Spencer Williams awoke to the smell of lemons stinging his nostrils. The scent was unfamiliar, for he had not done anything to make his room smell like lemons. He barely even liked the smell of lemons. Why the hell did it smell like lemons?
The scent was enough to wake Spencer from his slumber…He felt like he had been sleeping for ages. But soon enough, his eyelids fluttered awake. A ping of sharp, bright light infiltrated his retinas the moment he came into life.
“What the hell?” he groaned as he used his arms to prop himself up on the bed. It took him a few moments to get used to the severity of the scent and brightness of the room, but soon he was adjusted.
Spencer was placed in a mild sense of confusion. First, his room never possessed the scent of lemons. Ever. Second, his room was never that bright. Even if you opened up his curtains and blinds completely, not enough sunlight could get in to cause that amount of brightness. The house that resided next to his would have stopped that.
On top of it all, he wasn’t even in his room. As his eyes darted around his new surroundings, all he could see was white nothingness. There were no specific and concrete details. Everything blended in with each other. He wasn’t even sure if he was on a bed. There was nothing around him, yet it felt as if everything was around him.
“Good morning,” a voice boomed throughout the void. The voice itself seemed to have belonged to a female. It was higher in pitch, yet still lower in that register. “In case you have experienced a loss of memory, your name is Spencer Jonathan Williams, you are 16 years old and your birthday is,”
“I know who I am,” Spencer quickly interrupted, “Thank you very much.” The voice snickered throughout the air, as it seemed to find something amusing.
“Well I guess you didn't lose that much memory,” the voice, who Spencer could still not clearly identify, shot back, “I was hoping you wouldn’t.”
“What do you mean by that?” Spencer questioned as his eyes ran around the room. There was no source of the voice. He could not even hear a source from which the voice could have come from. It just came from everywhere. “Why am I here?”
“You have been selected,” the voice began to explain, “For a wonderful experiment.”
“I didn't sign up for an experiment,” Spencer quickly interjected, “Get me out of here.” Spencer began to hassle out of the “bed” but he soon remembered that he could not see anything in this room, and caution took the best of him.
“It’s just going to feel like a game,” the voice continued, “Trust me. It will be fun, and I will help you along the way.” Spencer, who realized that he was not going anywhere anytime soon, reluctantly gave in.
“What do I have to do?” he asked. The voice, which still hadn't replied, let out a delighted moan.
“It’s simple,” it said, “In front of you, two doors shall appear.” As if on cue, two twin opal doors appeared from the air. The two of them were identical in shape and design. Several glass-like colors seemed to bounce off them as light hit them in every direction. “You will go through one of them today. Beyond these two doors are two different worlds. One of them is real… One of them is imaginary. Your task is to live in both these worlds. Then, at the end of a certain period of time, you will tell me which of these worlds is real, and which one is imaginary. It is as simple as that.”
“What is this for?” Spencer questioned. He was not about to do some random science experiment without knowing the meaning behind it. He was not about to be used.
“You are special, Spencer. You have an imagination unlike any other,” the voice explained, “You are the only one who would help us. Just trust us, and you will be rewarded.” Spencer, agitated as he was, forced himself off the bed, and let himself land on the floor of pure white. His clothes, were all plain and white, and blended into the background of the void. The only thing that threw it off was his pale skin, which could have almost been as white as the rest of it.
“So I just step through one of the doors… and then what?” Spencer asked as he inched closer and closer to the twin set of opal doors.
“You will live two completely different, yet normal lives,” the voice explained. “You will do average, everyday things. In both worlds, you will step into the life of Spencer Jonathan Williams, yourself. You will find that you have had a life in both world before this moment.”
Spencer let his hand rub his forehead in confusion. If he had a life in both worlds, how was one real and one was not?
“I do not understand,” Spencer said, “One of these worlds is completely fabricated, yet I have lived in it?”
“I will explain it all in due time,” the voice replied, “But we need to start the task. We are not doing any good waiting around here.” Spencer sighed at the voice’s sudden need for punctuality.
“Fine,” Spencer said, “Which door do I go through?”
“It’s your choice,” the voice answered. “Your journey begins now.” Spencer reluctantly made his way to the foot of both doors. The opal doors were so similar…They were exactly the same. How could he choose. “Make your choice.”
Reluctantly, Spencer’s thin hand gripped onto the doorknob to the right door and turned it open. The door opened, and the light that shone through was brighter than the white room he resided in. His eyes shot closed, and he stepped through without hesitation.
He could have sworn that he heard voices behind him as he stepped through… but something was pulling him forward, and he knew it was too late.
