Shards of your voice: Chapter 1: ...

Where were they?

That was their first thought, as far as they remembered. It was possible they had asked themselves the question before, but the answer couldn't be much different from their current guess. Their sight was met with nothing but empty space, stretching as far back, up and down as their vision would let them see. They could tell they weren't blind as they could faintly pick up dark red patterns that painted the darkness around them. Were they unconscious? Could you even have dreams about theorizing about being unconscious while actually being it? It seemed unlikely, so they cast the thought aside. Relying on uncertainty diddn't seem so wise. They didn't think they were dreaming, as they felt too aware of everything for this to be a dream.

Were they dead?

It didn't seem too out there. After all, they were stuck in an endless void, it could easily be the afterlife. Their soul and consciousness were the only thing they were sure they had, as they felt as "awake" as a supposedly dead person could be. They didn't exactly see or feel a body either, if they ever had one to begin with. Not that they remembered how they died.

What did they remember?

They tried to recollect their memory. Possible name? They had no clue. Former appearance? Nothing came to mind. Previous life, any experiences at all? Again, nothing came to-

No thats not right.

There was one memory, a sentence spoken by someone, that remained engraved in their mind.

"No, please! Stop!"

The voice scared them. It was at a decent high pitch and it sounded like it was yelling, begging, crying for... for something.

Was this their final moment? Was it their own voice, pleading for mercy before they ended up here? It was certainly possible, but it didn't feel right. Something was off about the memory, it felt important. More important than one's only memory would normally be at least. Have they remembered this before? We're they stuck in an infinite loop of revelation and speculation?

Not like there was anything else to do when you're stuck in the presumed afterlife. They mentally sighed and once again looked over the dark horizons, stretching as far as they could see. They supposed they could go "blood coloured cloud-gazing" to distract themselves until something came to mind. The dark red spots on the vast null all moved around independently and yet, there was still something symbiotic about them. They moved at the same speed and were all cloudy and somewhat thin in nature.

It was ridiculous how bored they were. Was this all life, or rather the afterlife, was about? It could only have been 3 minutes since they begun staring at clouds and the "activity", if you could call it that, was so monotonous they were already sick of it. Not to mention that irritating sound of glass rattling from somewhere that broke their concentration.

Where was that stressing noise coming from anyway? They turned their field of view around and searched for the source of it. They looked around for some time, until they spotted something. It wasn't easy to make out, but there was no mistaking it. Tiny white speckles of light were floating in midair, sticking out like a sore thumb in the otherwise complete darkness. It reminded them of small cracks on a window, with their lightning-like shape and glass-like sound when suddenly appearing. It intrigued them. What did this light mean? Was it common to see, what looked like scars in reality, in this dimension? Could it help them get out?

Their train of thought went on about this until they realised that the fracturing and the sound that followed had stopped. They felt disappointed, but remained hopeful, so they waited fully determined that the cracks would reappear again soon. Not that they had much else to do. What felt like a minute passed and the void was still completely silent. Did this only happen rarely? Would the fissures of light in front of them soon start to disappear? They knew that if they did, their hope would most likely disappear with-

Their thoughts were immediatly cast aside as another light cut through the darkness. They were excited to then see another one, this one much larger than the previous ones.

And then everything exploded.

Suddenly, everything fell apart and white light bursted from the cracks, engulfing them in an extreme blast of energy. They felt no pain as their vision was blinded by the intense light, that then suddenly changed into patterns of sharp red and blue colours. A deafening roar cried out, overwhelming them as they felt their very existence quiver. They collected themselves and stared at the vortex in front of them. If there was any time to escape the previous nothingness, it was now. They summoned up all their willpower and slowly pulled themselves towards the now open window out of here. They felt the vortex suddenly gripping at them and then inhale them as they were pulled through.

They Saw nothing but pitchblack darkness.

Darkness.

Darkness.

…

…

…

…

And then...

…

Light.

Suddenly, they felt very, very tired.

Thank you for reading the first chapter of this little story I'm writing. This is my first fic, so please, do leave a review and criticism so that I can write something better in the future. If you have a question, please don't be afraid to ask as well.