Jakob Endersen had a dream. He was standing with two other people on his left and right. He could see that they were both roughly his size, but beyond that he couldn't make anything out. He soon became aware of a vast presence in front of him, invisible yet encompassing everything.
The presence began to speak from some invisible mouth. The voice was of ambiguous gender. "I have written you into my story. You are now characters in my own little reality. You will have to deal with great changes, and you may go through suffering beyond anything you've ever felt before. I will change everything, and then I will, for the most part, let the new reality play itself out. However, I will give you each one page." As the presence said this, a blank sheet of paper appeared in front of Jakob. "If you have great need, you can use a page, and you will be…assisted. But only if you are with the other two, and all three of you are of great need.
"Good luck."
Then Jakob woke up.
The sun was shining through his window. It was a Saturday, and he'd slept in. The sky outside was early-spring-blue, with a few high clouds adding some thin swirls of white to the sky. The day seemed normal enough.
Jakob glanced around his room. His gaze fell upon his desk. The desk was, for the most part, neat, but with a single blank piece of paper placed neatly in the middle. Jakob was sure that he hadn't put it there. He looked at it for a while, then shook off his uncomfortable feeling and went to have breakfast.
• • •
That afternoon, Jakob decided to go for a walk, maybe find a tree to read a book under. He grabbed a small backpack and slipped in a book, a bottle of water, and an apple, and went off.
He decided to walk on the path down by the river. It's a quiet place, peaceful, but almost unsettling. Across the river is an abandoned Department of Defence military site, and the buildings are run down.
As Jakob walked along, watching the trees and the river and the Defence facility, the air seemed to blur for a second. He jumped back and looked around, but everything seemed normal.
Then the world seemed to warp around him, and he found himself inside a building. He was standing in a plain white room with an observation window. He was being observed from the other side by scientists at computers. Behind them was another window, looking out onto the lands of the Defence facility. He was actually IN the facility. The other buildings looked…different, at least from what was normal. They looked clean, new-ish. Many people bustled around outside.
He could see the scientists talking among themselves, and then they all went silent. One of them pressed a button and then spoke, with her voice coming over the intercom into the room Jakob was in. "Greetings, Subject #247. You have been selected to take part in these trials."
"What trials?" Jakob shouted. "And why don't I have a say in this?"
"In response to the second question, nobody would accept it. In regards to the first query, you shall see."
She pressed a button on her computer. A beep sounded loudly, and then Jakob…