The Inn Beyond Time and Space

Walking into the kitchen, Adrian Wells closed the door behind him and turned on the exhaust fan. As the machine hummed noisily, he felt his thoughts slowly quiet down.

It was as if the thin wooden door of the kitchen and the droning sound of the fan had managed to momentarily seal off the chaotic and strange world outside, leaving him in a space that felt entirely his own. Here, he could pretend, if only for a while, that he wasn't in the vast, eerie "Boundary City" but back in the comfort of his true home.

This big house was nothing like the "home" he remembered, except for this small kitchen. Its layout was close to the one in his memories, so once he had settled in this world, Adrian made an effort to set it up to resemble his old kitchen.

Every day as he cooked here, he would pretend he was back in his real home, pretend that he had never opened his front door that fateful morning, stepping into a strange city filled with shadows. Sometimes, as he worked, he even imagined that if he just looked up, he'd see the familiar street outside his window, the warm light of a sunset bathing the old neighborhood in hues of orange and red. In his mind's eye, sunlight would dance on the weathered walls of the residential buildings.

But the view outside his window always shattered those fleeting illusions. Instead of familiar streets, there was only a barren lot and a cluster of dilapidated, low-roofed houses. No tall apartment blocks, just a mess of tangled utility poles. The warm, comforting sky of his memories? He hadn't seen it in a long time.

In this city, the sky was always either blindingly bright or oppressively dim.

Adrian sighed, pulling down the blinds to block out the shadowy night beyond.

He busied himself with the familiar routine: picking vegetables, washing them, heating the pan, and adding cool oil. As the fragrance of sizzling scallions filled the air, the crackling sound of the wok mingled with the muffled noise of the television outside the kitchen.

This strange city did have its conveniences—television, mobile phones, and other means of accessing information. In the early days, Adrian had learned most of what he knew about the "Boundary City" by watching TV shows and scrolling through news feeds. Even now, these were his primary windows into this world.

"Adrian! The TV's too quiet! Can you turn up the volume? Please!"

The loud, insistent voice of a girl startled Adrian so much that his hand slipped, nearly sending the food flying out of the wok.

He'd almost forgotten about Eileen outside.

In his old life, there had been no one to interrupt him while he cooked.

"Hold on!" Adrian shouted back gruffly, muttering under his breath, "She's really making herself at home…"

Still, he found himself smiling wryly. Maybe it wasn't so bad. It added a bit of life to the otherwise empty house.

A short while later, Adrian emerged from the kitchen, carrying a steaming plate of food. He set the dishes on the table, adjusted the TV's volume up by two notches, and sat down opposite Eileen's painting.

Adrian didn't have the habit of watching TV while eating, but he often kept it on as background noise. Eileen, confined to her painting, didn't have the luxury of changing her viewpoint and could only watch from a fixed angle, so there was no need to compete for a better seat.

From inside the painting, Eileen hugged her stuffed bear and craned her neck to look at the dishes on the table. Her gaze flitted between the food and the TV, and she muttered, "Looks pretty good…"

"Just some simple dishes," Adrian replied casually, picking up his chopsticks. "I enjoy cooking."

"Oh," Eileen responded with mild interest, returning her attention to the TV.

But as Adrian began eating, she kept glancing at the table, her curiosity growing. Finally, she couldn't hold back any longer. "So, you're just going to eat while I watch?"

Adrian raised an eyebrow and waved his chopsticks in front of the painting. "Want a bite?"

Eileen glared at him but quickly dropped her head, sulking in silence.

"…Alright, fine," Adrian sighed, feeling a little guilty. He fetched an empty bowl from the kitchen, scooped a portion of his food into it, and placed it in front of Eileen's painting. "There. I've saved you a bowl. You can pretend to enjoy the smell. Not like you can actually eat it—it's still mine in the end."

Eileen frowned at the bowl, then shrugged. She stepped closer to the edge of the painting, her face nearly filling the frame as she examined the food. "Fine. I guess that'll do. Thanks… You're more considerate than I thought."

Adrian muttered a nonchalant reply, his mouth full of food. But when he looked up, he froze.

The scene in front of him was… unsettling.

The dark frame of the painting, the dim background, the doll-like girl's face, and the bowl of food sitting in front of her—it all looked eerily like a memorial photograph.

Adrian's face twitched as he forced himself to suppress his thoughts. He knew better than to voice such comparisons aloud—Eileen's cursing was legendary.

Pretending nothing was amiss, he focused on his food, studiously avoiding looking at the painting. To him, this meal felt uncomfortably like a funeral banquet.

After finishing his meal, Adrian quickly cleared the dishes from in front of the painting, dumping them into the sink with plans to wash them in the morning. His back pain made bending over the sink too much of a hassle for now.

But he couldn't put off taking out the trash. The kitchen garbage had to go—leaving it overnight in this season wasn't an option. Despite his aching back, Adrian tied up the trash bag and headed toward the door.

"Where are you going this late?" Eileen asked curiously, glancing up from the TV.

"Do I have to report to you now?" Adrian retorted, holding up the trash bag. "Just taking this out."

"Oh, okay. Come back soon," Eileen replied, her attention already drifting back to the screen. "This house is creepy when it's quiet. If a thief breaks in, I'll be scared…"

Adrian rolled his eyes. In a house this eerie, any burglar would probably be more terrified of seeing a ghostly figure moving inside a painting. If anything, Eileen's presence was the perfect deterrent.

But he didn't say that out loud.

At the door, Adrian slipped on his shoes and grabbed the handle.

For a moment, his hand hesitated.

His mind flashed back to two months ago, to a morning that had started just as ordinarily as any other day. Back then, he had opened his front door, stepped outside, and found himself in the suffocatingly vast and strange Boundary City.

He shook his head, forcing the memory away, and pushed the door open.

The sharp snap of a branch breaking underfoot shattered the stillness. Cold night air carried a foul, decaying stench, and Adrian instinctively shivered in his thin clothes. It took several seconds for his frozen brain to process what he was seeing.

He was no longer standing outside his house.

Instead, he was surrounded by crumbling ruins. In the distance, an eerie, twisted forest loomed beneath a foreboding night sky. On either side, towering mountains rose like silent, menacing giants, casting an oppressive shadow over the valley.

Adrian's body went rigid. Slowly, he turned to look behind him.

What greeted his gaze was a decrepit, crumbling temple. Its door—if it could still be called that—was a crooked frame with half a broken panel dangling from it. Wind whistled through the ruins, carrying an empty, mournful sound.

"Where the hell am I now…" Adrian muttered, his eyes wide.

Then it hit him.

As he had opened the door, the same thing that happened two months ago had repeated itself.

He'd been thrown into another unfamiliar place.

And this time, it was worse.

Boundary City, for all its eerie qualities, was still a modern metropolis where survival was possible. But here? He was standing in desolation, surrounded by wilderness.

Ahead lay a shadowy forest. On either side loomed treacherous mountains. Behind him stood a temple that looked like it hadn't been touched in centuries.

All he had was the bag of trash he'd brought from the kitchen.

Adrian cursed under his breath, his mind racing.

Before he could finish his string of profanities, Eileen's voice suddenly rang out in his head:

"Adrian! The TV lost signal! When are you coming back?"