The Tainted Crystals

The numbness begins to fade and you slowly become aware of you cheek, resting on a scratchy surface. You body feels hot and warm but your feet and legs feel cold. You hear what sounds like waves lapping at a shore. You open your eyes and are blinded by the sun in your face.

"Ah..." you squint as your eyes struggle to adjust. You sit up slowly, looking around you in confusion. You're on the shore of a great body of water. The sky is light blue with a few small clouds lazily moving by in the gentle breeze.

"How in the hell?" Last you remembered you were... you were... you can't remember anything.

You put your hands to you head and fall back on the sand. "What the hell happened?"

You lie there for some time, the waves lapping at your feet, concentrating, trying to remember what had been happening before you arrived here. You're not suffering amnesia, you remember your home, your family and friends. There was something... something about... 3F...

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we will now begin boarding rows one through six, please come up to the terminal with your boarding pass. Rows one through six please."

Seat 3F... you were on a plane... You sit up suddenly and scan around you. There's nobody else on the beach, you see no signs of anything in the water like a crashed plane. You look down at yourself and your clothes are... fine? That makes no sense, aside from being wet they are perfectly clean and even have a few of the creases left from being pressed which means you weren't in the water, at least not while dressed.

Your watch seems to have stopped, your phone is dead, and your wallet is water logged which means all those traveler's checks are worthless, but you have your ID and credit card at least. The strangeness of your surroundings not withstanding you better get up and see if you can find some civilization and find out where you are and maybe what happened.

Behind you is a staircase up to the top of a short cliff. A good sign of civilization is the fact the staircase is well maintained. Climbing the stairs you find yourself full of energy like you've gotten the best sleep ever and you end up bounding up the stairs, hoping that at the top is a parking lot or something to tell you where you are at least.

No such luck, you reach the top and find yourself behind a low stone wood and glass building. It looks old but very well crafted and maintained. Walking up to the double doors you find them lacking any sort of locking mechanism. Upon entering see everything coated in a fine layer of dust. Looking around you do find something of interest though, a circular table covered with objects. The table and objects are not covered with dust despite there being no sign of anyone cleaning up.

There's a small pouch of blue crystals, each the size of a grain of rice, open on the table. Next to it there's a glass of a thick reddish yellow liquid with... is that a bone in it? Lastly, there's a scroll covered with some weird script. The pouch of crystals seems intriguing. You touch a particularly conspicuous crystal on the table and feel a tingle in your finger which travels quickly to your head. you watch the crystal dissolve into your finger and suddenly the tingle stops abruptly and you pass out.

You wake suddenly with your face in the thin layer of dust. You could have sworn you heard someone talking to you as you were passed out. Looking around you see nobody, and no footsteps, aside from yours. You struggle back to your feet and look at the pouch of crystals again...

"Remember, one per subject should be enough."

You turn around wildly, but seeing no source for the voice your look at the table again. You touch a crystal again but it has no effect this time. You lick you lips, and taste a strange substance... You look at the glass which is now empty... When did you drank that?

You look at the scroll and what you know is still gibberish actually makes sense. The tiny crystals can be used to induce a hypnotic trance in an individual, they just have to be exposed to it by touch or through eating/drinking the crystal. However it's not like you can throw them at people, it takes about half a minute of contact for the crystal to be absorbed and have an effect. The crystals also dissolve in liquids so keep them dry.

You pick up the pouch, stashing it in your pocket, and head out of the front door of the building and into a long tunnel. When you finally emerge back into the daylight your find yourself on a wooded path. Looking behind you you see no door, no tunnel, just the forest... hmm... You search for a while but finding nothing you decide to move on. One direction takes you deeper into the forest, the other seems to head out towards a clearing and maybe a building.