Tracy Scott

You were walking around the city, the usual crazy neon of everything, things looking odd and distorted too as per usual. At this point you'd lived here so long you were used to it, the locals, everything about the city as was. The locals had no faces, parts of them making no sense, lines not adding up, textures blurred and smudged, you'd never seen anyone around with a face aside from yourself. But even still, not every mirror reflected your reflection right. The only thing that helped you see yourself as you were was the reflection of glass being reflected right. You couldn't seem your reflection in water without it rippling, mirrors smudging your face blank like those of the locals. You fiddled with one of your nails for a moment before your eyes locked on a building you hadn't seen before. The sign was of course distorted, text didn't exist here besides the things you'd write down yourself. You headed for the building, it looked like a skating rink? Maybe? You weren't sure if it was roller skating or ice skating. Oh well, you'd figure it out when you walked inside based on the general temperature of the building. It started to rain as you entered, water drops reflecting the neon lights from everywhere around you. You walk in, eyes widening as you notice this was a roller skating rink! Sure, you were down to roller skate! You walk up to the entrance, a small room that had a window with a person behind it. You weren't surprised they had no face, so you went on with your business and paid them to skate about 3 hours. As soon as you opened the black door into the skating arena, the sound of daft punk music hit your ears, bright neon colors glowing, people skating, talking, having fun. Your eyes flicked over to the cafe where booths sat, many full where people ate. Them having no faces, they'd put the food to where their mouths would be, the food seeming to warp, connect to their face and suddenly flick off into nothing, the food disappearing but they seemed to be eating. You looked over to the skating rink, eyes widening as you saw a man skating backwards with particular ease. It was... extremely impressive!! You suddenly let out a gasp as you saw him better. A FACE!! HE HAD A FACE!!

You were out walking the city, neon lights bright in your face as you looked up at the sky. That black sky that was never day. Not ever once had the sky been any brighter than a dark purple being lit up by the city lights. Not once had it been day, ever. It was raining, purple reflecting in the droplets and making it appear that the rain was purple itself. Maybe it was, you couldn't tell. You took out your phone to check the time: 6:24 pm. One thing about any cellular device here was that if you tried to pull up a map of the world, nothing else would appear besides this city and this city only. You refuse to leave, you were scared that maybe nothing was outside of this city... never mind it, the city wasn't unpleasant at all, you liked it even if nothing made sense. It was... home. In a way. You walk into the VHS store. How'd you know it was the VHS store? Signs never said text, only weird, distorted scribbles. You'd been here enough times to know. You walked in, turning to the counter to spot a man standing there, 'reading' a magazine as he chewed gum and tapped his finger. He had a face, unlike all the other locals which was... a good palate cleanser to say the least. He looked up at the ding of the bell, looking at you before a smile split his face happily. "Heyo! Anything I could help you find dude man?" He looked a bit surprised himself to see someone that didn't look like the usual local.

You had just gotten home to your apartment. Your... distorted, odd looking apartment... but at least you could still make out the necessities of the rooms and what you'd need to survive. Yeah uhm... life's great. Sure yeah, it was the same thing every day. Get up, eat breakfast, watch tv, wander around town and find something to do, eat dinner, go home. Nothing ever changed. Same, faceless locals that never really interacted with you, same distorted everything, same neon lights, same rain, same sky, same lonely life with no one to acknowledge you really. You really started to question if you were really living, you felt like maybe this was a dream. You felt like there was more to it, maybe something else existed outside of this that just, made... sense? No, no. How dare you question 'sense'. Nothing made sense, nothing ever made sense and that's okay, that's just how everything was. But you still couldn't shake the feeling there was something not too far away that was less of a headache. Whatever, you're tired. It's late, it's nearly 12 am and you had your usual schedule ahead of you tomorrow you needed to rest for. Plus, your dreams were an escape from your boring life, and your bed was comfy too. You curl up and shut your eyes, a fan on in the corner of your room. The only time you got any other color from the usual purple and neons of life was the black of shutting off all your lights when it was time to sleep. You liked when it was different like this. You didn't notice you had fallen asleep until you suddenly woke up in a cold sweat. You turned on your side in panic to look at your door which was wide open. The glow of yellow and pink light leaked in from the hall outside. Someone was in your apartment. You turn your head to get up when you were suddenly met face to face with a black figure standing over you in your bed. You couldn't get up, their feet and hands holding you down. They breathed heavily, an eerie, strange distorted sound coming from the person. It couldn't have been a local, locals never entered other's houses. What really scared you was... th-they had a face... they had a face, no one ever had a face but the only part of this person's face you could make out was a widely blown eye, pupil and iris completely black as it bored into your own, a huge, yellow and red smile of many many uneven teeth glinting at you. Definitely not a local, locals didn't have faces. The figure leaned in, it's teeth grazing your ear as it whispered. "Shhhhhhhh... don't be scared, you... I don't hurt people..." It sounded like a man's voice, quivering and high.

You just entered a restaurant that you had stopped at for lunch, looking around the exterior for a moment, admiring the place. It was neon of course, like everything else, but most of it was black like the walls, tables, and chairs, but most things were outlined in neon lights, mainly of orange, pink, purple and white. It looked pretty neat, you hadn't been here so you decided to sit down since it was one of those 'sit wherever you'd like' places. After a bit, a faceless waiter came up to you to take your order, a local of course. You placed your order and waited for what was shorter than you expected. When you got your food, you watched as the texture shifted and warped just like every other food. That's how it was here, everything weird, strange textures, malformed people and objects, but you could still make out what was vital for living. After you finished eating, you left a five dollar tip and got up to leave. For whatever reason, you really were up for the arcade about a block from here. Why? After you had just ate? Why not, nothing made sense so what was stopping you? You hurried off, buying yourself some tickets to get yourself on arcade machines. You played a few before a particularly bright sign caught your attention, 'LAZER TAG'. Wow. That was probably the first ever sign you'd seen with eligible words that were readable! As you walked closer to a sign on the wall, words started to form the closer you got. You read them over realizing they were laser tag game times! Overjoyed that there was finally something you could read, you checked the times, and it seemed a game was conveniently started in about 2 minutes! You hurried into the rules room, sitting there for a bit till some other people walked in. They were all locals, faceless per usual, pretty much npcs. Bored by the rules, you were eventually directed into a vest room where you suited up, the glow of the vests and fake guns reflecting in your eyes that no one else had. You checked your player name on the tiny screen on your gun. 'City Hunter'. Wasn't that an old anime? Either way, cool name. Your attention was suddenly drawn to a flash of a laser in your eye and you quickly turned to look at who had done it. Someone with... someone with a face!! You gasped as the doors to the arena were opened, the guy smiling and nodding at you. "May the best person with a face win. Rock it!" He hurried off into the arena on swift feet, leaving you in the dust of the vest room.