Grey had frozen for a moment in the room with their names. It was reaassuring to see that the other three had gone through as well. He pulled himself out of his stupor and made his way through his own door as well. It was dark and before the door shut behind him, he resolved himself to facing whatever fear he should face with his normal strength and bravado. What he didn't expect to find when the door shut and everything was dark, was a light at the end of a tunnel. He followed the path toward the light, toward a new life.
When he emerged he noticed that it was a cave from which he was emerging, but when he looked back the cave was significantly more shallow than what he had just walked. As he looked out among the light he saw a farm, and there was a woman tending to chores at a house near the farm. She was absolutely gorgeous to Grey. Somehow he felt he knew her too. She noticed him standing at the entrance and began to wave to him. He waved back and began to approach her. As he approached her he wondered how he knew her. Then it hit him. She was his love! His love? Of course she was his love. It felt so natural. He had a crush on her ever since he was a pre-teen. This was her father's farm that he had been working on for the past several years. As he got closer to her he greeted her with a 'Hello lovely' before moving on to tend to the farm. He would have liked to kiss her, but she was old fashioned and saving that for her wedding of which Grey was determined to become the man.
As the day was drawing nigh another man began to approach the farm. He seemed to know this one as well. The man's face became more clear as he got closer. It was his best friend! He had known him since he was little. They did everything together and knew everything about each other. Both his love and his friend went out that night to eat together and enjoy each others company. This went on for many years between the three of them. Grey eventually married the woman and they had several children together. Grey spent countless hours with his friend working, hunting and occasionally playing as well. Their lives seemed great until they became old.
Grey's lover and friend had both grown old and feeble in the long years. Somehow Grey had not. He watched as both of them died before him to the effects of time. There was nothing he could to stop it either. He took the pain of loss and tried to move on. He still had his children and even a few grandchildren as well. He loved them as much as anything too, but surely they grew old without him as well. His family continued to grow larger in number and continued to age and pass without him. The numbers of lost loved ones was growing rapidly.
He soon got tired of his farming lifestyle and moved towards the ocean. Sailing had become more popular and seemed like a call he was meant for. He met another woman and married her as well in hopes to forget his lost ones. He made many friends with his crewmates and became as close with them as his original friend. He started a family again and couldn't look more forward to getting home to meeting them after his ocean treks. Sure enough again they grew old without him. Some of his friends and family were even dying in accidents and wars. After many years of love and loss he moved on again trying to move on.
He joined the navy during a war. Again he became friends with those around him. He was just a friendly guy and his ability to love was endless. That's what the women around him began to say too. He met many women at the ports he stopped at and loved them all ferventy as well. The war took a brutal turn though. His ship was attacked and sunk just outside of a port which he watched burn to the ground as well. He was captured as a prisoner of war and mercilessly tortured for years as well. Eventually his side won the war and he was freed, but the numbers of his losses were crippling and there was nothing he could do about it. He tried to keep strong and move on, but it didn't even feel like strength anymore to move on. He was just letting his loved ones die.
He couldn't stop loving though. His life continued on endessly following the same pattern. He tried to find new joys, but the rate at which they perished was exhausting. Death after death, going on an on, he wanted to stop it somehow, but there was nothing. No bravery, no strength could stop any of it. People died every moment of plagues, starvation, war, murder, greed and endless other obscenities. Why couldn't he stop any of it. It didn't even feel like he could try to stop any of it, everything was so hopeless, and every death hurt as much as the loss of his original two loves. He just came to love people in and of themselves.
Then the worst struck. After a millenia, monsters began to appear in the world causing all measures of destruction and chaos. Beasts similar to Cthulhu, Bahamat and the four horsemen brought about a great apocolypse in the world. Grey watched as the people of the world were tortured, molested and mutilated. With the world burning around him, he began to call out the names of all the people and loved ones that were dying. His heart was a palpitating mess.
Eventually he saw a face that was different. It stood behind a lone standing glass door, surrounded by the fiery red world as well. The face on the other side looked more solemn and possibly careless. Grey opened his mouth to call his name as well.
"Ricardo!" He sobbed. "Ricardo?" His sobbing slowed and he puzzled. "Ricardo!" He shouted again a little more cheerfully. "RICARDO!!" Camilla and Abby appeared behind Ricardo as well. "THOSE GIRLS!!" Grey was remembering everything real again. "This isn't real, I'm not real! Well I'm probably real, but all I have to do is get out of here. Adam you prick, get out here and tell me what to do!!" His heart had begun to calm again, and as he stepped through the glass door, the world changed to that of a white hallway. Ricardo and the girls had disappeared along with everything else. As he looked back he saw a fiery red world disappear behind a thick metal door. Grey didn't try to re-open it, but he was sure it wouldn't anyways. The memories of what was true rushed back to him. He thought he was fearless, but that sort of helplessness brought about fears he didn't fully understand. When he thought back, it felt like nothing more than a strange dream. The feeling seemed to linger a bit withing him, but he did well to pass it off. His sense of time felt a bit distorted. Like reality had only passed a few hours, while a dream sent him through countless lifetimes. Nonetheless he remembered that he needed to get through these hardships to reach the truth about this strange world.
