The room that I found myself in was bright.
White walls and floors with strips of white light running along the ceiling and walls.
It was easily the size of a stadium, with several rows of mattresses, which looked like oversized pillows, and blankets that were as thin as bedsheets.
And people.
Several hundred people, all milling around, asking each other if they knew what was going on.
I floated across the space and came to a stop near to one end, next to one of the mattresses.
As my feet touched the floor, I put out my hand to steady myself on a small table that stood next to it.  It took me a moment to realize that my hand had not simply passed through it.  The beam at had taken me there, must have released me, although it was so bright in there that it was difficult to see the lack of it.
I stood still for a while and took in my surroundings.
At my end of the room there was a raised platform that was accessible via a long slope.  The other end had two doors; toilet facilities were indicated by the green lights in the typical shapes of a sick man and woman.  The wall that stood between each end and opposite where people were appearing was lined with a deep shelf at hip height.  The walls, floor and ceiling were all the same matt white, lined with strips of what looked like white fiber-optic light.  Underneath the clamour of voices there was a melodic sound playing, like a track from one of those relaxation albums.  Every ten beds every other row or so was what appeared to be a drinking fountain and every other mattress had a small white table with two shelves between them.
I turned my attention to the wall through which people were still appearing.
With a slight start, I noticed a couple of someones that were drifting towards me.
My mum, Harriet, closely followed by my brother, Sebastian.
I gave them both a bewildered wave.
My mum waved back whilst tapping on Seb's shoulder to shift his attention to me.  He seemed to have his attention trained on further up the room.  I looked over to see what he was so focused on and saw his partner, Beth, much further away, landing next to a small group of people.  My mum finally managed to get him to notice me, he gave me a confused wave and exclaimed, “what the actual fuck is going on?” 
“That is a very good question,” I reply as the both of them landed next to a couple of beds; mum next to me and Seb four beds further away on the other side.
“Bethany!” my brother cried out and started sprinting towards where his girlfriend was last seen.
“Hi,” says my mum as she gave me a hug, “are you alright?” 
“Yeah,” I replied, “I’m fine, just as confused as everyone else, but I’m not hurt.  You?”
“Yeah.  Yeah, I’m good.”
“Mum!  Laura!”  Seb was making his way back towards us, hand in hand with Beth.
“Well this is… fun,” said Beth, “any clues as to what's going on?”
We all stood the shaking our heads for a moment before Seb said, “well, I mean, aliens.”
“Well, I'd assume so,” said mum, “but it could be secret government stuff…”
“As much as I love a good conspiracy,” I said, “there’s no way that this is the doing of any human government.”
A few more people floated past us, I noticed that Julie Farley, my best friend from secondary school, was one of them, as well as a couple of people that I went to primary school with.
I called out to Julie and, once she had landed, she headed over to us.
A tap on my shoulder brought my attention to the fact that Phoebe, one of my best friends for the past ten years, was also amongst our number.
My granny, Florence, had been deposited onto the mattress on the other side of my mum.  Comatose to the world, once she's asleep, it would be at least twelve hours before she wakes again.
My sister, Martha, Marti for short, arrived next to where Seb had landed and promptly tripped over her mattress.  She shook herself off and joined our group.
One row over there was Marielle, a girl that I had met at a house party when I was in college, and on the opposite side was Kaplana, a woman that my mum used to work with.  Three rows away was Phillip Thomas, the guy that I had been in love with in college, and a few rows in the other direction was my childhood best friend’s neighbour, Daryl.
Every which way that I turned, there were familiar faces, from friends and family members to the guy who served me at the supermarket.
My head started to spin, my breath caught in my throat, my hands began to tremble.
I moved slowly away from my group, headed for the slope just beyond where Seb had landed and was currently sitting on a mattress trying to get his phone to work.  It would appear that no signal was available, so as I walked past I said, “Seb, we’re in space.” I shook my head, “no signal. “  “We should be closer to the satellites though, don’t you think?” he suggested.  “Satellites point down at the Earth, I’m fairly sure we’re on the wrong side of them.”  “Oh, right,” he continued to tap away.  Beth gave me a knowing smile and I carried on walking.
My feet took me to the bottom of the ramp that lead up to the platform that overlooked the room.
A few people called out to me, trying to catch my attention.  I dismissed each of them with an uneasy smile and slight nod, but carried on walking.  I needed confirmation of the daft notion that was rattling through my head. 
I began to climb the slope, the sound of my heart beating drowned out all other noises.  Many voices spoke my name, many more voices answered those with words of, “you know Laura?”
The higher I climbed, the more people could be seen, the more people could see me.
I was aware of a few of them heading towards me, whilst everyone else was slowly, group by group, tuning their attention towards me.
Reaching the edge of the platform, I placed my hands upon the thin, white wall that blocked a two story  drop.
The longer I stood there, the more I required something to lean on. 
I scoured every face that I could see in that sea of hundreds.  There was not a single being that I did not recognize.
I could feel my lunch trying to force its way violently up my throat, yet I somehow managed to keep it down.
Phoebe and Julie had followed me to the top of the ramp and I could see Amelia, Jennifer and Sylvia making a beeline for me.  Despite my panic, I began to breathe a bit easier knowing that my five best friends, my most important people, would be around me.
The noise that rose as each person began to realize that every other person knew me was deafening. 
I clasped one hand to my forehead and raised the other to in front of me as though trying to block a bit of it out.  The pressure building behind my left eye warned me of the on-coming migraine.
(Sorry, correct terminology is headache until diagnosed as a migraine, however the people at the 111 call centre can suck it if they do not believe that I know what a migraine feels like.)
To my surprise, the clamour quietened down until nothing more than the odd inaudible whisper could be heard.
I lifted my head and lowered my hands to clasp the wall for support once again.
Hundreds of eyes stared straight at me.
Every ear was trained on me, waiting to hear what I would say.
I felt as though my heart would stop.
My mind went blank.
I began to shake.
My stomach mimicked a cement mixer filled with bean bags.
My social anxiety was not the worst that you would be likely to come across, however it was to the point that, at that time, facing a room of hundreds of people who were all one hundred percent focused upon me, was quite genuinely the most terrifying thing that I could ever imagine.
I took a number of deep, steady breaths, closed my eyes and forced down the golf-ball of a lump that was lodged in my throat.  Opening my eyes again, I knew that I would have to speak quickly or else loose the nerve to do so at all.
“Is there anyone…” my voice wavered and I choked.  I licked my excessively dry lips, cleared my throat and tried again. 
“Is there anyone here that does not know or recognize me?”
To my relief, my voice rang out loud and clearly enough for them all to hear.
The following silence was a thousand times more deafening than the noise that had come before.
I blinked, nodded and forced myself to breathe.
“Right.”