While you try to sleep the night through, those puddles of latex from earlier in the night slowly gather themselves, bringing themselves to your room. As you lose yourself in blissful dreams, it slowly reaches its way beneath your covers, absorbing you, consuming you until there's nothing left. Or at least, that's what it would appear to be doing to the casual observer.
In fact, you wake up moments later in a very strange place, a man you've never seen before standing above you. Wherever you are, it's... almost indescribably. The land is red, and seems to stretch endlessly towards a horizon, above which there is only a swirl of colors that twists and turns about in an almost nauseating way. The terrain itself looks like a mockery of reality, the pools that stand in for water being made up of a very familiar shiny liquid in a variety of different colors and the trees, sharing the sheen and colors of those pools, being bent in a sinister way as though they were ready to grasp anyone fool enough to go near them. In the distance you can see a tower, a massive white pillar that stands starkly against the colored backdrop of this strange world.
"Quick. Get up."
You'd almost forgotten about the man. Heeding his words, you bring yourself to your feet while giving him a once-over. He looks disheveled and tired, his brown hair long and untamed, flowing out into a fritz. He's got a bit of stubble coming in on his gaunt face, and his thin frame seems like a good match for his impressive height. The clothing he wears looks like it's been thrown through a blender, his black pants and white shirt tattered and torn. This is a man who looks like he's been to hell and back, without the "and back".
"It's not safe here. Follow me, and walk exactly as I do."
Since you don't have much else to do, given that you've got absolutely no idea where you are or what you're doing here, you accept his orders and follow him, making sure your feet fall exactly where his do. It's only a couple of minutes before you find yourself standing next to a bit of a hill in that red land, with a small cave stretching into it. The man pulls out a lighter and uses it to light the entrance to the cave, where he sits and motions for you to do the same.
"I guess one of those things got you. That's how I got here. Been here for a day or two now... it's hard to tell, there's no sun or anything like it to judge time by. I'm Ben, by the way." The man extends a hand, and you shake it. "Those things - whatever they are - they try to eat people. Well, eating is what we thought they were doing at first, until they started spitting those monsters back out. Never really caught on to what was actually happening though. See, when they take you in, they bring you to this place - it's another dimension or something - and then I think they try to break you. There's traps all over the place here, traps for getting that stuff on you. Some of the trees'll come to life and try to push you in those pools - I lost a couple of my buds that way. Sometimes there's fruits or other things. The ones who were here before me didn't have any food so they gave those a shot, and now they're just like the rest. It's like nearly everything here is just geared to try to turn you into one of those things.
"It's not just that, though. I could take it if it was just that, but it's more than that. It tries to break your mind too. I think it's because it can control you after you snap, once you're just a bundle of loose nerves. It can dig into your mind, take you over. I felt it try with me, but I pushed it out. I'm losing it, but I'm not ready to go yet.
"I don't know if you saw the white tower, but once they turn everyone goes for that tower. I think that's how they get back to our world, and I think that's the ticket out of here. I was going to try to get there alone, but now that you're here we can do it together. We've just got to get over there, and then we'll be safe. Yes, safe and sound..." Ben lets out a nervous, slightly maddened chuckle after saying this, his eyes taking on a look that's a mix of desperation, hope, and insanity.
You almost want to leave him be, but you've got too many questions. For starters, you want to know how he's gone without food. As you ask him, he seems to snap out of his madness almost instantly. "Oh, I haven't gone without food," he replies, "I just had some with me when I got here. I think you keep whatever you've got on you when it takes you in, and I had a backpack on me when it took me. There was some food in there, and I've just sort of rationed it for the last few days. I'm out now, but with the tower so close and with you to help me I think I should be fine without it. We'll just have to hurry." That matter dealt with, you ask about the man you'd seen earlier, ask if this guy had seen anyone like him. "Yeah, I saw him. He was screaming when he got here, and when he saw me I think he thought I was after him or something. He looked like he'd gone crazy before he even got here. He just ran right into one of those pools and that was it. I'm not sure how he got back so fast... maybe the pools are connected right to the other side. I'm not willing to risk diving into them, though. Anything else?" With nothing coming to mind, you shake your head.
"Okay, here's what we have to do. Between the tower and here, there's a forest of those trees. I don't like having to be near them, and I don't like that anything could be hiding there, but I'm out of food and you don't seem to have any with you so we'll have to chance it." You realize that he's right about the food - all you've got are the clothes that you were wearing yesterday (you must've fallen asleep in them). "We'll have to move fast, so I want you to follow my lead. Just stay with me until we get to the tower and we should make it out of this without any tails or any of that shit. Understand?" You nod to him. "Okay, good. Now let's get the hell out of here!"
With a burst of enthusiasm you wouldn't have thought he was capable of, Ben leaps to his feet and rushes from the cave, moving at such a quick pace that you can barely keep up with him. It only takes a minute before you reach an opening in that "forest" and plunge into it.