Prologue: An Unexpected Discovery
A burning red and white streak suddenly appears in the atmosphere. A churning and boiling mass of rock and unknown falls rapidly to the ground. Occasionally a blue flame would flicker out when the churning mass would thin slightly, only to be replaced with a black sphere that quickly faded into nothing. Slowly, the rock and unknown began to boil away into nothing, it’s mystery left only for hot embers. Most of the embers fall into the ocean, cooling and blackening into dark shards that sank into the place even humanity and all it’s wondrous technologies cannot reach.
However, a single ember get’s caught in a breeze, so minuscule small that all that is seen is a pinprick of red and white. It floated rapidly across and ocean, following a brewing storm to a large mass of land far out into the distance. Eventually, the ember fades away, leaving only the smallest of ash. That ash was soon sucked up into the cloud, caught hovering in the mass of the tiniest water imaginable, slowly condensing bigger and bigger with it’s brothers.
As the storm rapidly moves over the mainland, a single man is seen sitting upon a bench on a beach, watching the storm clouds flow over him. Quietly, he puts out the half used cigarette he had hanging loosely from his pale pink lips. A small smile graced those pale lips as dark green eyes gently sparkled at the dark clouds above. The wind began to pick up as he slowly stood and walked forward a few steps, green eyes still watching those dark storm clouds with interest. His only slightly long almond brown hair rustled slightly in the strong breeze, however his plain gray open sweat jacket flapped behind him. His royal blue t-shirt underneath pressed against his chest, revealing a lean figure within. Blue jeans get catch the thin granules of sand as he slowly makes his short steps forward. Tan leather boots sink only slightly into the sand before they are picked up again, only to sink once more in a different location.
He had come here to watch the storm, watch as it gives it’s own precious liquid to the unworthy lifeforms below. It fascinates him really, how so much water can float peacefully above their head one moment, breaking up the endless blue that was this planets sky, only to suddenly turn an oppressing blackish gray, a promise that even though it may look evil, it will give it’s precious gift to those below. Little did he know though, this storm watch was not going to be like all his others.
Unlike all the other times, where he had only received the same gift as everyone else, he was about to receive something much, much greater. A single small splatter of water hit his solitary slightly tanned face as those dark green eyes watched on with gentle interest and warmth toward what he believes to be only an nonliving being. Soon, another drop fell, turning to light tan sand an earthy brown. Then, almost as if an invisible and silent signal went off with that second drop, the rain began to pour down. Gentle at first, then a rapid increase of speed.
A large smile broke out on the man’s gently tanned face, a joyous laugh escaped from between his pale lips. His arms spread wide as he allowed the feeling of the planet’s greatest life-giving resource to rain upon him. The feeling of a lightened heart blossomed in his dampening chest. His eyes continued to stare, full of mirth and happiness, at the beautiful art that was the falling water. He loved the feeling of the cold drops of rain slowly dampening his entire body, the sight of the rain falling down to meet with the earth, and the sound of the drops of precious liquid hitting hard against everything in it’s path.
However, unnoticed to the joyous man below, a single infinitely black drop fell at a much slower pace than all others. It moved slightly, catching it’s clear brothers and combining them into it’s own mass. Seemingly with a conscious of it’s own, it slowly angled itself toward the man. It begins to change, no longer in the teardrop shape that makes up all other rain, now a small sphere of black.
The man blinks, smile dropping only slightly as his eyes catch something strange. He just barely makes it out against the storm clouds above, but he spies a sphere shape of a black mass. Confusion began to occupy his mind as his arms slowly drop to his sides. His once joyously bright smiling face faded, now replaced with an analytic gray frown. Slowly, he makes his way toward where he believes the sphere of black will fall, trudging through the now wet sand in his tan leather boots.
He stops as the sphere slowly floats down to him, only to come a gentle and silent stop. It was only the size of his fist, and infinitely darker than he believed possible. As he narrows his eyes only slightly in though, he notices a quiver in the seeming liquid mass, sending small waves up and down the surface of it. Slowly, his right hand reaches upward, steadied only by his sheer curiosity. He places it an inch below the sphere, and slowly circles it, as if checking for any invisible strands holding it up. As his hand reaches the top of the sphere his already narrowed eyes narrowed further at this new information.
Slowly, his hand above the sphere curled into a gentle fist. Gently, as if any faster would scare away a spooked creature, slowly uncurled his index finger. Dipping it down toward the surface of the sphere only an inch away, his heart began to beat faster in anticipation. In what seems like an eternity, his finger breaks through the membrane with little resistance. He paused, finger down to the first knuckle of the sphere, feeling the infinitely colder than normal water interior. When nothing happens he shrugs, the previous nervousness fading like a passing memory, and plunges his entire hand into the sphere.
A stinging coldness flows rapidly up his arm, and he begins to panic, desperately trying to pull his hand from the impossibly cold black sphere. However, it was to no avail, the once unresistant sphere now held tight to his freezing hand like a steel trap. His heart began to increase to an almost painful beating as an excess of adrenaline began to pump throughout him. With his mental limiters becoming unlocked and new strength flooding his slowly freezing limb, he began to tug harder. Soon, the freezing feeling reaches his shoulder, and he only pulled harder in response. A loud cracking pop resounding throughout the still storming beach as his shoulder came free from it’s socket at his most recent adrenaline and panic filled tug. He didn't feel it though, he only pulled harder as the freezing feeling began to crawl onto the side of his neck, causing his shoulder to disgustingly lengthen from the now detached shoulder.
It slowly began to become hard to breath and move as the cruel freezing feeling covered his throat, head, and most of his back. He began to see spots as the lack of oxygen began to finally reach his brain. The feeling now fully covered his body, and in his flickering eyesight he witnessed something strange. The black sphere convulsed, and began to shrink. He forced himself to stay awake with every fiber of his frozen being to witness what was happening.
The sphere shrank until it was but a thing strand on the tip of his index finger. Then, that black strand began to push it’s way into his finger. He felt it, despite the lack of oxygen to his brain, and his frozen body, he still felt it. It felt like something colder than even his own body wormed it’s way into his body. Rapidly, as he slowly began to lose the strength to stay awake, he felt it wiggle it’s cold way to his heart. A single sigh passed between his now incredibly pale lips, releasing a burst of the coldest fog any living being had ever felt.
The man’s body began to change, skin and clothes fading into the black that once was the distinct color of the sphere. With only the falling rain, now warm compared to the black humanoid mass below, as witness, his body began to fade into nothing. No proof he even existed remained, all except to still gently smoldering cigarette hiding under the bench the now missing man was sitting at. However, the warmth from the fiery ground up leaves of tobacco and nicotine slowly faded, turning the red ember a light gray and black.
Chapter 1: Walking Lost in the Void
Floating on the feeling of nothing, the man was in bliss. He felt no weight, no pain emanating from his lower back, the feeling of absolute freezing was gone, replaced by the feeling of comfortable warmth. His eyes remained closed, unseeing to the landscape around him, or the lack thereof. All around him, nothing existed. No earth, water, wind, or anything could be seen. The eyes would register it as an infinite black, and would cause the brain to naturally panic and try to fill the void with shapes. However, no matter how empty this realm of nothing seemed, his body remained an even glow. There were no shadows, nor an excess of light shining about him, only color.
Slowly, his mind began to notice the sheer amount of silence. There wasn't even the background noise that it had naturally blocked out over the years. It panicked, it knew this wasn't natural. His brain send signals to his ears, straining them in hopes of finding something, anything to fill the void of sound, but only came across nothing. Now it truly began to panic, rapidly sending signals back and forth the man’s body, receiving signals of absolute nothing, only a strange warmth was reported beyond the nothing all other senses sent. In it’s panicked state, it sent a signal to his eyes, forcing them open.
The man felt his eyelids fly open, and his heavily dilated dark green eyes tried to take in anything it could. Now, in sync with his brain, he began to panic, and rip his head around in the hopes of finding something, anything to counter the void before him. He noticed something strange though, despite his eyes sensing no light, his body was strangely aglow against the void. Everything was just… odd. There were no shades, not even when he looked under his jacket. No matter how much he tried to search for a shadow, he found none. It created a slightly disturbing effect of his cloths being flat despite the fact that he knew they were anything but.
His breathing picked up as he panicked more at this new discovery. This shouldn't be possible, why did he feel nothing but a comforting warmth about his body, why did no shadows reach out toward him from the crevices of his clothing, why was there nothing? Then, he noticed a strange feeling of faint coldness over where his heart should be. He looked down at his chest, and spotted a small lump the size of his fist pushing against his blue shirt.
He tried to raise his hand to it, but only succeeded in flinging his arm up painfully. Another thing he noticed, his shoulder was no longer dislocated. ‘Wait,’ the man thought, ‘ Why would my shoulder be dislocated in the first place?’
Sudden images flashed through his mind, showing him memories of the rain and the black sphere. At these new memories, he tried to calm himself down. It would not due to be panicking so in the situation. He forcefully slowed down his breathing, turning it from the rapid breathing from fear and panic, too long and slow breaths to calm his racing heart. He closed his eyes, forcibly preventing the image of the horrifyingly beautiful image of nothingness around him from being seen. Carefully, like walking on broken glass, he began to sift and organize his most recent of memories.
‘OK,’ he thought, ‘First I go out to enjoy the storm, then, as I’m in the midst of it, a black sphere came out of nowhere,’ at this his frown deepened, ‘After it tried freezing me, and I dislocated my shoulder, I fell unconscious on the beach. Only, I’m not on the beach anymore. I”m in some strange place of nothing, and more comfortable than ever.’ With his thoughts organized, he began to draw up a plan.
‘First, try to get my limbs working.’ Once more, he tried to lift his arm, only for it to fly up and back painfully.
‘OK, now try to do it slowly next time.’ Taking it slowly, using as little force as possible, he began to raise his arm. On what should of been an unbearably slow movement for him, it felt just a little faster than his normal speed.
‘Strange,’ he thought as his brow furrowed, ‘It seems I need to regain control of my body again.’ So, for what felt like hours in this timeless realm, the man began to try and regain control over his body. Eventually, the speed of which he needed to move became natural for him to do. Carefully, he felt around him for any solid ground, but found nothing. His heart began to rapidly beat again in panic, but he forced it down.
Opening his eyes again, he was once more introduced to the sheer sight of nothing around him. He slowly twisted his head, not wanting to either snap or wrench it again. Looking below him, he saw nothing. He gulped, images of cartoon characters from his childhood standing on nothing, only to look down and suddenly fall at the realization. Suddenly, he wished for a platform, he cared not of what it was made of, just to stand upon.
Then, he felt something. A pulse over and around his heart. He looked at his chest, to see the lump that he had forgotten about slowly moving to his left foot. Panic made itself known to him again at the unnaturally moving part under his cloths. As quickly as he could without harming himself, he tried to grab it with his hands. Only to feel a hardened sphere colder than any ice he ever felt, in fact, it greatly reminded him of the inside of the floating black sphere from before. He tried to block it off, but it moved unimpeded beneath his hands. Eventually, it reached his left foot, and he watched in both fascination and fear as a faintly lighter than the black around him circle formed under him, giving the feeling of solid ground beneath.
Carefully, he took a step forward with his right foot, feeling the solidity of the platform under him. Then, he moved his left foot up to his right foot, only to stop as he saw the platform move under him in sync with his left foot, but couldn't feel it. ‘What the hell...’ his awed mind slowly thought at this amazing discovering.
‘Does this have something to do with the sphere?’ he theorized. Without thinking of the consequences, he imagined the circular platform disappearing, only to panic when the sudden feeling of standing on nothing appeared again. Thinking quickly, he imagined the platform was back, bigger than ever. Once again, the circular platform appeared, this time a good two feet bigger, but it ended with tattered sides instead of the smoothness from before.
“Huh,” he said out loud, his slightly more baritone than average voice echoing endlessly back at him before fading minutes later.
‘OK… anyway, it seems that it has a limit at how far it could go.’ He thought, fading once more to the analytical side shown upon the discovery of the sphere on the beach.
The man sat there, playing with his new found “power”, forcing the platform into different shapes, separating it under him into separate platforms, only to try and change those individually into different shapes. Hours pass in this almost childlike state, unnoticed to the playing man. Eventually, he grew bored and once again realized he was still in this strange realm of nothing.
‘Just, where am I?’ he thought, ‘and more importantly, how do I get home?’ Slowly, he walked forward. It seemed to never end. He spent a lot of the time wandering, while also simultaneously thinking of new shapes for the platform. He came up with several theories as to where he was. They consisted of dreams, limbo, all the way to a really far off alternate reality. Onward, he continued walking, thinking and playing, playing and thinking. Never once did he grow hungry, not once did the tightening and dry feeling of thirst bother him, he never even tired.
Minuted passed into hours.
Hours into days.
Days into weeks.
Weeks into months.
Not once did he stop moving, never feeling the need too. In the beginning he tried to keep track how long he was walking, but without the sun and moon, or any light source for that matter, it was a futile attempt and soon abandoned.
A year passed unnoticed by him, to busy walking and playing with the sphere. He had begun to make 3D shapes out the ability. First, he made a simple foot long stick, and grasped it in his hand. It felt smooth, like still water, but at the same time more hard than stone. It was cold, but strangely the cold comforted him, like it was a part of him. Then he made a simple sword, and tested the sharpness on his finger, only for it to nearly cut through his finger at the slightest touch. He panicked at first, throwing away the sword, not seeing as it fell into small spheres and rapidly flew back into the platform under him, giving it more size. His attention was on his now bleeding index finger. He watched, fascinated as his life giving blood floated away from the cut, forming rippling spheres as they floated away. However, the fascination began to fade as he noticed something he hadn’t felt in a long time. The beginnings of fatigue.
At first, he was confused, he hadn’t felt tired before in this strange place, so why did he feel tired now? Like a slug trying to push through webbing, the realization slowly came to him. Since his blood kept floating away, the cut wasn’t clotting. He was losing blood, and he had no way to close the wound. He panicked once more, if he couldn't find a way to stop the bleeding he’d bleed out in this place of nothing. His body never to be found, his last words never to be heard, even if he hadn’t spoken since he began walking. Suddenly, he wished for a way to stop the bleeding. A tight black ring covered the cut, preventing the blood from leaving his body.
A breathed a sigh of relief, that was the most amount of panic he had felt in a long time. Looking around, and seeing that the constant scenery still hasn't changed, he continued walking, and creating shapes, only not testing any new object on himself.
Eventually, he grew bored of walking. Even after all this time it was getting him nowhere. So, he sat upon his platform, and started playing with the platform some more. He began to come up with more and more complex shapes, creating whole homes, villages, towns, and cities. He forced whole miniature landscapes into existence, everything detailed down to the smallest blade of grass. He had tried to create animals and people, but they only behaved as he wanted them too. They were fun for a while, but eventually it grew boring just making them do what he wanted them too.
Time passed, and eventually he laid down, bored of sitting. He materialized a black scalpel and a large block. Slowly and meticulously, he began to carve a shape from the block. A rough trunk formed, a hollow knot near the top where long and spreading branches billowed out from the base. Leaves swayed in an invisible breeze as he formed them each separately. He sat back, materializing the scalpel into the small flying spheres that were so familiar to him now. Pride blossomed in his chest, he created this work of moving black art. He made it with his own two hands, and a scalpel from his mind. Not once, since discovering his power, had he tried to shape anything by hand.
The pride began to fade though, as he realized something. Everything he created, they were without color. Everything, except for him, was a uniform black, only his platform and objects a lighter black. A sigh passed through his pale lips as he passed his hand through the tree. He was growing bored again, but this time it was different. He was growing bored of everything. He was never tired, never hungry, and never in pain, not even when he cut his finger with his first attempt at a sword.
He stood as he had a thought. All this time, he had been walking forward, never up, down, left, or even right. A small smile formed on those pale lips. He changed the structure of his circular platform, changing it into a two step staircase that never ended as he walked up it.
Slowly, the scenery changed, and he stopped. He noticed something above him. Something he hadn’t seen in a long time. A very faint white light hung suspended and blurry above him. He looked beneath him, only for yet another sight to shock him. His clothes began to gain the lost details from before, the faintest of shadows throwing his strangely 2D seeming 3D body into contrast.
A smile formed on his face, and he began to race up his self creating black steps. He ran toward the light, and watched as it slowly came into more and more detail. It was a sphere, much like the one on the beach all that time ago, but different. It threw of a bright white light that stung his dark green eyes, bringing hot tears into existence, and they actually fell, not turning into rippling spheres like his blood. He felt it, he felt a small pang of hunger, he felt immensely thirsty, he felt so tired. He felt everything he lost upon entering this realm.
He didn’t stop though, he continued running toward that like, watching as it continued to expand, growing bigger and bigger. Far bigger than the fist sized sphere at the beach. Bigger than a house. Bigger than a tower. Hell, he was sure it was taller than a skyscraper.
Eventually, he reached it. He didn’t know how he knew he reached it, but he just knew it. Slowly, he reached up toward that infinitely large sphere of light. The feeling of hunger, thirst, and just tiredness weighing him down, but still he reached up to it. Then, he felt it. He felt his fingers brush against the surface of it.
The feeling of cold washed through him again, but he welcomed it. It was different than the constant warmth from before. He close his eyes as his new exhaustion caught up with him, and he felt his platform disappear beneath him just before he slipped into unconsciousness, but he didn’t care. He could finally rest.
The man’s body began to fade to black against the sphere of light. It broke into inch wide spheres that floated aimlessly for only a second, before slamming against the sphere. They formed black circles where they hit, before fading, and disappearing into the light. Ripples danced across the surface of the sphere. The only proof that the man existed in this realm was the small globes of blood from so long, drifting endlessly in the void.
