《Life, Death and Other Troubles》Chapter 2 - Solitude

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Drifting in a sea of swirling darkness lay a bright, translucent, pale blue orb.

Flickering, it struggled against the never ending waves of darkness crashing into it from all sides.

The wispy orb of light grew dimmer and dimmer until the darkness consumed it, extinguishing the anomaly.

The lone orb was a remnant of life, an unstable ball of thoughts, emotions and feelings.

A soul.

The soul was weak, struggling against the ferocious storm of darkness that swept it away, deeper and deeper into the depths of the everlasting void.

Barely fighting back the dark, the orb grew afraid, terrified of what was to come, unable to comprehend what was happening with its limited cognitive functioning.

The darkness wrapped around the orb, sucking it in, while simultaneously pushing it out.

The dark had no laws, no physics and no limits or boundaries, it darkness was an untamed beast and the orb could no longer put up any resistance.

So it stopped.

It let the currents of the void sweep it away, further and further, deeper and deeper, hoping for change, hoping for an end to it’s never ending nightmare.

Later, the raging currents of darkness slowed down, leaving the orb to slowly drift amongst the dark, left alone to its thoughts.

There was no understanding of time here, things happened as they came and that was all, no units of anything, no constructs and no constraints… for the dark at least.

The orb lost track of everything, including its own thoughts, it was as if it thought everything at the same time and yet, at the same time, it thought nothing, forever.

Slow waves of darkness carried the orb elsewhere, they carried it everywhere, the movement was calming and all the feelings of uneasiness and distress vanished, leaving peace.

The orb was stuck in a dreamlike state, reminiscing on its short life.

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It was if it was merely a very long dream that it’d just woken up from, perhaps it was and perhaps it could have another?

Yet now, it could recall each and every memory with accurate detail, from having his nappies changed as a baby to the most recent lottery numbers on television.

It was… surreal.

At some point later or maybe it was at some point beforehand, the orb was plunged back out of its dream-state and returned to the everlasting waves of darkness.

Nothing changed… ever.

It was always the same, pure darkness everywhere, the orb grew worried, and would it be this way forever?

Or has it been forever already?

The orb sought meaning, it sought something, anything, anything but the dark… and it happened.

The darkness began to transform, the currents grew stronger, the orb sunk down deeper into their depths and the entire void shook all around it.

The void intensified, pressure came down upon the orb from everywhere and it screeched in pain as the darkness crumple around it.

Colour bled through the dark, browns, greys, whites, reds, greens and yellows seeped in from everywhere before they all collided and the darkness shattered around it, blinding its perception of everything.

The intense pressure lightened and the darkness was swept away to reveal… the orb’s old apartment from his old life, exactly the same as always.

Paint peeling from the walls, rotting floor, a terrible bed shoved in the corner of the room and the orb’s massive book collection that went up the entire wall on one side of the room, with not a single speck of dust or dirt touching them.

The orb slowly hovered over to the bookcase, shrouded in disbelief before the room shook violently.

The books fell from the bookcase, the bed sunk into the floor and cracks rapidly spread across the walls.

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Plaster fell from the roof and directly through the orb, crashing through the rotting floor and into a world of white below.

Walls crumbled, shelves collapsed and the entire apartment fell away down into the depths of a world of pure white, leaving the orb drifting alone, watching its former life fall away into an endless abyss of white light.

Hovering, free, the orb wondered what to do next, there were no longer any forces controlling it and it could freely drift wherever it wished.

Slowly it hovered, floating through the dead abyss for what it seemed like forever… again.

Gradually, an odd aura swept over the orb, and it could feel a slight resistance repelling it.

Intrigued with the difference, the orb continued forwards and the resistance grew more and more intense.

Soon after constant struggling in what it seemed as an endless, pointless struggle, something finally happened.

A small spec of colour could be spotted far in the distance with no particular structure or shape yet, but a goal was finally in sight.

Dutifully and gradually the orb progressed further and further, inching its way forward to its goal.

********

In a world of white that lacked anything was a tall thin man, he had deathly pale skin and long black hair that went down to his shoulders.

Other than that, the rest of his features were… unclear.

He had no features, only a body type and dull, he wore simple clothing and his face was just a blurry haze like somebody had tried to rub it off with an eraser.

He sat in a simple wooden chair underneath an oil lamp letting off a pleasant yellow glow that was rendered meaningless by the intense white glow of the abyss.

The man was completely absorbed in reading a book; it was a thick, heavy looking one with as many pages as he’d have hairs.

Abruptly, he stood up and stared blankly into the distance, apparently looking at something.

He then just put his book down and walked off into the abyss, leaving behind his chair and book for he had gone to meet the books subject, a small blue orb of light that had wondered into the nothingness that he called home.

********

Midway through its journey, the lonely orb froze in terror, unable to move as waves of vicious terror surged through him, pressure bearing down on him from everywhere.

In the distance, he could see it, a tall figure slowly walking towards it.

A variety of emotions were brought up by this new change, joy, unease, hope, terror, expectation but most of all, fear.

The figure continued walking towards the orb, knowing not of its struggle, drowning it in his almighty aura.

Pressure slammed into the orb violently and squirmed around, trying to seep inside it, the orb screaming out in agony.

Right before the figure could be made out, the orb could no longer withstand the pressure and simple split in two, its weak blue light completely fading away in the white light.

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