, walking toward the center of the silver circular platform.
"Are we going to be picked up by one of those ships?" I asked as I followed her, curious and a little excited at the idea of boarding an alien craft.
"No," said Ari. "We'll get there in a faster way," she explained.
I looked at her, puzzled.
'How could we get there faster than with one of those things?'
As soon as I had that thought, the inscriptions on the platform's edge began to glow golden, and moments later, a silver light enveloped me, blinding me.