It's a difficult task to adjust. Some take it in stride, accepting whatever change their life may bring, some enter denial and refuse to believe the change, and others (like me) ignore it for as long as they can.

I'd tried doing that to not have to think about our situation, but now that Pen and I were walking down this road, my mind lacked stimulation; I needed to think of something.

In the end, I needed to face the facts: this was all less than ideal, but I had little to no choice in the matter anymore. Whether it was a hostage situation or some strange cult where my memory had been erased, I couldn't tell. It simply didn't make sense. I should have been nervous, all my instincts told me that's what I should do, and yet I felt nothing. I suppose having no memory had its perks... still, every time I looked away from the road, seeing buildings scattered around with no order or pattern, I (apart from feeling disgusted by its mess) was reminded that I wanted to know myself, why I was here. Even if I had nothing else, that at least, I could focus on.

"Sebastian, sir?" I looked down, snapping away from my monologue to look at Pen. He met my gaze and continued. "According to the map, this is where we go down different paths."

Even though he'd just said it, I verified by glancing at his watch. His route took him down one of the many branching paths this road had, leading him away from the main path and off to God knows where.

What I didn't understand is why he felt the need to tell me of this.

"Alright, and...?"

It didn't make sense to me and yet, somehow, he looked at me as if I'd just given him terrible news.

"It means we're going to go our separate paths from here on out," he said, which, honestly, sounded fine by me. I gave him a brief nod and then turned to keep walking - I had more urgent business to take care of: my business.

"Farewell, sir!" For the first time since he'd spoken to me, he had raised his voice, something very uncharacteristic of the Pen I'd known for thirty minutes.

I had to turn around. I didn't realize that me not saying goodbye meant that much, or maybe I was just insensitive. Whatever the reason, now I almost felt ashamed at my inaction.

Somewhat awkwardly, I raised my hand in a wave. "Yeah... see ya, I guess." It didn't feel like enough. "... Have fun with your new roommates," I added. It was difficult being emotionally aware when I really did not care for him. Could you blame me? I had much more pressing concerns on my mind right now.

Still, it looked like I'd clearly upset him, and that much at least I couldn't leave like this. Even with my half added goodbye, he didn't seem satisfied. Now that he'd gotten in my head, neither was I.
"Hey, I mean it y'know? I get it must be scary—" for someone as young as him, I didn't add— "but I'm sure you'll be okay. Just gotta... be yourself, right?"

Even though I was saying this, I was skeptical of this advice for myself; I'm not exactly what one would call friendly.

Still, my reassurance seemed to have done the trick, which was a relief to me as well. Pen offered a light smile.

"Of course, sir. Good luck with your own side of things," he said.

"I won't need luck."

"I meant it more so to those that will have to share a living space with you." A cheeky smile crossed his face, but at least he didn't seem worried anymore, as minor as that may be. I smirked in return, and then turned to leave before I absolutely annihilated him for his comment like I knew I would.

We did go our separate ways, but I had the feeling he'd be okay. As long as no one decided to tease him for his overly polite demeanour, I thought.
I felt a protective sense surge through me for a fleeting moment when I thought about him getting teased for that. I bit my lip and kept walking, keen on arriving to my destination.

It took me around five minutes to reach my destination, having branched off as well from the main path. But now that I stand at the entrance of a forest, I start to wonder if the map misled me.
The forest itself is impressive from what I can see, stretching from left to right with various other branching paths leading into it. My path is met with an arc, and the trees have been cleared out to make way for the path yet block all sunlight. In place of that, lanterns are on each side of the path, making me feel as if I'm walking from day to night.

Begrudgingly enough, I have to admit it's a beautiful sight. I peer, looking for the end in the tunnel of trees, but the soft lighting makes it hard for me...

Looking down at the map one last time, I head in, forcing myself to look forward and not get enamoured by the orange lighting, the tranquility that comes with walking amongst the trees at night (albeit an artificial one) and the peaceful silence.

I have to stop. In the space where the lanterns shine the brightest, I stop walking for a moment, realizing that I can no longer see the arc through which I'd entered, and am now immersed in a forest path with no visible exit or entrance.

I start to hear birds, running water, sounds of nature that make me hesitant to actually leave the path.

That's when I start running. I had to find the exit, not let myself be tempted by these sort of things and figure out where I was: that was my main objective, I couldn't let anything get in the way of my inevitable escape from this place, no matter how much it tried to seduce me.

My running eventually led me to the light of the tunnel, after which I found myself standing in a large clearing of the forest, where the sunlight managed to seep through the trees of giants and bathe the area with rays of sunlight among the shadows.

It would have been a breathtaking sight, were I not completely underwhelmed by the small hut I saw at the end of the clearing, nearly tucked away behind the trees.

My map led me towards it, and I realized that this was how many kidnappings started. Then I realized that I didn't have much else to do right now, and since this was my closest bet to figuring out what was going on, I took a gamble with death and entered the hut.

It wasn't bigger on the inside, had no windows, and only had one thing: a group of numbered buttons next to the door. This was an elevator.
Looking down at my map again, I saw it was no longer a map, but what looked like coordinates: 1-A. Associating that with the set of buttons, I hit 1, and the room shook.

The descent was fast and it was over before I could regain my balance from the abrupt start. The doors opened in front of me, and I found myself in front of yet another long and upbeat hallway, this one with doors on either side. I was starting to grow a resentment towards hallways.
I looked at the first door on the left side of the hall and saw the inscription in gold: 1-A. My new home.

The moment I saw that, my mind finally caught up to my body. Before I'd even considered knocking the door, I felt nervous. The possibilities of who was behind this door made me hesitant to find out - what if it was a jerk? Or someone I'd find insufferable or annoying? What if I turned out to be the annoying one? I stood staring at the door longer than I'd care to admit, but I knew eventually I'd have to do something about it. I was told that I'd get along with whoever was in here, but could I really trust that? For all I knew it would be the exact opposite.

Keeping my expectations low, I opened the door.

What I found... was both incredibly underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time.

I'd stepped into a living room, furnished with everything you'd expect - even with a center table that had four pillows, one for each side - but it was also incredibly messy. Random assortment of items were simply thrown about, ranging from puppets to helmets to God knows what else, the furniture was moved around chaotically as if a tornado had swept through here. The living room was only the left side of the room (it had a few exits, but I wasn't sure I wanted to know what was down them) and when I saw the right side where a kitchen was found, it wasn't in much better condition.

I felt myself grimace. Did people really live like this or was I treating with animals? I didn't care who these people were supposed to be, I couldn't stand seeing all this mess.

"Hello? Hey, anyone home?" I shouted. It was well past midday, so maybe no one was even here.
And yet, as I thought that, I heard a door open from somewhere in the apartment. I turned to one of the exits I'd noticed earlier and saw a girl stumble out into the living room. She clearly needed sleep, if the bags under her eyes and her messy auburn hair told me anything, but the oversized T-shirt she wore made me think she'd just been sleeping. I squinted at her, but she just rubbed her eyes, not even fazed by the stranger in the room.

"... Nyeah? Goo' morn... who are you?" she asked, after which she had to stifle a yawn.

"..." I didn't know if I wanted to answer all of a sudden. I'd imagined someone much more intimidating than this, now I just didn't know how to respond, so I blurted out the first thing in my mind.

"Roommate," I said. "I'm your new roommate. 1-A, I..." I looked around the room again. 'Do you seriously live in all this mess?"

But she wasn't listening anymore. Mystery girl seemed to wake up the moment I said who was. Without asking for permission - a habit I'm starting to find common amongst these people - she took my hand and looked at my watch. I quickly yanked it away, but it was too late. She was excited about something and it was all my fault.

"I didn't know we'd be getting a roommate today!" A massive grin appeared on her face from one moment to another once she knew who I was.
"Oohmygosh, if I'd known I would have tried to clean up a bit. Kristina and Antoinette are still in bed but don't worry about it - I, Claire, will make you feel super welcome!" Any trace of being tired has completely disappeared from her. She brushed down her hair while frantically looking around as the smile refused to leave her face.
She rushed over to the window, pulling back curtains and letting the sunlight fill the room.

"Take a seat at the table, I'll make ya some tea!" she said, running over to the kitchen and stepping over many of the strewn about items.
I remained where I was standing, still honestly trying to comprehend what was going on. Her sudden energy, didn't even address my other question - wasn't expecting a roommate today? It feels like an incredible oversight to not even tell the people I'm supposed to be living with from now on that I'd be living here from now on.

Yet, with a begrudging frown, I went to sit down where she told me, figuring that I might as well try before anything else. As my eyes scanned the room and Claire prepared tea, I saw next to the window a screen. At once I knew what it was, and I scowled.

"Hey, uh... Claire? How often does that screen turn on?" I asked, keeping a wary eye on it.

"Two times a day, mister roommate. One for a morning announcement and one for a night time announcement. It's the only way to really keep us in check, y'know? Otherwise we'd be staying up all night," she replied. "I've got the tea ready!"

Carrying a small tray, Claire made her way out of the kitchen. "I usually leave this stuff to Antoinette 'cause she knows how to make it work, but I figured this time I should make it myself! Here, enjoy."

I shuffled back the closer she got, but we'd both been so focused on the tray and hoping she wouldn't spill anything, that neither of us noticed her tripping over a helmet on the floor until the tray went flying.

She yelped, but I hollered in pain from having the hot tea spill all over me.

Now, normally when a girl trips there are people that think it's cute! That, aw, she's a bit clumsy! How endearing! I, on the other hand, felt nothing but white hot rage.

I managed to save myself from getting any serious burns, but the scalding sensation burned through my clothes.

"OH GOSH, I'M SORRY!" Claire immediately rushed back to the kitchen whilst I leaped into the air from the shock - I KNEW having so many things strewn around the floor was a safety hazard, I knew it. Somehow the feeling of being right made the pain easier to handle, but it didn't help that it was there. It was hard to keep a straight face, but I'd decided to at least give it a shot before giving up.

What I wasn't expecting was seeing Claire trip over the same helmet again on her run to the kitchen. If this was someone I had to live with then I feared more for my sanity than the potential kidnapping situation.

She landed on her back with a thud, as the helmet was shot forward into the wall. Despite her incredible failure, I felt a shot of concern hearing that thud and tried to walk - a feeling which was very awkward and still incredibly painful, mind you - but a tired voice from behind stopped me halfway.

"That's enough from the two of you," said the stranger's voice, much more composed than whatever the hell was going on in here. Claire and I both turned our heads to see who had walked in, but as Claire rolled over to her stomach and reached for the girl like a child does to their mother, I was still notably pissed.

'"Enough', are you serious? I didn't do anything!"
I immediately noticed the fact they were wearing matching oversized t-shirts, something I briefly found adorable. Then I hissed when I made a wrong movement and the tea spread to burn more of my skin.

The next thing I noticed was her reprimanding gaze and silver-like hair, falling straight down in a bowl cut hairstyle that reached her middle back.

"Claire, what happened?" she asked, helping her up and checking around her head. Despite my urgent desire to change out of these clothes or at least take a shower, I found myself unable to speak; she didn't seem like the type of person I'd willingly contradict.

"I-I'm fine, Kristi," said Claire. "I was just getting tea for our new pal but I slipped and I— ah! Roomie, are you okay? Don't worry, I'll get you a towel and you can use our bathroom to shower if you want."

Claire tried to rush to her feet again, but the girl (named Kristi as far as I knew) gently pushed her back down to the floor by the shoulders.

"You'll take a seat. I'll bring the towel and another cup of tea for you, alright?" Kristi gave Claire's shoulder a light squeeze before standing up and finally addressing me by hardly looking at me. "And you... go take a shower - first door on the left down the hall. You can introduce yourself after you stop dripping tea all over the carpet like a wet dog," and with that, she left to the kitchen. I nearly felt insulted by how different she spoke to me, but after that I finally found it in me to become aware of how I was standing and bolted to the bathroom.

Two minutes later I was under the falling water, feeling increasingly frustrated. So far nothing had gone right, and I was starting to lose hope that things would. Didn't they tell me these people would be my new best friends?! What sort of friendship could ever stem from this? It felt like I was trapped in a suburban movie from the 60's where everyone was trying too hard.

I covered my eyes with my hands, groaning loudly as the falling water drowned the sound.
I had to go back out there. The hope that maybe it was only a bad first impression slipped its way into my mind, but it was almost completely crushed by my refusal to believe that. I just needed to find a way out of here, this was a waste of time.

Five minutes and a change of clothes given by the watch later, I'd reenter the living room, seeing the exact same mess on the floor - but at least the tea spill was gone. Claire and Kristi were sitting at the table, taking turns to sip from the same mug of tea, something that made me grimace.

"You're back. How was it?" asked Kristi, inviting me to sit down. I took a seat on one of the pillows, unsure really on how to respond.

"Well... I don't have any boiling tea on me, so that's a plus."

"Aw come on, I already apologized for that." Claire leaned onto the table, pouting at me.

Kristi gave her a pat on the head and continued to address me.

"Who are you? It's strange that our supposed new roommate would just arrive with no prior warning. It's protocol that we're told at least one week in advance." Her eyes narrowed subtly at me, but I only had the truth to respond with.

I sat up straight and answered with my usual annoyed look. "Sebastian Hernandez, and don't blame me for this, alright? I'm as lost as you are. I woke up in some weird white room, no idea of who I am, and suddenly I'm told I'm living with you all."

Their reaction was one I hadn't expected, bewilderment. At some point during my sentence, they'd looked at me as though I were the town fool.

"You have amnesia...?" Kristi asked. I gave her a strange look and nodded, to which she responded by glancing at Claire and then the two of them breaking into whispers. Right in front of me.

"Don't be ru—!"

"You really can't remember a thing?" Claire cut me off, now observing me with wide eyes. The sudden attention off put me, but I just nodded.

They looked at each other again, and started whispering to each other. Again. Right in front of me.

With a scowl, I'd been about to speak up, had a new voice not interrupted me. It came from behind, the same direction through which Claire and Kristi had come through, and effectively made me jump.

"Don't worry, that happens often," had said the voice. I'm aware it's a strange thing to get scared by, but I wasn't expecting someone else.

As the other two continued to whisper about God knows what, I turned to witness the girl that had just entered. Unlike the whisperers, she had a normal getup, even if they were a bit lazy - a jumper and jeans accompanied by hazel eyes and hair of the same colour tied up into a bun - I appreciated the fact that she wasn't wearing a nightgown.

I also stayed quiet as she came to sit down at the table, offering me a hand.

"Antoinette... Delacroix." She stole a glance at the two, whose whispering had momentarily stopped to watch us before returning to it. "Don't mind them. I've tried getting them to stop doing that, but they just do this weird thing where they stare at me for a second. I got used to it, so will you."

I felt a bit of relief knowing there was a relatively normal person here, and nodded as she leaned on the table. "So, you're the new roommate? I heard Claire screaming about it from my room."

"Yeah, I guess so. But according to these two—"

"Word from the wise, don't listen to what they tell you. Most of the time it's nonsense - Kristina acts serious, but she's as ridiculous as Claire is."

As she finished saying that, the aforementioned two ceased their whispering.

Antoinette snickered to herself and returned to our conversation.

"So, how'd you get here?"

I assumed she meant how I got here from the white room, but there was most likely something I'd forgotten. "How I got here?"

Claire leaned across the table, nearly knocking over the mug. "Antoinette, hold it! You can't just ask that, Sebby's a special case. He can't remember a thing."

So it looks like my memory loss isn't a common thing. I frowned at that, but Antoinette just rolled her eyes.

"Don't be ridiculous, no one loses their memories after death," she said, turning to me again. "So, how'd you die?"

"Shh, shh! Antoinette, he doesn't know about any of that!" said Claire. "He really did lose his memory."

As they continued to discuss the legitimacy of Claire's statement, my mind was elsewhere already.

After death?

... I'd died?