The faint sound of my own breathe woke me up. I was laying down the floor, my whole body curled up like a ball, embryonic amid blankness. I didn't recall what I did before I slept or how I slept or what happened when I was asleep. But I definitely had a sense that something happened. Moving around, I realized that my clothes were drenched in sweat, and also that I bruised myself somewhere along my upper cheek. I felt it with my fingers, and it felt swollen. Nearly the circumference of a typical yo-yo, it stung whenever I pressed on it. I looked at my fingers but there was no blood so I felt slightly relieved. Seeing that I could see my hands better, I looked around elsewhere but everything still seemed blurry and white. The diamond ring, which I could still sharply envision, was resting a little further from me. Its presence seemed like a wild, deadly animal patiently waiting for its prey. After all it was the diamond ring that caused all of this hypnosis.

Slowly, I got up from the floor and walked around. I was able to walk. Nothing forced me or held me anymore. Right then I didn't know where in the world my body was going through. Someone was probably controlling my brain, I thought. But my id was completely identical to my action so there was no way anybody was controlling me. I wanted to walk and I was walking. 

I continued to aimlessly wander around, trying to get a hold of myself. Afraid of causing more trouble, I walked past the diamond ring, not willing to get closer to that haunted piece of jewelry. There were no exits, no windows, no doors. Just a world indulged in white. The more I walked, the more I felt like I was just wandering around in circles. This place was like a perpetual world. I looked down at my feet but they only looked like two lumps of some unknown substance. Nothing was clear to me but the diamond ring. I didn't know if there were even any lights. Something was sustaining this brightness but I couldn't tell what exactly was. I stretched out my arms in front of me, then reached for the sky, letting out all the excess stress. Time was passing by in a flash in this little world. My body ached in so many places. The lump on my cheek continued to sting and my body began to shiver from my drenched clothes. Right then my head suddenly leaned back a little bit. My heavy body unconsciously went with the force, as I felt a brief pain around my back. Before I knew it, my feet were not touching the ground. I felt like I was stretched out on some wall but I couldn't tell. I tried to walk but my feet were not touching anything so I couldn't move. My back was on something, preferably something flat, like a wall. I was laying down on something. Gravity was holding me back. A hard, flat surface was holding me back. A wall. Carefully, I helped myself upright and stared into space. Looking at blurred, picturesque pixels of white, I found out that I must have fainted. 

Time flew, it seemed. I felt like a blind animal caged and locked in a cargo plane. Only that I also felt that I was going to be locked in here forever. I couldn't see, I couldn't eat, I couldn't drink, I couldn't anything. Three days have past, I felt, since I was first locked in here. The diamond ring must have some power. Asami must have done something to me. I think I was on the floor, cringed into a ball again. Shutting my eyes took me into a world of blackness, and opening them would take me into this white, blurry world. The difference in contrast was epic, and it wasn't so healthy for my vision. Thus I avoided shutting my eyes. "What was wrong with the world," I said out loud. 

"Good question," someone said out of nowhere. 

Reality stopped when it produced a sound. The air suddenly felt thicker. A faint hush of unnatural wind scurried towards my direction. Something grey was getting bigger and bigger. Slowly, it took into the shape of a human, its head, its body, its arms, and its legs all formed rather accurately. But just by thinking about where I was, the odds of it being a human was very low. In fact it could be some alien or some unidentified organism. I rubbed my eyes but I couldn't see any clearer. My eyes must have gotten worse by the minute. I moved back, but the grey blur did not change its size. It was probably moving forward whenever I stepped back.  

"You must wonder where you are," it said.

It was no humanly voice. It sounded very artificial. Not clear. Not eloquent. The pauses between the words were unnatural and had no flow. I had no intention of replying, but I felt that I needed to. I was tired, and my  entire body was hunched in sheer exhaustion. Just opening my mouth made me want to throw up, but I carefully replied,

"I've been trying to find out where I was for a long time."

"You have been here for a long time," it said. "You must be starved."

"As if I wasn't." I said. "Can you just tell me where I am?"

The gray blur seemed like it moved its right hand and tilted its head. After, it replied, "You are in a mirrored realm in a cloned planet." 

"I am in a what?" 

"I'm sure it is very hard for you to grasp what you are hearing from me," it said, "but it's something that you will need to know for general reference."

"Well talk."

"You see, you are not in that planet where humans are mainly associated in."

"Earth, you mean?"

"Yes, Earth. You are not in Earth; you're in another planet orbiting around somewhere else. It's a very special and secret place where it is impossible to locate. Not even the top researchers in NASA could even find out about this planet, because it is completely hidden and unidentifiable in human existence."

"Fabulous. Absolutely fabulous."

"You and I are in the mantle of this planet." it continued. 

I could think of nothing else but to stare at the unfocused gray blur. 

"This planet also mirrors your conscious actions," it went on.

"Which is why I can't see?"

"Exactly," it blurted. "Your natural features are for you to be able to clearly see things with your eyes. But in this world, it is mirrored. In other words, even though things may, in some cases, seem the same, everything is flipped and is the complete opposite. That's why your vision is blurred."

"Can you explain, then, why I can clearly see the diamond ring?"

"The diamond ring is the soul of this planet. It is what keeps us alive in a continuum. Without it, we would die immediately. So it is essential that it is visible to us so we will be able to survive in this world."

"What would happen if it got crushed or suddenly became blurred from our vision?"

"This world would fade away, and we'd die in an instant."

"Who's ring is it?" I said.

"For now, we have no idea. But it has been passed around to several different organisms who possess special qualities."

"Wait, what do you mean 'we'? How many people are present in this planet?"

"Just the two of us. I am the person who makes sure the planet is fine. I watch the ring for the most part and keep the planet in healthy condition. As I told you before, this planet is hidden. Nobody could automatically come here. If it weren't for the ring you have discovered, you wouldn't have been able to get here as well." 

"What about Asami? Is she affiliated with this world?" I asked.

The grey blur remained silent. "That is something I cannot tell you right this moment."

"Why not?" I said.

No answer.

"What are you?" I said, trying to change the subject.

"I am a resident of this planet," it said. "I was born here."

"From whom?"

"The diamond ring. With the mixture of strong magnets and momentum inside the diamond, I was able to become existent. The diamond decides when it wants to create these substances. After all the diamond created this planet. It does all the work. I am technically a substance native to this planet."

"So am I considered to be a substance just like you then?"

"It appears so," it said. 

"That's just wonderful."

"Don't fret," it said. "The more you stay here, the more you get used to the mirror and eventually, you'll be able to see everything much more vividly."

"You mean you can see everything perfectly? Even my face?"

"Everything."

I continued to stand in front of the grey blur, pressing my blurred temples with my blurred fingers. Then, I told it, "Is there any way I could get myself back to the real world? Earth?"

"The likelihood is very low, but you may have a chance." 

"Please explain."
"Destroy the diamond. Don't get me wrong, though. Breaking this ring is harder than it may seem. If you somehow are able to destroy it, all life in this world will also be annihilated, which means that you might also be affected. In other words, you and I might die when you destroy it."
"Isn't there any other way?" I said.
"I'm afraid not. There is absolutely nothing in this planet but rocks and sheets of white. This planet does not follow any calendar, nor does this planet ever need to. It's a world of nothingness. If you are extremely eager to get out of this planet, you're going to have to find out a way to destroy it. Nothing else."