Spring...Was it spring? Or was it fall? I can’t remember, the seasons move like the blurred picture of a train cart whizzing past by. How long has it been since I have seen sunlight, trapped in this dark, dark world.

Did you know, I used to be a somebody once, I used to have men bow down to me, dragons kneel before me, suns powering my battalions, our golden armada striking fear into any planet we passed by. But I was a naive man, I can see that I was merely a kid playing with toys believing that he was a God...unaware of the world around him.

What do I do now? How long have I drifted, the memories of the faces of my commanders are fading, why are they fading. What did gold look like again, I haven’t seen colour in so long. How long has it been, how long has it been since we tried to do the universe’s sin, to tear open the multidimensional fabric. Too long, it has been too long.

I’m no longer an Emperor, a God, rich, powerful, famous, wanted, desired, idolized, respected, or successful. I am now just a man, drifting in space. What worth are my titles, what worth is my prestige, what worth is this useless money I call mine.

Who am I? You might ask. I am, I am.

“Establishing Connection….Establishing Connection….Connection Found”

W-words? I haven’t seen colour in so long, I haven’t heard anything for so long except my thoughts. Sounds that don't come from within, this is unnatural. What do they mean?

“Contingency Plan Activated….Consciousness Troubleshooting….Success”

What does it matter anymore. Perhaps a toy that frees me from boredom, that would be nice. But I have been bathed in silence for so long. How do you do my friend? I have not talked to anyone for so long, am I doing it right?

“Attaching Consciousness to the Host...0.18% success rate...Success Rate Permissible”

Colour flashed into my vision. I took a deep breath sucking in as much air as I could, I closed my eyes, there was too much stimulus. I shielded my eyes from the light and then I felt hands...hands? I had hands? What are these, things? I slowly opened my eyes, and saw the night sky.

The dark impasse of celestial life, I never thought I would be able to see ever again. But these stars are wrong. I have traveled the stars in my life, I know where the correct clusters would be, this star map shouldn’t exist. Where am I?

“Ahhh”

“What’s the matter?”

“I can’t decide on the class that I should take”

“Let me see” said a deep voice, “Biochemical Engineering or Introduction to Physics”

“I like the first one, but the second one is an easier grade”

There was a quiet sound in the morning streets as these two college friends walked together to their favorite cafe. It was a small cafe, with the smell of coffee spreading and infecting every single corner of the block. It was the perfect way that they started their morning, and the way they started everyday.

It was a short 2 minute walk from their dormitory and they could see the squirrels and joggers on the street in the morning. The streets were usually quiet but today there was something eeries about the cars on the streets. TIt felt like there was a raging bull in the middle of a field of cows that were grazing peacefully, and that bull was running straight at me.

HONKK HONKK HONKK, I turned to the sound and I saw a bright white light and a tug from my hand that tried to get me out of the paved path of death. A truck entered my sight, my eyes met the drivers eyes and then I first felt my breath going straight out of me, then my ribs breaking, my legs cracking and fracturing underneath the pressure, my eyes going blind. Darkness was all I saw, pain was all I felt.

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White. White lights flying past me, I think I’m at a hospital, I can’t feel the pain anymore, the whie ceiling was my last memory before I fall asleep again.

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Silence. I haven’t heard something this silent in a while. It’s like someone put the whole world on mute, it felt like white.

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The sound of birds. I hear birds, birds that aren’t pigeons. I haven’t heard a bird song like this before. At least there are birds. The sound of birds.

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Awake. I woke up. My eyes are awake.

An oblivion of stars covered my eyes when I woke up again, the pain was gone, but I felt velvet grass.

“Where am I?”

I tried to look up but my back didn’t allow me. Literally, I couldn’t look up, I felt more like a log, I couldn’t feel my back like I usually could.

“What the fuck, Where am I? Hello?? Can anyone hear me?”

“Why yes, I can hear you”

A voice, “H-Hello, Who are you?”

“My name is Eos. May I know your name?”

“I-It’s Claire, Claire Rembrandt”

“Claire” there was a pause, like I could feel him thinking, “What would you like to know?”

“Why can’t I move my body?”

“Because you are a baby”

“What? WHAT?” I thought to myself. “Why am I a baby, what is happening to me, you, how are you speaking to me, what’s going on??”

I couldn’t think anymore, I tried to feel my hands, but I could barely move them, they were like little stubby branches. I panicked.

“Who are you, and how are you speaking to me?” I questioned the mysterious voice once again.

“I am a lost soul if you are wondering. My time’s up, I’m not sure what I’m doing here as well.”

“Well, are you my father? Wait, how are you even speaking to me, babies aren’t supposed to know how to speak to anyone or anything. They whine and cry all day, there is no way I’m a baby.. Right? Right?!!”

“The universe is a wide place, but to my knowledge you are a newborn, recently born. In the midst of an unfortunate accident”

“W-what unfortunate accident? What’s happening to me? I can’t see anything except the stars.”

“It's better if you see it yourself. Rest well for now, I’ll make sure you stay safe until tomorrow”

“H-How can I sleep?? I don’t even know where I am right now?? I can die the next time I close my eyes. Hey Eos, at least tell me where I am”

“I’ll be honest, I’m not sure either. I’ve traveled the stars but I’ve never seen this cluster of stars.”

“Stars? So you’re an astronaut, you’re like a space race right? Oh god, am I captured by aliens? Please don’t eat me”

“I’m not going to eat you, also tell me more about this astronaut thing. I’m curious”

“They’re like people who go out into space. Wait, you don’t know what an astronaut is? Wait, how are you even speaking my language, and where the hell are we??? Maybe it’s the same stars but from a different angle”

“I doubt it, I mapped the stars myself. At least in my own universe.”

“So you’re from a different universe? Oh god, did I transmigrate? Was it like those novels I read about, Are you my cheat grandpa from another world?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I feel like you’re calling me old. I am not old” the voice ended his sentence with a kind of annoyed tinge.

“Hehe, grandpa. I’m going to call you grandpa Eos from now on”

“No, wait, I’m really not that old. I promise you, I'm quite young”

“Grandpaaa can you help me see what’s around me”

“I’m not helping if you keep calling me Grandpa”

“Hmph, then what should I call you? Handsome, ultra, mega superior charming mister Eos?”

“Some have called me that before”

“No way, I was just joking. Seriously though, what’s around me”

“The decay of death”

“What? There’s death around me?”

“I did say you were in the midst of an unfortunate accident”

“How unfortunate”

“Orphanage”

“Fuck. Are my parents dead?”

“Not both, one of them is still alive, although barely”

“THEN SAVE THEM”

“I can’t, not right now at least.”

“THEN DO SOMETHING”

“I’ll need to use what little power you have to save your mother”

“What’s going to happen to me?”

“Sleep for a while, weakened energy, I’m not sure what will happen in the future though”

“Fuck it I don’t care, save her already”

“Sleep”

I blinked, and the world cut out of my vision. I woke up again, this time in a cave, next to a furry animal. It felt like no time had passed, like my life went through a movie editor and someone cut the time between Eos saying ‘Sleep’ and when I woke up again. It felt like I just blinked and I teleported to another place.