I followed them, periodically touching them to make sure they were still wet.

The dots led to the train station, which was packed with people heading out on their morning commute. I followed the dots into the main area of the station and then they stopped. There were no more. Desperately, I looked around for any trace of the bright color. I saw a flash of it in one hallway, but it was just a floor tile. There was another flash of it in the opposite hallway, and even though I had no clue if this was a person or not, I raced down the hall.

Moving quickly through the hallway was a challenge. I bumped into people left and right, forgetting that they couldn't see me and had no way to avoid me. I saw no trace of the bright color from earlier, so I just ran desperately. People yelled at me as I bumped into them but at this point, I didn't care. I ran until I was in a less crowded hallway. Here, I still had to dodge people, but it was easier. Towards the end of the hall, there was only one person. I went to the left to avoid them, but just as I did that, they veered to the left too, almost as if they were trying to dodge me! We crashed and hit the floor at the same time.

It was a person in a sweatshirt with a hood that looked like it used to be pulled low over their face, but slid up. The hoodie had bright paint splattered all over it. I looked towards their eyes, and our eyes met. They looked down the hall and back at my eyes repeatedly, yanked their hood over their face, then got up and ran.

"Wait!" I called after them, sprinting to catch up. The hallway had filled up a bit and dodging everyone slowed me down, but I still caught up.

"Hey. Hey! Why are you running? I know you can-"

"Shut. Up. Don't finish that sentence." The person snapped at me as they clamped their hand down over my mouth. They looked around frantically, grabbed my arm, and started to pull me out of the station.

"But what about.." I trailed off as they tightened their grip on my arm and continued to drag me. Eventually, we got to a small, deserted alley outside the station.

"Ok," I said, yanking my arm away from their grip, "what the heck is going on here?"

"If you want to know, follow me. Silently." The person started to walk away down the alley. I followed closely behind. I was close enough to hear bits and pieces of their muttering. Something about "the one person" "can't follow directions" "why did it have to be the one stupid person". I think they're talking about me, I thought to myself.

"Hey! I'm not stupid! I found you didn't I?"

"What part about silent do you not understand? You're only proving my point more," they hissed at me. I decided it might be a good idea to shut up. We wandered through back alley after back alley, into the area no one ever explored. The person seemed to know every inch of the alleys perfectly though. We ducked into a doorway that I didn't even notice and emerged in a room that looked like the living room in my house. There was a couch, coffee table, a pile of blankets in the corner, and a small kitchen. Quickly peeking outside, the person shut the door and pulled off the hood of their sweatshirt. I was surprised to see a kid like me. I guessed that he was around my age.

"You can talk here. It should be safe." He said to me, flopping onto the couch.

"What... did you? What..." I stammered in confusion.

"Know what, just stay silent for another minute or two. Thanks." The boy said to me as he laid his arms over his eyes. Seeing as he didn't really want to be bothered I walked over to the kitchen area of the room. I was pretty hungry, as I hadn't eaten all day, so I started to slowly wander about, picking up random items, looking them over and putting them down. I got to a long, crescent shaped thing and picked it up. It was a color I hadn't seen before. It was bright, not aggressively bright like the color of the paint, and it wasn't flat bright like the fence color. It was an energetic color that looked kind of unnatural, but at this point how did I know what was natural or not?

"You can eat that if your hungry." The boy called from the sofa.

"What is it?" I asked. The thing felt familiar, I just couldn't put my finger on it.

"It's a banana. Have you never seen a banana before?" he called.

Oh. It's a banana. Weird. Bananas taste duller than this color.
"Well actually, I haven't seen anything before today." I said as I walked back to the
couch, peeling the banana. I sat on the edge of the coffee table, facing the boy.

"So," I started, "what the actual heck is going on here?"

"Ok. So, basically, the world you live in is a simulation of sorts."

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