Borderless

Was it all a dream? Where had all the familiarity gone?

The much desired slumber was interrupted by a totally, unexpected chance awakening, perhaps by a startling sequence in dreaming. Ardan looked about in the still darkness as his eyes adjusted to his where-abouts and realization set in. He exhaled loudly, then yawned, running his hand over his face to help his eyes and mind focus.

The room was dark. He reached to the nightstand to find his phone to check the time and inadvertently slid it out of his reach. He couldn't see where he had pushed the phone as he grappled around to discover it. He brought his hand back and resigned once more, thinking motionless. He'd have to get up now to see what time it was, and he dreaded the thought of doing that if he still had some hours to slumber.
He sat up in bed, a blanket draped over his shoulder, the pillow tucked under his other arm. The room was incredibly dark, so he rose to make his way to the lightswitch on the wall to illuminate the room and see if he could find that phone on the stand. He reached one more time onto the stand to see where the phone might be. His hand fumbled on the top of the stand. Still no phone to be found. He wondered if he had pushed it off and now it was behind the stand.
He stood and took a few steps toward the location of the lightswitch, brushing his eyes as he advanced. A few steps more and he reached his blanket-draped hand out to find the wall, so he didn't run into it. The darkness of the room seemed stronger now and vastly empty. The lightswitch was just straight ahead from the bed, just a few steps and it was right here.

Ardan already sensed he had taken more steps than usual to reach the lightswitch, but his feet and hands weren't comprehending the extended distance. His eyes, seeing nothing but black, weren't connecting to the movements of his feet and reaching of his hand. More steps, then another and another.

Ardan stopped where he stood. His mind had to grasp what he was encountering. Beneath his bare feet, he felt the usual texture of the floor he had known to be in his bedroom, so that hadn't changed, but he had clearly ventured too far to find the lightswitch and the wall. He reached his arm all the way out and found only space. He held his head up and strained to see in the darkness, but nothing became clear. He took a wide step forward, then another and still encountered no wall.

He turned back toward the bed and sought to head back to that location, so he could see if he was moving the wrong way. He must just be walking in a circle or something. He stepped in the opposite direction back to the bed, then another step, and another, and a couple more. He should run into the bed in the dark, and he would re-adjust his position to venture to the lightswitch yet again.

A pair of steps, then another pair. Ardan moved his head to and fro, wanting to detect some familiarity in the black, to sense something he knew was there, but the room was too still, too dark. He all but sped up his intention of reaching the bed to a slight trot. Still he found nothing. He reached nothing. He heard nothing.
Ardan looked at his own person. He couldn't see his arms in the dark, nor could he see the pillow or the blanket he still clutched. It was just too dark. He flung the pillow into the darkness and listened for where it landed. The pillow made the plush sound upon hitting the floor and Ardan moved toward it, to retrieve it.
He didn't throw it far, so once more relying on his steps, he walked toward the pillow. Another step, then another, and it seemed he should have already found the pillow, but he didn't. He continued walking, even circling about, but still no pillow.
Having had enough, he felt, Ardan sank to his knees. He flattened his hands upon the floor. The floor was the same beneath his feet. Nothing different about the floor. Ardan put his face as far against the floor as he could, trying to see the color, the texture in the dark, but couldn't. Yet he could still feel it was the same floor he'd always walked. He stretched his hand out on the floor, sliding it along. It didn't seem he had entered a differnt room and become disoriented by mistake. He pressed his forehead on the floor. The blanket was still on his shoulder and he felt no need to lose it as he had done the pillow.
Ardan stood to his feet and looking about at nothing, he took off and ran. He ran as fast as he could, hearing only the sounds of his feet placing on the floor, the same sound they always made when he was barefoot on the apartment floor. He knew he should have run into a wall after just a few steps, but since the wall wasn't materializing, he decided this was the best option for understanding his predicament. He continued to run as tho he were in a marathon. He held his head high, gritting his teeth, his eyes clenched shut. Then he opened them and still charged forward in the black.
And when he felt he could do no more, he stopped. He leaned over, gasping. He coughed a couple of times. He let the blanket slide off his shoulder and fall to the floor at his feet. He felt the fabric touching one foot. He inhaled and exhaled a few more times, then from exhaustion, he turned to recline on the blanket. The one foot that felt the blanket was moved away to extend his feet out and as Ardan slowly reclined upon the floor, where he knew the blanket to be, he found only the bare floor. He rested on the floor, running his hand about, trying to find the blanket that was no longer there.
Immediately, Ardan leapt up and looked in the direction where the blanket seemingly must have gone.
"Hello?" he said. Someone had to be there who took the blanket.
"I know you're there," he said loudly. "You took the blanket. Give it back."

There was no response. Ardan moved forward as tho he was being taunted and defied. He continued moving forward.
"Give me back that blanket and get out of my place!" he yelled, still moving forward.
"You hear me?" he yelled as loud as he could. "HEY!"

But still there was no response.
Ardan broke into a run in the direction he felt the blanket had to have been taken, as tho he were pursuing the thief. He ran as quickly as he could. "You gonna hide from me?" he called out, but stopped. He was still tired from the previous excursion and now totally give out, he reclined on the still same floor with no blanket. He lay there in the dark, gasping.
When he felt he had enough relaxation to suffice, he bellowed as loud as he could, "where am I?"
He didn't even produce an echo. He actually waited to detect someone coming from elsewhere to see what was wrong with him.
"HEY!" he yelled long and loud, but upon finishing, the silence resumed.
"I WANT MY PHONE! I WANT MY PILLOW! WHAT TIME IS IT?" he shrieked so very loudly. Anything for a response, but none came about.
"WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? HEY! WHY WON'T YOU ANSWER ME?"

Ardan rolled over and sat in the floor face down and stretched out as much as he could, once more, so his nose and chin were touching the floor. Undeniably, it was the same bedroom floor. He moved his hand up toward his face, pressing his cheekbone against the floor. It was all that felt the same, all that seemed to be letting him know where he was.

The floor was cool to his touch, virtually unpleasant, so Ardan sat on his stomach a bit more, until he could bear no more and sought to rise. He felt something stop him. He rested on the floor again, then motioned to stand once more. He was prevented from doing so.
Twisting his hand around, Ardan felt the surface and realized it was the ceiling in the room. He couldn't roll over onto his back and it was a tight squeeze if he turned his head facing straightforward. He either had to rest it to the left or the right.

"Hey! HEY!" Ardan yelled. "Who's doing this?" but he already suspected there would be no response. It didn't seem to matter that he couldn't turn his head to see ahead of him. It was all still blackness anyway. Not a shape or object or flash to be seen.
Growing frustrated, Ardan raised up on his arms and knees as much as possible, barely going up a foot, and crawled along in this manner, unable to see, but just so he could move and be going somewhere.
His knees and arms thumped along the floor, while his head and chin were hardly spared. He clenched his teeth so he didn't bite his tongue and just proceeded on, looking for an escape.
After much abuse, Ardan stopped and once more, gasped for air after such an ordeal. He snarled through his teeth, and flung his fist upward to strike the ceiling. He did so again, growling in the process. He punched indentures into the sheetrock, but couldn't make an opening swinging his arm backwards to go up. Then he stopped, and just sat on the floor, breathing, catching his breath once more, until he was calm again. He allowed himself to totally relax in this immobilized state, closing his eyes, even tho there was nothing to shut out in the darkness. He breathed deeply.
Ardan once more opened his eyes and still saw nothing and likewise, heard nothing. He was about to turn his head again to see if he could detect any form of a light or sound from the possible damage he did to the ceiling, when he was suddenly aware of a distortion in his arrangment. Previously he had been on his stomach, but now he detected gravity placed him on his back.
So now it should be the floor above him and he is on the ceiling. He reached up to touch the ceiling that had been confining him to see if it was now the floor. His hand proceeded upward and found nothing there. He held his arm erect. He was about to lower it, then recalled obstructions turning up in the darkness, so he kept his hand upheld.
Allowing himself the new perceived space, Ardan slowly rose up until he was standing on his feet. He lowered his arm, but just stood still.
So whatever the ceiling-floor had been was no longer there. He was about to start walking off to see if he was still in vast darkness and decided to put his arm up again before doing so. He took about two steps, then felt a solid surface. He ran his hand along the surface, all the while detecting the familiarity of being the bedroom wall. In no time, he had covered the surface to find the solution to what was going on; the lightswitch.
Ardan turned on the lights and slowly looked around. The space he inhabited in all that vastness and confinement was now as before. The blanket and pillow both dropped on the floor between himself and the bed. He was standing once again upon the floor.
He looked up to the ceiling to see if there was indeed any mark where he had previously hit at it when it had him pinned. He saw no damage.
Ardan looked about and moved to the bed, picking up the blanket and pillow and putting them on the bed. Now in the light, he spied his phone on the floor. He reached down to pick it up and checked the time, then set the phone back on the nightstand. He had at least three hours for sleep, if he could get back to sleep at all.