How Did We Get Here? [TAG: Kim]

[Noah Hernandez]

Noah felt himself stir out of his slumber. His eyes began to slowly open, still feeling a little heavy, and saw the ceiling staring back at him once more. Despite being awake, he still felt exhausted. His body and mind could hardly function, the lack of sleep finally starting to take its unhealthy side effects. It’s like was back in college all over again, staying up all night to work on his assignments, having no regard for his physical health. He figured it best to lay there for a while, get some more sleep (if he could anyways...).

But then, he realized something. There was something pressing against the right side of his body. It was a feeling he was unfamiliar with, as he had not only slept by himself the past two weeks but for the past three years. The architect, confused by this, turned his head, and was met with messy red hair with violet undertones. Startled, he immediately pushed himself away from the stranger in his bed, and fell to the floor.

THUD

He sat up, completely wide awake now, adjusting his glasses as they nearly fell off from the fall. Noah stood on his feet, observing his room. Except...it wasn’t his room. This room was different. The walls, the decor, even the second bed was missing...and his new ally. Where was Geoff? he wondered. He had just seen the man a day before. They hadn’t talked much since their unpleasant walk conversation, but not enough to not notice each other’s presence! Noah’s gaze fell on the second person in his bed. It was a woman. A young woman in fact. Not just that but a young woman he recognized! She was the same woman he had seen next to the other red headed girl and the brunette. His face blushed, feeling extremely awkward. There was a stranger in his bed and he didn’t even know it! He shook his head, trying to brush that aside. They had bigger concerns at the moment, as in why he and this woman were in this room to begin with.

The architect gently shook her shoulder, saying “Miss? Miss?”, attempting to wake her up.

[Kim Anderson]

The ginger slightly moaned in her sleep, nightmares torturing her feeble psyche once again. Vague memories of the day they got kidnapped flashed in her mind. The fact that she didn't take good care of her self for the past two weeks didn't help either. She ate the bare minimum, she barely slept, forcing herself to keep guard in case something happens to her and her friend.

"Head. Heavy. Must... stay awake," fuzzy thoughts clouded her mind when she felt somebody shaking on her shoulder. "S- Sawyer?" she mumbled and opened her eyes, squinting at the shadowy silhouette framed with the rim of light from the lamp on the celling.

"Miss," Sawyer addressed her in a male voice, and Kim did NOT like that. She opened her eyes wide, freezing in place like a scared bunny. But a moment later she finally noticed some familiar details that felt like she already saw them somewhere... Like the beard or the glasses. Wait, is this the man from the basement corridor? The one that tried to help them to find the way out?! She didn't know his name but the thought that he is one of "us" made her feel safe and her body relaxed back a bit.

"Where is Sawyer?!" she finally replied to him ignoring his calls and propped up from the bed on her elbows. "I have JUST been with her, in a brown room," she stood on all fours and then got out of bed, now looking around the room. "How long have you been awake?!" a wave after wave of realization of what has happened hit her and she did not know how to deal with it, but to walk around the room in circles and zigzags!

Oh, Sawyer. Where are you now?!

[Noah Hernandez]

The girl mumbled something in her sleep, and then her eyes snapped open. She quickly propped herself up.

“Where is Sawyer?!” she cried.

“Sawyer?” Noah questioned. So that must’ve been her roommate…

He could tell from her stressed state that she apparently knew the young psychology student, the two of them most likely being close friends. Perhaps either the red head or the brunette was Sawyer next to this young girl from the basement. The girl continued to panic, saying something about…a brown room? Could she have meant the bronze room he was in? No…that didn’t make any sense. Obviously she wasn’t, but perhaps she was in a room that bore similarities to his and Geoff’s. Now she was standing on her feet, anxiously looking around the room.

“How long have you been awake?!” she asked.

“Not very long,” he answered, stumbling on his words a little bit, “I had woken up just moments before you.” He neglected to mention the part where they were put in the same bed together. She didn’t need to know that embarrassing piece of information.

The redhead spastically moved around the room, continuing to panic even more than before. The architect was at a loss for what to do, he had no idea what would put her at least some ease. 

“Miss? I’m sorry to inform you but I believe Miss Sawyer has been placed elsewhere. From my deductions our kidnapper has been moving us around with different roommates, seeing as my previous roommate is somewhere else as well,” he said. He didn’t know how much that’d help, but clarity always eased him in times of crisis. Then again not everyone was like him.

[Kim Anderson]

When Kim heard her friend's name escape the raven-haired men's lips she turned her attention to him for a moment. "Yes, Sawyer!" she replied, her tone of voice calm but with some worrisome notes in it, "A girl with reddish-brown hair and big brown eyes! Was wearing a baseball teeshirt and sweatpants!" she tried to remember more details, but her mind was still a bit fuzzy from the sleep.

Then after he relied to her another question, she let out a soft groan of frustration. So she was moved into another room just like him, her new "roommate". Fuck. What was the point of this? Why bother to move us around if you can just keep us in our little boxes and feed us so we don't die of hunger until they will need us to take a part in another sick psychological experiment!!

The ginger fidgeted with her hair again, silently processing the new information. "I see," she rose her gaze again to look at the man and gave him a small smile with just the corners of her lips. "I am, eh, ha-ha, sorry for," the girl blushed a bit and rubbed the back of her neck, "Panicking." It was no wonder though. With each passing moment, she felt a bit less like herself and more like a cornered critter.

"Oh, well time to introduced oneself," she thought and her eyes met with the stranger's again. "My name is Kim. Kim Anderson," she smiled at the man and extended her clod from anxiety hand to shake his.

[Noah Hernandez]

Listening to the redhead’s description of Sawyer helped him finally identify what she looked like. So Sawyer was the brunette. That only left the identity of the other redhead. But he couldn’t dwell on that now. For all he knew this young lady was worried about her as well, and he didn’t want to further her stress.

She began to laugh and shyly play with her hair. “I am, eh, ha-ha, sorry for…panicking.”

“Please, no apology needed. It is only natural to feel such things in these type of situations. I should know, I’m well acquainted with a psychologist,” Noah stated.

“My name is Kim. Kim Anderson,” she said, extending her hand.

Kim. Yes, he remembers now. Geoff was frantically asking about her when they made contact with Jessica. He gave her a soft smile back and firmly took her hand. “Noah Hernandez. You wouldn’t happen to be affiliated with a man of the name Geoff Alen, would you?”

Noah figured since Geoff’s own concerns that she would equally be worried about him. It would be good of him to reassure her that the man was in well enough condition. If they knew each other anyways, but he can’t imagine how strange of a coincidence it would be if there were two women by the name of Kim in this bizarre predicament.

[Kim Anderson]

The way this man carried himself somehow made Kim feel safer and calm herself down. She straightened her back and gave Mr. Hernandez a firm, as much as she could, handshake back. Her confidence, however, spiraled away from her seconds later, when Noah asked her if she was familiar with a man called Geoff Alen.

"Is he alright?!" she blurted out again, her eyes filled with worry. "He is-"

Who actually were they? A man she had a crush on because older guys acting all cool are considered by the demographic of young girls such as herself hot?! Is that IT? No. It was... more than that. She cared about him. And more than just a "hey, u cool" coffee-buddy level which were 99% of her relatives with a few rare exceptions.

And she truly felt betrayed when he pointed that gun at her... and they never got a chance to talk about it since.

"I- I know him, yes," she finished her sentence, feeling a bit ashamed for her reaction.

Gosh, this place makes her act out of line.

[Noah Hernandez]

“Is he alright?! He is -“ The young redhead stopped herself. “I - I know him, yes.”

Noah smiled sadly, “Well I feel it best to inform you that he was my previous roommate, and was quite worried about you as well. As far as I know, he is alright.”

The architect then paused for a moment…the two clearly cared about each other, that much was obvious. So she has the right to know about what happened to him. To them. What’s really going on here.

“Ms Anderson…I’m not sure if you’ve been made aware but…Geoff was forced to attend a wedding ceremony with a woman by the name of Hannah van de Berg…as groom and wife. It was the cost of this survival game the two were apart of. I was a witness to it, as was another woman by name of Katherine,” Noah explained. “Our kidnapper’s goal in all this, it seems, is to put us through survival scenarios and for the winners to be wed against their will.”

He hoped as to not overwhelm her, but it was better than being blissfully unaware until she experiences it herself. At least she would be slightly prepared for it.

[Kim Anderson]

Kim's eyebrows knitted in worry and slight panic when Mr. Hernandez told her that apparently after the "unfortunate events" that unfolded in the "game time room" they got together. Remembering now what Ethan has told her, she put two and two together, following the timeline of Geoff's misadventures clearly.

"Geoff was forced to attend a wedding ceremony with a woman by the name of Hannah van de Berg," and there it was! Those were the same words she heard from her frenemy back then, that sleepless night. However the ginger didn't need to state this info to Noah and interrupt him, so she just silently nodded and let the man finish his speech. Seemed like this "wedding" was the last bit of information about Geoff AND the person whoever was behind this - and their aparent motives - so far...

"I see,... Hmm-m," she took a small pause, before continuing."And- what happened after the... "wedding"?" the girl asked him cautiously. The answer would probably be "I don't know" but it's always better to ask than not to ask.

[Noah Hernandez]

After the wedding…it was hard to say. Time blurred together in this place so much that he couldn’t really put an order of events on everything. The most prominent thing was his conversation with Nameless, but he didn’t want to delve into that. No, not yet. Kim didn’t need to hear his problems and the stresses he was dealing with personally.

“We were sent back to our rooms. Geoff and I had a conversation with two young women next to us by the name of Jessica and Emer, but other than that nothing prominent happened,” Noah said.

[Kim Anderson]

The ginger girl couldn't help herself but hug her arms around her body in discomfort as her heart skipped a beat. "Jessica," the name of her best friend echoed inside her mind. Could it be? There couldn't be another Jessica here, right? The woman felt as if her head started spinning, memories of the past few weeks flying through her mind. The tape. The basement. Aoi. The red room. Sawyer. Brown. And now red again.

"I see," she finally replied calmly, but her eyes spoke quite differently. She was looking around her in perplexity, not knowing once again what her next step should be or how she should continue this conversation. She was grateful to have such a roommate as Noah who would so precisely inform her about everything, he... he didn't seem like the type who would lie or hide something from her. She felt she could trust him! But she couldn't help but to feel a bit overwhelmed... and lost.

Kim needed to be alone for a moment.

"I- I'll take a shower and be right back, alright?" she blurted out with a small smile of hers and headed towards the bathroom, but before entering, she stopped and turned her head to take one last look at the raven-haired man.

"Mr. Hernandez," she addressed him, her eyes darted from the floor back to his coal-black, "Thank you. For being honest with me and for your help."

[Noah Hernandez]

Noah gave the young redhead a gentle smile, “Of course Ms. Anderson.”

She walked into the bathroom and he sat on the bed, thinking to himself. It was hard to say what would come about through all of this. This was so…unpredictable to him, but he could only hope that he could do whatever he can to make sure no one gets hurt.

None of them deserve this, those horrible feelings of the unknown, the threat of being hurt, of being forced to marry.

None of them.

[End of Thread]