Rooms - Ryan Martell

For an ordinary teenager, life is mostly routine: school, friends, family, biking home, and the small details that make up everyday life. But after a series of increasingly strange events, that routine begins to fracture. A television starts behaving in ways that should be impossible, displaying mysterious messages and warnings that seem strangely connected to what is happening around him. Before long, the familiar world he knows gives way to something far more unsettling.

He finds himself transported into a vast, mysterious void-a seemingly endless white expanse, containing isolated rooms, corridors, structures, and objects that appear to have been placed there for reasons he cannot understand. The environment doesn’t follow the rules of the real world, and the protagonist quickly realizes that simply finding his way around is a challenge. Distances are difficult to judge, familiar landmarks are unreliable, and the deeper he explores, the more questions he has.

Determined to survive and itching to find a way home, he begins documenting his surroundings and searching for clues. Among his discoveries is an unusual telegraph that allows him to communicate with something else trapped within the void. What begins as a teenager trying to get home, soon transforms into a much larger mystery to solve. Every new room seems to ask another question, and every discovery suggests that the void may be more deliberate than it first appeared. As the protagonist continues deeper into the unknown, he must rely on his own instincts, his growing understanding of the environment, and the fragile connection he has with his environment. 

Rooms is a story about isolation, exploration, and self-trust. Beneath its surreal environments and unsettling encounters is a mystery surrounding the nature of trust, friendship, and the "real" world.

"Why me?"