A few days ago, @lorilikes challenged me to a little cooperative storytelling. While I don't have much experience writing stories, I thought I would give it a try.

The story so far:
Fluctuations: Prologue

Chapter 1

I remember that things had been good. I had a family, friends, and a job. Nothing was perfect or simple, but I had a good life. Then everything changed when the doctor told me I had three months to live. Suddenly happiness switched to urgency and desperation. How to compress the rest of my life into three months? Desperation drove me to volunteer for an experimental treatment: ITS, which I believe stood for "Isolated Temporal Stasis." The treatment offered me a chance for a complete cure. As they put me to sleep I realized that I had discovered hope again.

Why do I smell smoke? Why is it so dark? The side of the metal bed felt cold as I grabbed it. I sat up and looked around. A single flickering emergency light lit the room in an eerie glow. As I sat up, I watched the smoke curl up from under the door. My legs wobbled unsteadily as I stood up. In two steps I could see myself in a clouded mirror. I ran my hand through my hair, why was it so much longer? My hands ran over the material of my beige jumpsuit, feeling the unfamiliar fabric. Nothing made sense.

The door was still cool to the touch, so I gently opened the door. Tendrils of smoke curled their way down the hall. Failing emergency lights provided the only illumination. I instinctually headed away from the smoke down the hall. As I stumbled around a corner, a cracked screen imbedded in the wall lit up. On the screen appeared a bone white female face, almost like a mannequin. The eyes were empty and void of life. The image flickered, then spoke in a scratchy robotic voice:

"UNIDENTIFIED SPECIMEN NUMBER 81528 PLEASE REPORT TO CLASSIFICATION. WARNING ERROR PLEASE EVACUATE FIRE 81528. PLEASE REPORT TO CLASSIFICATION. FIRE WARNING ERROR, PLEASE REPORT CLASSIFICATION."

The words continued to grow more jumbled. I stopped listening as I stumbled away from the video, almost tripping over some machine parts that littered the ground. I felt the heat on my face before I noticed the fire crackling and growing in strength down the hall. It was all too much, so I ran the other direction until I burst through a pair of think double doors and everything just got stranger.

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