It was a dark and stormy night.

Our intrepid hero, meaning me, was valiantly fighting against the whispers of oblivion (also known as sleep), trying to finish the last-minute preparations before finally resting for the few hours of sleep, which separated him from the fabled train ride toward unknown adventures!

... also known as the 'new collider inauguration' day at the CERN.

Now, obviously, everything said up until now was merely for emphasis: I'm no hero, nor am I intrepid, valiant, or anything of the like, I'm just your everyday art major.

But now you might be wondering 'why am I going to the CERN if I’m an art major?', well dear reader, why do you care? Can it not be that I just find physics neat? Can't I have interests other than artistic ones? Stop harassing me, and mind your own business! Gosh, the nerve of some people!

…So, anyway… yeah, if it wasn’t apparent, I’m a very confrontational person, but it’s not like I like it, it’s just… I’ve been insecure of 'everything' about myself for the entirety of my life: being 'just shy' of a meter and a half at 25 years old isn’t easy, especially with my 'some-what' baby face paired with a total lack of a beard and lean physique; my heterochromia (I have a blue eye and a green one) definitely didn’t help my self-esteem, with having been called a weirdo from infancy, and what-not; the worst thing is that as I grew up, the number of people that wanted to carry me around as a doll inexplicably increased, to my great dismay, and the greatest compliments I normally receive are being called 'cute' (CUTE!? I’M A FULL-GROWN MAN, YOU DIMWITS! I OBVIOSLY DON’T LIKE BEING CALLED CUTE! STOP IT! GET SOME HELP!); the only normal thing about me is my love for video-games and my black hair (which is particularly soft, if I do say so myself), but my parents are a blond man and a brunette, so… what gives!? Why did I have to be called adopted, on top of all the rest? Why is there always 'something' with me that isn’t right?

And look at me, ranting again. I’m definitely not making a good first impression. I’ve not even introduced myself!

Let’s take it from the top:

Hi, my name is Darwin… no, it's not a joke, at least not from me, my parent just thought that it would be perfect to call a kid with heterochromia, and different hair from both of them, 'Darwin'… so yeah, Darwin Dulcet… yes, someone as 'salty' as me has as a last name 'sweet' in French… no, it still isn't a joke.

Where was I? right, the very beginning of a rational introduction: Hello there, my name is Darwin Dulcet; my father is French, my mother’s Korean and I’m Belgian (because of a technicality, really), but I lived most of my life in France; as I said before, I’m an art major, precisely a history of art major, because I like art periods like the Renaissance’s, the Impressionism’s and the Surrealist’s ones, and because I find modern art just all-around underwhelming (a banana taped to a wall, really?); I already said that I like video-games (what healthy adult nowadays doesn’t?), particularly puzzle games, fantasy game and role-playing games (oh yeah, the elder scrolls are my butter and jam!).

And now that the presentations are done, let’s take a step back: I said that I was going to the CERN labs for the inauguration of a new 'collider', and you, dear reader, rightly asked why was I going to do such a thing, before I so harshly told you off. While it is true that I find physics interesting, it’s not to the point that I would take a train ride, in the middle of the night (by sacrificing half of my sleep allotted time), just to be amongst the firsts there… at least not normally; you see, I was invited by my good-old German childhood friend Raymond Lichtman, the main engineer behind the construction of this new collider (his life-long dream), to the presentation when it would be first activated.

Now, I’m not one to gush over other guys, I don’t swing that way, but he may be the most perfect man I will ever have the pleasure to meet: I mean… he’s handsome, tall (2 meters of broad-shouldered, heavily-muscled meat), with green eyes (both of them) and blonde hair, he’s the best at his job and just completed a project that others would only dream of… I still have no clue how we ended up as friends, maybe because he was the only one to ever describe me as cool, and was able to bare my abrasive personality, but he ended up being the only one that I didn’t push away… whilst also pushing away everybody else, from him too… now I kind of feel bad for him… man, maybe I’m not that great of a friend…

So, anyway, Raymond wanted to share his great day with me, and how could I say no?

So, here I am, making sure that I have everything packed and ready for tomorrow (which is mere hours from now), so that I can board the train on time and get to him for the inauguration ceremony.

"Well" I exclaimed, as I finally forcedly closed my travel bag "here's hoping to an amazing day!"

"In hindsight, I probably jinxed myself."

* * *

"Crap, crap, CRAP! I’m late!"

Why am I late, you may ask? Well, firstly because after my phone woke me up, I just fell right back to sleep ("yup, not a morning person, who knew? Oh, yeah, me"), not my greatest move, but what is worse is that I couldn’t forgo my morning shower, otherwise I’d be risking acting like a zombie for the rest of the day, and since I can’t drink coffee, this is the next best thing I can do (why can’t I drink coffee? Well, mind your own business I say!).

And here I am, running down the tracks of the train station, trying to get to the right one on time; since I like to arrive early, and originally organized things to do so, I still have a couple of minutes to find it, but my anxiety won’t abate until I board my gosh-darn ride.

Ah, thank goodness, there it is! Right at the very back of the station… "why!?"

The person that ends up checking my ticket is a pretty, tall, and well-endowed woman, with lush black hair and startlingly bright hazel eyes (almost yellow, really), but she doesn't send any weird looks my way, so we're cool: "Here's your ticket back, you'll find the space for your luggage above your head" she says with a professional and terse tone, "And with this I hope you have an amazing day, cutie!".

"And there it is! I knew that I couldn't find someone so good-looking who wouldn't treat me like some kind of doll… but wait, what did she say? What a weird sense of déjà vu I'm having right now."

Overall, the ride was uneventful, and not even that long; but I already knew that it would be so, and that, thankfully, the train station on the arrival wasn't too far from the laboratory… or at least from the intricate maze of buildings that made up the complex; but they had plenty of direction signs, so I didn't have to rely on my terribly unreliable sense of direction (thankfully) and got to the newly renovated building while there was still almost no visible daylight, yet. It was barely dawn.

Hopefully, I don't look too shady to the guards, while walking around at this hour of the day, but they probably think I'm just somebody's lost kid. So, as long as I don't look distressed, they probably won't bother m-

"Wait right there, young man!" exclaims someone from behind me.

"I freaking knew it" I mutter under my breath, "look here officer, I may look young but I assure you-" my words die in my mouth, together with my some-what harsh tone, because once I was turned around, expecting the perplexed face of an officer surprised by my 'deeper than expected' voice timbre, I instead find Raymond smug grin staring back at me.

"Gotcha!" he says, with his smugness steadily increasing.

"Oh, Ray-Man! How fancy to meet you here" I say, enjoying his grin fading, and his eyes starting to dart around.

"Shut up man," he hissed under his breath, while getting closer to me "you're not getting my new colleagues to call me Ray-Man… not again." and he finishes by squinting his eyes at me, disapprovingly.

"You did call me a “young man”, consider it a pay-back" I quip back.

"It's not the same!" he says, jokingly exasperated "you don't have the majority of the rest of your career with these people, I do!".

"Eh, potato, potato; you could have not been an ass-hat first thing in the morning, and I could have not said your so hated nick-name, but 'oh well', nothing ever goes the way we expect it too" I say, with a shit-eating grin, because we both obviously knew what I was doing.

We stare at each other, and then we stare some more; when, suddenly, Raymond snatches me from the ground and holds me from my armpits, and his mug is smugger than ever. I'm so surprised and angry, that I just freeze for a moment, like a deer caught in the head-light.

Then, all at once, as if by magic, my entire body starts thrashing around, and contorting in unusual ways, in a surprising feat of flexibility, while droves of expletives fly out of my mouth.

"YOU BETTER PUT ME DOWN, YOU DICKWAD! BECAUSE BEING MY BEST FRIEND ISN'T SAVING YOU FROM THE ASS-WHOOPING OF A LIFETIME!!!" I scream, while kicking around, and still minding not actually hitting him.

"Hahahaha, ok, ok, I’m putting you down, stop wriggling around!" he responds, trying to hold me steady.

Once I was back on the ground, I proceeded to karate-chop him at kidney level, causing him to wince and step away sideways.

"You know that I hate that! Why the hell would you do it!?" I say, immediately after.

"Ow, dude! Sorry, but I’m just too giddy from the anticipation for the event, and I couldn’t contain myself" he responds, slightly chagrinned.

"I swear… and they say that I’m the kid between the two of us."

"Because you are?" he quickly responds.

I lift a hand, signaling my being ready to 'chop' him again, when he immediately puts his hands up in mock surrender.

"So, anyway, congrats on the new gig" I say after an awkward pause.

" 'New gig'? You do realize that what we’re revealing to the world today, and that I helped in designing and creating, will revolutionize the field of 'quantum physics', as both science fiction and real science know it, right?"

"Tomato, tomato-"

"Stick to only one of the two common sayings" he quips tiredly.

With a wolfish grin I continue, unbothered "-I know it’s a great achievement, and I’m very happy for you, but for how hard you may try to explain it to me, I’m probably never understanding just how great this machinery is… I mean, I barely know how to code, solely thanks to you, and you want me to be happy for a 'machine'? I’m here for you, not for it. but still, going from science-fiction to 'real science-non-fiction' sounds neat" I finish with a double finger-bang and wink combo, directed at him.

"Whatever man. Still, thanks for being here, I appreciate it" he says with a kind but exasperated smile, "but now, could you help me set up the chairs for the event?" he quickly adds, while pointing with one of his thumbs to a “castle” made up of piled up white plastic chairs, with a guilty expression.

"So, the truth comes out in the end, you just needed free manpower, and you could get at least one more person by calling me" I slowly enunciate.

"More life half a person"

"Fuck you!"

"…Still helping?"

"Sure, but you've got to split the towers at half-height, they're too tall for me right now"

"No problem"

After the quick back-and-forth, we get to work, and we ended up getting to a decent point, just in time for other staff members to start trickling in and start on their part (Mostly more technical stuff, like the sound system).

* * *

Once done, I decide to join the people on the second row, because I don't want to have whoever is talking to be constantly sending assuming glances my way (probably thinking 'who brought a child here?', and such), but neither do I want to rescind the benefit of being the first one to get here (and helping with the set up to boot), meaning that I still get 'premium' seating.

Soon I see Raymond’s parents and send a wave their way, to which they respond in kind with a smile, and seat themselves in their reserved chairs, right in front of me (another reason for the choice of my seating). We end up chatting for I while, and by that, I mean me and miss. Lichtman ends up chatting; Mr. Lichtman is as austere and taciturn as they come, but that’s what I like about him; we had just finished catching up on each other’s life when a plump elderly lady got on stage a started asking for silence.

And~… time to tune out everything: I'm sorry, but she even looks like she knows that what she's saying is incredibly boring, bland, and all-around uninteresting (well, maybe it's interesting for people in the 'hard-on for physics club', like Raymond, but that's not me).

Oh, wait, she’s welcoming Raymond on stage, better to start listening again:

"Thank you, director, for the kind words. And now, without further ado, let me be the one to welcome humanity into the realm of what we thought was only part of science-fiction, by starting the Lichtman Collider!" he says, with a stilted air about him.

What I thought was a white sheet in the background was revealed to be a big-ass screen, that was now showing the video of a massive tube ('massive' compared to the people that were walking around it, at least) made of silvery metal, a couple of gold and black bands going around it, and big see-through sections.

Raymond trusted a hand to the skies, which, embarrassingly, took a moment to notice, held a device with a big glowing red button on top of it: he then pressed said button with an audible *BOOP* and grinned at the audience, with his gaze focusing mostly between his parents and me.

Light started going through the collider, visible from the see-through section.

"Let the new era for humanity, BEGIN!" he said, with excited emphasis at the end, while everyone stood up and started clapping for him, including me.

And then the earth began to violently shake (and I do mean that literally).

I, and the rest of the people present, were yote ("the past tense of yeet, you uncultured pricks") off our feet, and thrown a good meter or two backward. But it didn’t end there, I wish it did, the shaking got more and more violent, almost unbearably so, to the point that I could feel my bones rattling.

And that’s when, in the middle of piled-up bodies, with the ground cracking and fissuring under us, I noticed the collider, on-screen, starting to glow purple.

"That’s a weird purple."

That’s when I noticed that the purple glow was starting to suffuse everything in sight: Slowly, but inexorably, I somehow ended up alone, while everything else was simply 'purple', even me.

And yet, it wasn’t just purple, it wasn’t really a color, but that’s the only way my brain could process it… at least at first: you see, once my eyes (or brain, or however else I was able to perceive at the moment) got acclimated at the sights I noticed that there was a light that was moving, and warping itself in a never-before-seen iridescences.

I also noticed that it was simultaneously trying to drill itself inside of my very being, while substituting what it found for itself; and the more I stared at it, the more it seemed to work harder in trying to accomplish whatever it was doing.

“Why wasn’t the multi-color body replacement bothering me?”, was what I thought about, when a brief moment of clarity presented itself.

That lasted until it completed the 'replacing', and then I saw the horror, oh the horror! THE HORROR!

"WHAT THE FU-" but I never finished that out-loud thought.

Because at that moment the void came, and there wasn't anything left to perceive, even inside myself.

Except for pure darkness.