The apartment building hallway wasn’t my apartment building hallway. Some of it was familiar. Stucco walls, neon lighting, and a grey carpet that had been getting browner with each passing year, but the layout was different.

  The entrance to my place had always been directly across from the stairs leading up half a floor to the small vestibule that served as the main entrance to the complex. It was sometimes a pain trying to nap or sleep because the sound of people tramping up and down the stairs would bleed through my doorway. Now, I was looking at a bare wall with a corridor leading left and right.

  I poked my head into the corridor, looking up and down the now singular path. Nothing seemed to be moving, and now that I thought about it, it was extremely quiet. There were apartment doors dotted along the hallway, but they seemed oddly spaced and lacked identifying numbers.

  One thing that seemed to be the same was the location of the small laundry nook that was normally located to the right of the stairs across the hall. As it didn’t have a door, I could see part of the floor’s single dryer sitting there as usual, its display showing the amount for a load.

  I looked at the cell again to see if it had conveyed any more information. There were no new notifications, but I did notice that the time had not changed from 8:07 AM since this whole thing started.

  Something came over me and I stepped into the corridor, the door slamming shut behind me. I hadn’t intentionally stepped out. It was like something had grown impatient and pulled me through the doorframe.

  I panicked and turned around, attempting to get back into my apartment, but the knob would not turn.

  Text flashed in front of my eyes, but this time it stayed in view long enough for me to read it.

  You may not return to your home until you clear the floor. Management

  “Shit, shit, shit!” I rattled the knob on the door. It shook in the frame, but it would not open.

  I tried kicking the door, painfully jamming my toes and sending a shock of pain through me. I realized I hadn’t even put on shoes before I was pulled out here and only had socks between me and the floor.

  As the pain from the kick rattled through my body, a new thing popped up in my vision. If I focused on the lower right, I could see three very real-looking hearts pumping away. While two of the hearts were complete, one seemed to be half greyed out.

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  “Fuck, you have to be kidding me!”

  I was suddenly distracted by the phone dinging with another notification.

  Tip - Collect hearts to regain health! Management

  I shook my head in denial and tried the door again. Still locked.

  I closed my eyes and centered myself again, going through the situation over and over in my mind. No matter how I thought about it, I could only come to the conclusion that I was stuck in some sort of RPG-type environment.

  I went over what I knew. As unreal as it was, right now I was stuck outside my apartment with no way back inside unless I cleared the floor. What did “clearing the floor” mean?

  If I was in an RPG dungeon of some sort, then that meant clearing mobs, avoiding traps, and possibly fighting a boss at the end of the floor.

  I thought about fighting. I took a few boxing lessons when I was in the military, but that was about the extent of it. I kept myself fit, but I was never really a scrapper.

  If it was a dungeon, then I’d have to find a weapon of some kind.

  At the thought of a weapon, I suddenly felt something cold and metal in my hand. Looking at my right hand, I saw it now held a fork.

  “Son of a...” I said, looking at it.

  As I studied the utensil, bright blue brackets formed an outline around it. Text formed underneath.

  Kitchen Fork - Very Common - Half-Heart Damage [BOUND]

  I was armed with a bloody fork of all things? If I encountered monsters, what was I going to do? Stab them with a fork? Maybe go for an eyeball?

  No matter what, I had to do something. The laundry nook seemed like the most normal thing about this situation, so I’d at least start by looking around in there.

  I moved across the hallway and poked my head around the corner so I could see the full extent of the little alcove. Along with the dryer I had spotted earlier, a laundry sink sat in between that and a front-load washer. Both appeared normal at first glance. As I looked closer, I could see something propped up against the glass of the washer, but from this angle, I couldn’t tell what it was.

  I checked the corridor again before stepping into the alcove and approached the washer. I bent down to look through the glass, but I still couldn’t make out whatever was pressed up against the plexiglass.

  I pulled the handle and popped it open.

  All I saw was a white blur launching out of the machine and latching right onto my neck. Pain shot through me as the hearts in the lower part of my vision began to flash. By reflex, I moved my hands to whatever it was that had latched on and instinctively tried to pull it off. My fingers struggled to grasp what felt like thick, slimy flesh as I thrashed, trying to throw whatever it was off me.

  The hearts continued to flash, and I continued to struggle. I felt needle-like jaws clamping into me, tearing my throat. It was more pain than I had ever felt before. My vision began to black out.

  In a last desperate attempt, I tried stabbing the thing with my fork, but I couldn’t find the strength to even lift my arms.

  The hearts flashed once again, all three of them now greyed out. My vision faded completely to black as I crumpled to the floor.