Paper Room

“What makes us human?” Luna offered to Edsel.

Edsel, who was feeling around the dark room, trying to decipher where they were or what was happening to them, sighed. She had already asked, what seemed like, hundreds of questions since the two of them had woken up only moments before. At this point it was almost more painful to hear she talking to herself than it was to just answer her, “Probably what makes us smart enough to understand our limitations.”

“Ew.” Luna responded, “That’s a gross answer Edsel, you’re really getting my spirits up.” Each word dripping with funny sarcasm. “How about, the ability to recognize how great we are as a species, hmm hmm?”

Edsel groaned, “At least I’m trying to figure out where we are or what is going on-.” He couldn’t finish his sentence as Luna interrupted him.

“Well considering it’s pitch black, and we woke up here without any knowledge of how, I’d like to suggest it was some potion or a strange sleeping draft, I’d say we’re probably in some kind of prison or holding cell.” She furrowed her brows in thought, “Though I’m not entirely sure as to why we would be in jail, or why we would need to be drugged.”

Luna was always making up stories or reaching conclusions no one else seemed to understand, “I don’t think we’re in jail Luna, it’s not cold and metal like a normal cell.”

“You would know wouldn’t you,” she teased, remembering when they t-p'd their principles house after graduation last month. When the lights came on and the shouting began, she got away, rounding the corner and into the corn field, but Edsel had to spend the night at the police station. Rolling his eyes, he began to respond but ran smack into Luna and they both hit the ground.

“Ouch Edsel, pay attention would you!” But as soon as she said that she remembered it was pitch black and that she was asking for the impossible, “Oh wait,” she laughed at herself, “you can’t.”

“Sorry Luna, I’m just trying to figure out what this room is made of. It feels almost soft beneath my shoes and the walls are spongy, I think.”

Luna opened her mouth but was shocked to hear another voice that didn’t belong to her.

“Would you two knuckle heads shut up already.”

The voice belonged to someone Edsel and Luna both knew but neither could place a name on the voice. Considering the darkness and the bizarre way sound ricocheted off the walls, it was even hard for Luna to hear Edsel, although, it took Edsel not even three seconds till he deciphered Luna’s ramblings.

“Who’s that?” Edsel questioned the voice.

“What, you mean you’ve forgotten me already?” his deep laugh echoed the small space, and it was only then that Edsel realized who the voice belonged to and how small the room actually was.

“Oh, Klay it’s just you.” Klay was a year older than Edsel and Luna, but he was known for being “difficult” with the teachers and other students, so he was held back another year, forcing him to graduate with Luna and Edsel.

“You scared me for a second Klay, I didn’t think anyone else was in here. Though I’m not really sure as to why I would assume that, considering I can’t see and you were still sleeping, I suppose I was assuming-“

“Luna.” Edsel warned, “Please stop talking.”

“Oh right, sorry.” She giggled turning towards Klay’s voice again, “Klay, what do you think it means to be human.”

Edsel sighed and slapped his forehead with his hand, causing Luna to laugh. “Luna, we have more important things to worry about,” Edsel rubbed at his temples, the annoyance growing, “Klay can I ask you for a weird favor.”

Luna pouted her lip and huffed dramatically, “I’m just trying to lighten the mood.” She flipped off Edsel, who was still next to her, but then realized that he can’t see her, and she dropped her hand.

“Good luck with that, sweet cheeks,” Klay said in an almost comforting sort of way, “and yeah I suppose I could help you out, depending on what that would be of course.”

“Thank you,” Edsel answered but he knew this favor would be awkward to ask the difficult kid with anger issues. So, he took a breath and spoke, “I need us all to sit on the ground and try to find each other’s hands.”

The silence that followed was unbearably awkward, and Edsel could almost feel Luna’s smirk as she nudged his arm, giggling. But just then the ground, or maybe the whole room started to shake, the entire space was lifting and jutting around them.

Luna screamed and Klay gasped, accompanied by loud but muffled voices booming around them like thunder.

Luna started crying out for help, her emotions switched instantly, “Hello?! Hello! Please help us get out of here we’re wrongfully put in prison. I can’t go to prison I have people to see and my friends to visit and people to annoy!”

“Oh, so you know that you annoy everyone?” Klay managed to get a jab out as the three were tumbling about the space. Luna grabbed onto Edsel’s arm to steady herself but if anything, that just made the two bounce around more.

“This must be an earthquake and the power went out a while ago that’s why it’s so dark.” Edsel tried to reassure the two, but he could hear Luna start to cry as she whimpered, “Then why won’t anyone come save us?”

Suddenly, right after she finished talking the room slammed into the Earth again and the space was still once more. After a few more seconds the three groaned to catch their breath, Klay spoke, “Why the fuck, would sitting in a circle and holding hands be the best thing to do in this situation?”

“Because I don’t know what else to do and I don’t know where you are Klay. I want to know how big or small this room is.” Not that it really mattered anymore, but Edsel needed to gather any sort of information he could on this place, if only to ease his conscious.

Klay rolled his eyes and took a seat on the floor, lifting an eyebrow he said, “well, I’m sitting now genius, where are your hands?”

“What makes you think I’d want to touch your hand!?” Luna shouted at Klay, but the offence fell at his feet, as he said, “I don’t care what you want, sweet cheeks, just do what genius says and maybe we can get somewhere. You want to get out right?”

It took a few more convincing words from Edsel to get Luna to participate but once she agreed and they were all sitting and reaching out for each other’s hands, they touched fingertips almost immediately.

“Woah,” Luna gasped, “How is it possible that we’re actually this close to one another, this space really sucks up sound.”

Edsel, with almost less information that he had before, placed his palms into the floor. “What is happening to us, what is this?” Lifting his hand, he felt the floor keep his palm print and he could feel the impression on the ground. He lifted his fist and shoved his knuckles into the palm print, and the floor beneath that pressure began to rip.

“It’s a kind of paper.” Edsel noticed, “the floor is made of paper?!”

Edsel opened his mouth to speak though he’s not even sure what he would’ve said to justify how ridiculous that sounds, but just then, the ground beneath them started to shake again. Like the room had developed legs and started waltzing about. Luna screamed and the gravity of the room swapped, causing her head to hit the ceiling, while Klay grabbed onto Edsel and yanked him down.

Then suddenly, everything came to a slamming stop, silence and confusion filtered through the already existing tension, then the three heard it. The suspicious tearing of paper, then the sounds of people, but this time they were incredibly obnoxious, as if they were screaming each word, like they were excited. The paper ripped and ripped around the whole room, and then the roof opened, showing creases on the sides folded around them and the color of the room was brown, like a box wrapped in paper. The three looked up to see a person, much like how anyone would look but this person was gigantic. It took Edsel all of two seconds to realize they had been trapped in a tiny box, and that Luna was never going home.