The Skyscraper

It was cold and dark. I couldn't see where I was nor do I even know if I was still alive. The feeling was suffocating; I could feel the darkness eating away the very last piece of my existence. It creeps in closer and closer to me… then I lost consciousness.

I regained my consciousness only to find myself lying in the middle of the road. The smell of broken and age-old asphalt that was somehow nauseating. I raised my head and saw everything. The place seemed like it has completely succumbed to darkness. The sky was filled with a thick haze of smog that as if the clouds themselves are black and beyond it is the emptiness of space devoid of bright stars. A swirling vortex was not too far away but the place I was in seems to have no wind at all. The cars, the road, even the nearby buildings all seemed they have aged for years and was never touched since. A few distance from me, I saw a very old and ruined helicopter, from the looks of it, it probably crashed or was crushed by something big. Near it was a skeleton, with a very tattered clothing. I couldn't make what clothes it was but it seemed like a long sleeve.

I was alone with no trace of life to be found anywhere near me. Then I saw it, a skyscraper so tall that I could not even see where it ends. It stretched so far up that the thick haze and black clouds covered up the rest. I felt uneasy; something about the skyscraper doesn't feel right. It felt so… artificial, as if it wasn't there before and it was made to look like that just to fit in with everything around it. Despite this I somehow felt compelled to go to it. It felt like it was calling me towards it, that I was meant to be there. I decided to walk closer to it and check it out for myself. I have nowhere else to go and the skyscraper feels like a good place to start.

I approached closer to the door when I felt a chill down my spine. I could feel someone's gaze piercing through me. I looked back and around and found nothing. I shrugged it off; it might just be my own nervousness. The place alone… or even the world itself seems to have gone extinct, so it's unlikely that there's someone else other than me. I took a pause and re-examined my surroundings. The place feels so familiar, as if I've seen it before back when it was still full of life. From the distant right of the skyscraper I was certain there used to be two small stores there and they were across from one another, on the left side was a building, a compound that I've always wanted to go into. Yes, the memories are there but, I just can't grip it enough to realize where I am. Vehicles were parked near the vicinity of the skyscraper. Rustic and very old, judging by the models it would seem like they were vehicles from the early 80's. Why would they be that old and yet I feel like I've been here? The questions just made me even more uneasy. I glanced towards the skyscraper once more, my breathing becomes heavy and the air feels like it's starting to fall onto me. I started to feel dizzy, my knees felt like pasta being slowly boiled in hot water. I fell on my knees to the ground, I was getting weaker and weaker by the second and my vision was blacking out bit by bit. The darkness was starting to eat me away again. I tried to grasp the handle of the door with my last ounce of strength but it wasn't enough. I couldn't push the door. Then it appeared; a hand, I saw it within the split second before the darkness completely ate my vision away, it phased through the glass door. I felt it grab me by my shirt and pull me towards it.

I felt my body hit the ground, it was marble. I was weak, my eyes were open but the darkness has taken my vision away. I lay on the ground helpless and then… I lost consciousness.