A velvet pillow of colored keys sat on a pair of upraised hands in front of Jacob, who didn't understand their significance.

"Choose one," said the kneeling boy, holding the pillow over his head.

Jacob's eyes were so lost in the intricacies that he didn't see the colors of the keys. The sparkle of one key hit him in the eye. His hand reached for the crimson teeth and long handle and gripped it firmly in his hand.

"This one," said Jacob, nervously stroking the length in his hand. The boy with the pillow stood, bowed in deference to Jacob and was sent away.

"Excellent," said the administrator, watching the boy disappear behind the corner. "Follow me."

Jacob was still not quite sure how he got here. Whatever that reason may be was far from his mind right now. He was too captivated by the surreality of the place. He could see himself reflected in the golden walls. The plants remind Jacob that they can grow in the most impossible of places, defying order, gravity, or unity of color. Venus flytraps sat next to roses on the same bush. If Jacob stared at a loose tendril long enough, it appeared to move. Anything that wasn't a wall or a flower was silk or velvet drape. His denims, cottons, and polyesters were all out of place here.

Jacob felt out of place when he compared himself to the administrator. His long hair that rode the train of his apparel looked like it had never been cut since birth. The clothes dripped off of his body in eaves and hangs, a look that demanded majesty. The jewels made him more commanding and manly. But if not for the broad back, wide chest, and the other things that distinguish him as a man by virtue of what his flowing clothes could not hide, this would be a woman in Jacob’s mind. Jacob stared at the administrator's peculiar scepter with a strange prominent head. It resembled a dog's skull whose ears were combed back into a single long, sharp blade. Whenever he gave commands to his assistants, he would direct them with this staff like an extension of his body. He held it in front of himself so that it proceeded him wherever he walked.

Walking out of the greeting place and through the corridors, Jacob noticed how no one ever seemed to be lonely around here. People always came and went in pairs. One of them was always a young boy, whose clothes matched the drapes on the walls. If someone were to switch them where the drapes hang, there would be very little change.

Meanwhile, some of the companions of the boys who loomed in the halls gave Jacob such a strange look, he did not want to face them directly. But the peripheral glances from his eyes observed these strange reactions. Some gawked, some smirked, others licked their lips.

Jacob walked behind the administrator, taking care not to step on his train, while passing though a self-contained world. The fountains mimicked the boys in appearance except they were made of stone and always pouring water from a vase, spitting water from their lips, or peeing into the collective pools of the fountain. The luscious green of the garden was filled with wildflowers that bloomed with every other color. The abundant flowers completely masked the dirt beneath which supports them. The little shops that decorated the path were pillared with ivory and when there was no more ivory, alabaster columns reflected the light of the sky. There were unnecessary pillars that stood in various places like undecayed remnants of Greek temples; some of them were tightly hugged by twisted ivy seeping into the cracks of the pillars. Light shone from the dome of the sky as if the sun were up there and the clouds seemed too real to have been complex effects of light. They even changed appearance as he walks, but they formed no images, as if the sky wanted to keep its ideas for itself.

"Is it daytime or nighttime?" Jacob asked, having stared in the sky too long.

"Daytime," the administrator stated without stopping. He extended his scepter to the sky. "I don't tell most of the people who come here, but these are artificial Heavens; we can make them day or night when we wish."

"Then how will I know when a day has passed, or even the week that I'm here?"

"Time has no place here," responded the administrator. He turned his head completely backward like an owl while walking forward without losing his sense of direction. "This place is made for pleasure and constraintlessness. There is less pleasure in scheduling all the sights and sounds into separate times and separate memories when everything can be engulfed into a single memory…."

"Like a dream, I guess."

"We aim to please," said the administrator with a cordial smile and turned his head back forward, without breaking his even pace. "We will gently warn you when your time is up. When you see me again, it means your time is near. Until then, do not be mindful of me; delight in this place while you are here. If not, this world will be but fleeting from your life.

"Speaking of here," the administrator said suddenly in the middle of a corridor, "We have arrived. Do you have your key?" Jacob has been holding the crimson key the entire time; he wouldn't be so idiotic as to put it down suddenly in the grand splendor of the place. But for a moment, he was dumbfounded by the administrator's question, and the administrator reached for Jacob's hands, took the key from him and looked at the crimson door in front of him. All of the doors were differently colored, and colored in hues that a rainbow cannot naturally produce, making the colors all the more sophisticated.

"Hmmm… I think you should open the door," said the administrator as he returned the crimson key to Jacob. The administrator gathered his train and his hair that rode upon it so that Jacob would be able to walk over to the lock himself. Jacob puts the tip of the key into the lock and as he tried to push it in, the lock met with some resistance. It would not succumb to the penetration of the key, even though the key was specifically made for that door. After fondling with the lock long enough, Jacob decided to ram the key through the lock. Using his body as the extra force behind the key, the lock squeaked as it accepted the key all the way to the base. Jacob took a deep breath, turned the key, and opened the door.

What Jacob saw beyond the door was also beyond belief. From what Jacob could see at first, everything in the room was golden from the dresser to the intertwining legs of the desk and matching chair at the other side of the room. When his eyes adjusted to the room so that the gold did not supercede everything, all else that was not golden was still impressive. The floor was a chessboard of black and white marble, spotted by throw rugs made of mink; nothing more than carpet in this room. The walls were made of solid black granite. The gold dresser supported a large mirror that made everything in it beautiful. The plants had big fronds and colorful blooms. The sun never saw this place but the light of the room could have driven sunlight to envy.

In the center of the room was a huge bed guarded with grand wooden pillars that served as bedposts. The sheets were sheer and satin and populated with plenty of pillows. The soft bed was so wide that if he were to lay on it and stretch his arms and legs, he could make snow angels on the white of the sheets.

"Whoa…" uttered Jacob, still trying to take it all in. As Jacob stood still near the doorway, the administrator gently moved him aside so that the attendants could bring Jacob's things inside the room. The attendants placed Jacob's duffel bags by the dresser and respectfully left the room skillfully by leaving without showing their backs. Looking over at his plain bags sitting by the gold dresser made him feel uneasy. But it was too soon to worry about all that; I just got here, Jacob thought to himself.

After all the attendants leave, the administrator stood before Jacob very formally. "It's very important that you not lose your key during your stay."

"Uh… I have no intention of losing my key while I'm here," retorted Jacob, feeling slightly offended.

The administrator was savvy to pick up the slight resentment in his voice. "I'm sorry to overemphasize the point, but I sincerely cannot stress this enough. If the guest does not possess the key, there will be a lot of trouble here."

"I understand," said Jacob but he sensed from the administrator's look that Jacob did not understand at all.

The administrator nodded his head. "You will be furnished with your own attendant in a short while; that is why it is important to have your key. Otherwise you will not be able to able to have access to him." Jacob finally understands and gestured with his head to the administrator.

The expression on the administrator's face did not change; he still thought that he did not completely comprehend. Nonetheless, his face maintained a respectful deference to Jacob as he closed the door; the last thing that Jacob saw was his cordial smile.

For the next ten minutes, Jacob walked around the room bewildered by the beauty of the room. Then he smacked himself in the head. "Man, I have a lot of time to admire this place! I should go outside!" He glanced at his arm to look at his watch and--

"My watch!" A moment later, Jacob remembered that after he entered the greeting room, the attendants immediately asked for his watch and in exchange, he chose a key off of the pillow and ended up choosing the crimson key. After a few minutes, Jacob stopped panicking. Without a watch to keep his time, he realized that he had to wait for the attendant anyway to come to the room.

Jacob grabbed his crotch suddenly in the privacy of his room. "Ooh, I have to pee," he muttered to himself and he dashed for the door opposite of the crimson entrance. He opened the door and spotted the porcelain throne in a reluctant corner, unzipped his pants and released himself. Now that he had time to look at it (he was not going to go anywhere for a while), it did look like a porcelain throne. It was the first time he had ever seen a toilet that resembles a large white bowl held up by cherubim. Their heads were modestly turned away so that the occupant could do his business without embarrassment. After the ring of a steady stream of water hitting the porcelain stopped echoing in the bathroom, the toilet flushed itself. When the water lowered itself, Jacob realized that the creator must have had a lot of fun making this cherubim throne; the water flushed into an open smile of a cute face, which one could only see if the water was low enough.

From the corner of Jacob's eye was a large, unavoidable bathtub that looked more like a jacuzzi. Hanging by the side of the tub was a white turkish robe next to neatly folded large towel topped with a bar of soap, a delicate yet rough looking sponge and a bottle of thick white liquid. The odor of the scented soap gets stronger as he neared the bar lying in the center of the snow-white towel. From far away, the scent was mild but it annoyingly tickled the nose. But as he drew himself near, the fragrance became more and more pleasant. When he picked up the soap, he noticed a little string attached to the bar. Soap on a rope, Jacob laughed to himself, thinking about how tacky that was. He never understood what the rope was for anyway.

Aside from the soap and all the unknown time to wait for his attendant, this setup in the bathroom was a welcome invitation to relax inside the tub. Now that he thought about it, he did feel a little wearied from the travel up here. After he saw the label on the bottle of thick white liquid that read, "Bubble bath, swallow at your own risk," Jacob began to unbutton his shirt, turn on the faucet, and squirt the white liquid all into the running water of the tub.

Jacob was so enthusiastic about getting into the tub, all of his clothes were on the floor by the time he got to the bathroom door. He was patting the door on all the sides only to find that there were no locks on the bathroom door; he felt weird about that. Jacob felt a little less secure, despite that the crimson door outside was locked and there was no one else in the room. He double-checked the bathtub which was halfway filled with water and the bubbles were already thickening like cream on hot cocoa. Impatient to get inside, he risked the hot water burning at his feet, forcing himself to quickly adjust. Jacob stepped in as the shavon rose up his calves and even though he was just standing there, he felt like he was descending clouds into a welcoming hell-like wetness. He allowed himself to descend and fall until the water filled to the brim to the tub. The bubbles almost teasingly touched the back of his thighs and he stopped the faucet to keep from overflowing. He hesitantly sat in the slow burning water and let the clouds engulf him. The heat penetrated his waist, then his stomach, and when the water covered his chest he began to breathe very slowly. Up to his collarbones and around his throat, the surface of the water surrounded his neck like a soft pair of hands and massaged him, down, downward, and downward still. Everywhere. Everywhere and down there.

Jacob did not remember how long he spent in the tub. His fingers were wrinkly, his body felt completely limp, and he felt at peace with himself like nothing could disturb him. But because the world was silent, his ears picked up a slight click from outside the room. A door opened without effort and someone’s soft steps slipped into his space.

Jacob pushed himself out of the tub and the water spilled everywhere. The heat of the water transformed into cold air that clutched his body, making Jacob cry out from the biting change. He quickly stuck a towel to his face to silence himself. When he unfolded the towel, it was big enough for two Jacobs and he wrapped himself in the soft towel like swaddling cloth.

Jacob listened carefully and there were no other sounds coming from outside the bathroom. His first thought was that it was only the foliage rustling against themselves in the bedroom to produce more blooms. He awkwardly walked closer to the door; the extra cloth that enwrapped his body dragged behind him and forced Jacob to take baby steps. Still silence. Something is definitely there, Jacob thought to himself. It took too much effort to walk back to the turkish robe, so he picked up the extra part of himself and held it limply in his hand. With his free hand, pulled on the doorknob so that it squeaked when he entered the room.

Someone was kneeling silently in the center of the bed, with his eyes closed and hands in his lap. His presence was demur and he stayed completely still like a statue. With gauzy clothes, he seemed to be wearing less than what Jacob was wearing, until Jacob had dropped all control of his towel from shock and it slowly and completely unwrapped from his body. Jacob slowly bent down to grab the towel from the floor and barely covered himself when he asked, "Who are you?"

The boy slowly turned his head and looked deep into him. "My name is Kirin. I am your sex slave for your stay…"