Quiet. That's what the room was right now. Quiet. Peaceful. Even with the throbbing of his head, he couldn't help but find a measure of peace, or some semblance thereof. Ironic though, that the room was stark white, a blank slate, much like the passages of his memories. Shade had been trying to remember something, some small little thing that mean he had lived a life, an existence previous to now. There was nothing. He couldn't recall anything beyond waking up here, and the pain. It was a dull aching sensation now, but the agony had been of nearly epic proportions when he first returned to the land of the living. No, wait. This wasn't living. He merely existed, and he suddenly feared this would become his day to day routine.

For lack of anything to call himself, he named himself Shade. There was a small bit of a shadow, created by his body, cast down upon the barren floor while the lights blared overhead. A stark contrast to the nothing that had been surrounding him, the shadow was something and he wanted to be something. By taking on the name Shade, maybe he would be. At the moment, he felt as blank as the walls in the room. Anything would be better than a blank being.

Wait, a change. The intensity of the lighting seemed to pulse, and his heart beat nearly matched its rhythm. There was nowhere to hide from the steadily increasing glare, but a sound broke through, scratching roughly at his senses like sandpaper. Shade turned his head in time to see one of the walls lifting upward until it disappeared into the ceiling revealing another room. It didn’t vary from the first room, except for the cylinder in the middle of the floor. A cylinder with color standing against the blizzard of nothing.

Shade shuffled toward the opening separating the two rooms, dark eyes glancing upward to where the wall once was. If it was going to slam back down without warning, he wanted to see it coming. He expected it, or maybe just some difference between the rooms other than what his eyes beheld, but there was none. The temperature appeared to be the same, there were no extra odors, nothing his senses could pick apart and dissect. The colors beckoned him closer, silent and still, Shade had a difficult time trying to take his eyes away from the red and blue.

Once past the threshold, he found himself standing next to the pillar before it registered in his head. Fingers of his right hand drifted across the objects, his touch light, measuring. The texture was different from the cool table, it yielded to the pressure he applied against the top of the bar. Shade cast another glance through the room and the opening between the two. These were here for a reason, whether it was wise or not to indulge that reason, well, that would be discovered shortly.

He picked up both bars, the blue in his right, red in the left. With his thumb held against one side of the blue, the bar was lifted and held to his nose. No smell, but something told him it was edible. Call it instinct, sixth sense, lack of anything else to focus on, maybe a little of all three. As he backed away from the pillar, he took a small bite from the blue, the red held fast in his left palm. Shade wasn’t surprised that it held no taste. Everything in this place seemed to be as bland and blank as he felt inside. Perhaps that was just his own sense of nothing coloring his perspective, his taste, his smell. Maybe these things did actually exist, only he failed to register them.

Didn’t matter, it was edible and his stomach contracted with hunger. He tried to make the blue bar last, chewed each bite ten times with one to grow on. All too soon, it was gone. Eaten out of existence. He had a choice. Did he consume the red bar as well? Not knowing when he’d have something more to eat, much less if the blue bar had side effects that had yet to show themselves? Or should he hold fast to the red, saving it, hording it for later? Would there be a later? Too many questions ran through his head, making the pain at the base of his skull more acute.

Dark eyes looked down at the red, now balled like clay in his left palm. He held this protectively against his chest as he stood near the opened wall. It would make more sense to remain in the room that provided the food, if that’s what they were. The other room held nothing but a table, and a plaque on the wall. Shade remained on the side with the pillar, the red and blue room, as it was now noted in his mind. He didn’t know where he was, what was going on, or what he could expect next. He did at least have an identity, even if self-given.

He was Shade.

Nothing. There was nothing else to do in the room. Shade had looked, he paced along the inside perimeter, examined the pillar, ran fingers along the remaining three walls. Nothing, and then darkness. Only the light from his original room remained, the illumination barely reaching into the black depths of the other compartment. That’s what these things were, he had decided, compartments. It was a notion that crossed his mind before he could even begin to fathom the meaning of it. It fit though, so Shade linked the two together in his head.

The floor crackled briefly, and the jolt traveled up through his feet and spread along the rest of his body. A yelp escaped and he jumped about a foot to the side. There was another mere seconds later, eliciting the same response. “Ok-kay!” His voice actually held a bit of volume to it as he moved swiftly for the opening between the two compartments. Shade was shocked one more time before he managed to cross that threshold, and leave the electrified floor behind. The moment he was clear, the wall returned with the same abrasive sound. Shade flopped down on the floor, rubbing the soles of his feet with vigor. That, while not extremely painful, was definitely discomforting. He could still fill the residual tingles of the electric shocks, and he rubbed until most of the sensation ebbed, even as the light overhead dimmed significantly. Whatever that had been, it was apparently over now.

Was it just a feeding time? Perhaps, it would make sense, but was this place supposed to make sense? Shade looked at the rolled up red bar he had set to the side in favor of soothing his pained feet. He held it in the palm of his hand briefly before letting it rest in the center of the room. The color wasn’t as bright, having been pushed and molded by his grip, still it was a nice change from the surrounding white. He wished he could remember something, or figure out where he was in the very least. Shade wasn’t entirely certain that he cared to try and figure it all out right now. The base of his skull still ached, the pain dulled a great deal, but still he felt the pressure remain. At least that reminded him that he existed. For now. Shade couldn’t help but dwell upon the last thought, for now. It took almost all of his willpower to push it down, in fact, he had to tamper it with physical activity.

His body needed to move, needed to do something in order to distract himself from the wandering thoughts. Thoughts that wouldn’t be beneficial or productive, he suspected. Shade stood up and ran the fingers of both hands through his hair. It felt good. Stimulated the scalp or some such, he wasn’t sure, he just knew that moving felt good. Toes wriggled as he started to walk around the perimeter of his compartment. Shade walked at a brisk pace, arms swinging by his sides. Before long, he felt himself humming, though he didn’t know the tune or melody, but like the walk, it felt like he was doing something. Something was better than nothing. He kept feeling the need to go faster though, faster, quicker, and his legs moved accordingly. Shade began to take longer strides, breaking into a light jog for a few minutes. When that failed to satisfy the craving for more, the pace increased again.

Within ten minutes, Shade was doing an outright run through the small room. Dark hair blew back from his face, eyes bright, he kept his breathing at a slow and steady pace as long as possible. Bare feet thudded across the floor, hands fists at his side, arms pumping as he moved. It felt natural to him, like he’s done it before. Sweet blue, it felt so very good. Shade laughed. A wide grin spread across his face as he ran and laughed. So very good, indeed. After what felt like a long time, Shade couldn’t keep going. He slowed down to a light jog, then walked for another five minutes, letting his breathing and heart beat return to a semblance of normal. It would be another five minutes before Shade laid down on his back in the middle of the room. Dark eyes stared up at the strange ceiling, while one hand rested almost protectively on top of the molded red ball. Didn’t want to lose that.

Time passed and Shade would not be able to fully recall what he did during those hours. That usually meant he had fallen asleep, or dozed. Either way, he felt well rested after his run and he sat up, pulling the leftover red ball into his lap. He should eat again, only he dreaded not knowing when he might be fed next. Was it better to eat and nourish the body now, and starve later? Or was it better to linger in the small pains of hunger that never faded, but enjoy the sensation of eating again? Shade opted for the first thought. He’d rather not ‘endure’, he already existed rather than lived. Part of him said there had to be more than this. He knew there was more. Shade had to believe that this wasn’t all there was, otherwise there would be no real reason to wake, eat, sleep, be. Decision made, he took a bite from the red bar at last, finding it as tasteless as the blue. Food was food, and he wasn’t going to refuse it because it was bland. Of course there was still the question of any side effects. Maybe it wasn’t food, but he had nothing else.

Lights flickered, brightening and glowing with a steady increase in intensity. Shade shielded his face with an arm across the face, and that’s when the sandpaper sound returned. A glance to the side revealed another compartment and another pillar. He wasn’t going to waste time, not if there was more food to be had, to save for later. He quickly pushed himself to his feet, half of the red balled bar remained. Small bites were taken even as he shuffled into the other room. The purple bar was noted for the difference in color, but its meaning escaped him. Shade quickly plucked it from the pillar, finding it to have the same texture as the previous bars. He finished eating the red while eyeing this new bar. Feet padded back through the opening to his original compartment, not caring to deal with electric shocks. Red consumed, Shade settled on the floor and sat the purple down a foot in front of him. He faced the opening and kept watch on the sliding wall, his mind counting silently to see how long it took for the wall to close.

One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three… wait. What’s a Mississippi?