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Credits
Title: Vanished Underground City
Author: ©Jiraku_Mogana
Creation Date: August 23rd, 2020
JiM 19/07/19 (Fri) 20:05:23 #07423762
This might be a common story for you guys, but for me it was the first time and it was really serious, so listen to me for a sec.
Last week I met for dinner with about 10 friends. We met at a restaurant I’d never been to before, located near a train station I’d never been to either. So I got to the station, and I checked the information board to see how to get to the restaurant. There seems to be an underground passage that leads to the place, so I decided to go through it.
These underground passages were like thin shopping arcades, like — Ah, have any of you been to Shinjuku? It’s like a darker, smaller version of Subnade.1 I don’t remember things clearly, but there were some strange shops. Quartz shops and wigs shops. The weird thing was that the shopping center had a big curve, sort of like a slope. Normal underground shopping centers are built in straight lines, no? And the deeper you get, the narrower it got. The shops had their shutters on, and the ceiling was really low; it looked like a blind alley by the time I got above ground. The whole place was an upward slope, not having stairs or anything, and suddenly I found myself under the bright sun. There was a crossroad on the main street, the exit to the underground passage opening out like a burrow.
I walked a bit, and finally got to the restaurant I needed to get to, with my friends being already there and enjoying themselves. Guess they’d gotten there earlier, and were already enjoying some drinks. I wasn’t sure what to eat, but someone suggested an all-you-can-eat, and before long we were eating and dancing and making a ruckus. I’m a light eater so I don’t usually go for all-you-can-eats, but this time I ate to my heart’s content.
About three hours later, after we’d split up the bill, I decided to go back to the station through the underground passage’s exit, but I couldn’t find the exit. The intersection where the exit was led to a completely flat surface. People were passing by the place as if there had been nothing there in the first place. I saw an office lady frantically looking around, and now I realize she must have been looking for the passage too. I had no more choice than to walk back to the station by ground, and look at the board again, but the underground passage was nowhere to be seen. I search for it on my phone, and nothing. It’s as if the passage I’d walked through had vanished.
Ever since then, I’ve been feeling out of place. It’s hard to explain, but the air feels different, like I’ve slipped off from the rest of the world. Doors that opened inwards now open outwards, the number of stair steps to my workplace have increased, the furniture inside my house has been rearranged so I keep bumping into things. You know the stories about ending up in alternative worlds that look exactly like your own? That’s how it feels like. I think the underground passage was a gate to a different world. Ever since I passed through it, it feels like I’ve been told this is not my place. The place I belong to has been taken away from me.
Membrain 19/07/19 (Fri) 20:13:43 #09121893
Uhhhh… Have you talked to anyone about this feeling of discomfort?
JiM 19/07/19 (Fri) 20:16:11 #07423762
I haven’t. People would think I’m insane or that I’m lying, wouldn’t they?
Membrain 19/07/19 (Fri) 20:18:03 #09121893
Well, there you go. I think you should go to counseling. I think they’ll listen to you more openly than this forum.
JiM 19/07/19 (Fri) 20:21:59 #07423762
Counseling. I’ve never been but I’ll look into it.
Leiras 19/07/19 (Fri) 20:20:45 #51253027
“The place I belong to has been taken away from me.” Don’t tell such lame lies.
JiM 19/07/19 (Fri) 20:24:03 #07423762
There’s some flair to it, but it’s a true story. But- Well, I don’t blame you for thinking it’s a lie.
Leiras 19/07/19 (Fri) 20:29:30 #51253027
That’s not it. That weird ass bluff is honestly shameful.
You said you went with friends, yet despite being your first time there, you arrived alone, and left alone. You went for an all-you-can-eat, because that’s what they suggested, despite your small appetite. Were they really your friends? Weren’t you just socializing?
That woman who was also looking for the exit, if she had been a person from the same world as yours, shouldn’t you have tried to reach out to her? After all that, you didn’t talk to anyone about it. You didn’t even try to find someone to turn to. Did you even try to change this situation you’re in?
JiM 19/07/19 (Fri) 20:31:59 #07423762
W-wait…
Leiras 19/07/19 (Fri) 20:33:78 #51253027
You never had a place to belong to.