W41K3R5 J01N || the beginning

Chapter Three

I opened my eyes slowly and closed them in the same second because of the bright light hitting them, being confused how in the world I was still able to to anything. After trying to open my eyes again, this time heaps slower, I slowly and carefully checked the room I was in.

I found myself standing in a small square but light flooded room, with light grey translucent curtains hovering and waving in front of the open windows due to the slight breeze coming through them.

Slowly I stepped forward to the curtains and attempted to push them away, but my hand just slipped through them. My eyes widened surprised and I stepped back slightly stumbling.

"What the?" I whispered and tried touching the curtains again, another attempt to see what's outside.

Again, my hand went through them, almost like I didn't exist. I started shaking, staggering backward until my back hit the wall. My breathing became heavy and my heartbeat was so loud that anyone in the room would have been able to hear it.

Suddenly, I realised my situation, that my neck was broken about twenty seconds ago. My hand rushed up to my neck, trying to feel if everything was alright. In that moment, I didn't think about how it could be possible that I survived or even be able to stand. I couldn't feel anything at all, even if I was trying hard to find any sign of a broken bone.

I was interrupted by the door opening right next to me.

Slowly and nervously, I turned around to the big iron door in the middle of the opposite wall of the windows. Two people entered the room. They were wearing casual grey clothes - the only unusual thing was the black cloth that they had covered the bottom half of their faces with.

"Eh... hi?" I muttered shyly.

They didn't seem notice me, so I carefully tried to get to the door. This whole scenery was extremely strange. But the door was closed and I knew I wouldn't be able to open it anyways. So I turned back to the two people, watching them closely, suddenly interested and eager to find out what's going on.

The woman was sitting in front of the man on something that looked like a yoga mat. As I craned my neck to the side to see their faces, I was shocked. I couldn't see anything. Their faces were just...

Black.

My eyes widened. The woman stroke her red, slightly curly hair back, saying something I wasn't able to understand, just muffled sounds like I was underwater. The man laughed and it reminded me of something strangely familiar, sending goosebumps down my spine.

The door was opened once again. Another tall man entered the room without saying anything at all. He was carrying a backpack and sat down right in the middle of the couple, his back turned to the windows.

Just as the little zip sound broke through the silence, the third person pulled out a smalls strangely looking machine.

My vision turned black once again.

I just looked up into the dark face of the man in front of me. It just took me a while to notice that I was sitting at the same spot as the woman before, the realization running cold down my back.

I looked down at my right hand, which was the source of a small bit of pain. A small, black tattooed ring graced my finger. It reminded me on something, but I wasn't able to recognise it immediately.

The second man to my left stood up and nodded widely smiling, his eyes sparkling with excitement. The young, tall man in front of me stood up too and smiled at me. He said something, again I wasn't able to understand it, but I was forced to stand up, following everyone's example.

Our hands moved up at the same time and we pulled our masks down.

And suddenly the darkness hiding this face cleared up like a sudden light turned on and I was able to see his face.

My eyes widened even more and I wanted to step back, but I couldn't move, my heart stopping for a second, the silence feeling like a deep sea pressure on my ears.

And out of sudden, my vision turned black once again and all the insane pain shot through my body. I gasped and opened my eyes, heavily breathing,my heart racing faster than after a five mile sprint.

I was back on open place in Stuttgart.

And I was alive.

And I obviously just had a near death experience.

The first thing I immediately noticed was the silence, still holding on, still a pressure on my ears.

Everybody looked at me, shocked, without saying anything, just like time froze. Even the guards were quiet in this moment.

Then I heard another body falling down to the ground. I wasn't able to move my head at all, it just wasn't possible, but the person was straight in front of me in the direction I was looking, so it wasn't necessary to move my body anyways.

Kathi. Lying on the ground, crying and loudly screaming my name, her voice echoing back in the silence that was still hanging over the plaza like a thick blanket. Tears running down her cheeks, falling to the already wet ground.

I felt so helpless. I wanted to run to her, saying everything is okay, and I'm alive.

But I can't, I just can't. I couldn't move, my body was trapped to the ground by the insane pain. And suddenly another scream broke through the silence, ripping the blanket of silence apart once more.

Simi, getting held back by her boyfriend, was trying to get to me, almost climbing over the iron fence.

"Chris!" Her voice cut through the now interrupted silence again. Tobi behind her, ignoring the pistol shoved to his back, staring at me, like he couldn't believe what just happened. I was able to see his mouth moving, like he was saying something, but I wasn't able to hear it. His arm with the still recording camera dropped when he stumbled forward in disbelief.

Sadness overcame my mind. I felt guilty, for all the people who had seen my death in this last few moments. I felt sorry that I left Kathi, and didn't get to her, as I promised. I felt sorry for Simi, Tobi, Nic, Jani and all the others, just knowing me through the internet and seeing me for the third time in their life.

But there was another emotion, I couldn't say clearly what it was. The moment when I saw the blue eyed guy with the fire red hair, something changed in my mind.

When I knocked out all these guards, I felt... nothing. Nothing but somehow everything the same time.

It was some kind of... security. Someone was there with me, telling my body what to do. Telling me what to do.

It may sounds creepy or something but it was like that I had done exactly the same before, even if I don't know why or when I had done something like this. Because I never had before.

Those thoughts helped me to forget about the reality of the situation but the reality came back with one big punch, as Blackhead turned me around, my face not facing the ground anymore and I was staring up at the sky.

The pain was insane and I almost screamed, secretly biting the inside of my mouth, trying not to move.

His face was as a mask of fear, fright and sadness. I was able to see the tears in his eyes, even if he was trying to hide them as much as possible.

"I'm so sorry kid..." He whispered, obviously thinking that I'm dead. Ignoring the pain and the fact that he was the person who told the guards to kill me obviously, I wanted to comfort him. Wanted to tell him that he didn't have to feel sorry.

But I wasn't able to move. That was the moment that I was reminded of my broken neck once again. That was the moment when I almost panicked once again. That moment was when I heard his voice the first time.

Hey.