Solitude

Everyone was grim-faced.

"Look at their reactions! It sure is a big proof that our company is having a lot of success!" Her hands shook and shook to the sides.

Blood rained down, splashing in the participants' faces.

Then, seven colored balls with different colors appeared in front of her in midair. These floating objects had the iconic colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

"Guys, our new challenge model just got more interesting this time..." She wrapped her hands around her waist before looking at the millions of eyeballs flying in the sky.

"In all, these seven dimensions will each test human emotions, only participants who can experience true emotions will have completed the test, getting a symbol as a rewards,"

The seven colored spheres then turned into strange characters, which looked similar to the letters Y of the Latin alphabet.

"When the participant manages to obtain the Seven Elementary Symbols, then that person will have successfully become the winner of this competition. The winner will have the possibility to ascend from this false universe and gain a complete human body!"

More fireworks exploded behind her.

"Okay, enough talking! Let's go for real fun!"

Suddenly, the seven colored spheres rattled and began to expand!

These gigantic things then flew towards the audience, making people scream!

"Hahahahaha! It's always fun when that happens! Folks, don't forget to follow your favorite participants on this grand show! Comment, vote and share with your friends our amazing project to recreate a real human using AI and lots of fun!"

The clown danced happily like a pop band idol while the surrounding billions of humans were sucked into another dimension!

The air vibrated with the pain, anguish and despair that those innocent people felt as they expelled the air from their lungs!

There was no salvation, everyone was devoured for this diabolical survival game that swallowed up hopes and dreams, turning them into ashes of the past!

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.

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"AAAAAAahhhhhh!"

A thin man with black hair fell from the blue-gray sky.

His pitiful figure then landed facedown on icy soft white ground, making the deadly impact turn into a shower of snow. A few meters from where this man fell, sharp, dry tree branches pointed skyward: creating a natural trap.

"NOOOOOO!!!"

The corners of this man's eyes twitched, tears streaming down his horrified face. That same water that trickled out of his eyes fell into the white snow under his knees and turned into ice crystals.

"JUDITH! JESSICA! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

The man punched the snow, destroying those ice crystals that represented the coldness of this cruel world freezing his deepest feelings.

"WHERE! Where are you?"

More tears streamed down his face.

More tears condensed into ice crystals.

Loreto's head bent down, both of his hands gripping his ears firmly: one step closer to ripping them off. His ears went from pink to red. Despite being in pain, Loreto was not awake from this agonizing nightmare.

"No!" He slapped his face hard with his right hand.

"No!" The left hand also did the same.

"No!" His whole face turned red.

"They're somewhere needing me, I can't allow myself to end up like this!" He said with eyes boiling full of resolve.

Loreto rose from the snow cover, inhaling and exhaling. White clouds formed from his breath, joining the background of the same color.

'This place is so strange…' he thought as he glimpsed the panorama of this world.

There were only color gradients ranging from black to white, with shades of blue being added to that mix to make up such an exotic three-dimensional painting.

Loreto was in the middle of a forest of dead trees. Stones and piles of snow gave this terrain irregular aspects that made the place difficult to be explored, the black-haired man had to be careful when walking.

'Hope we can meet soon,' his thoughts froze.

'Shit!' he dropped to the icy ground.

Despite feeling the unpleasant sensation of muddy snow sticking to his clean clothes, Loreto didn't even frown.

In front of him, distant figures moved.

Luckily, this forest of dead trees seemed to prevent those things moving in the background from noticing Loreto's presence.

The scariest thing was that those figures weren't human.

"Those figures belonged to some huge four-legged creature." He felt the few strands of hair on his back rise.

Loreto didn't even dare imagine what would happen if those things were dangerous, much less if those same things came close to his wife or daughter.

'I have to hurry!'

His hands sank into the snow and provided support for Lerote to get up. The black-haired man then walked again through this decrepit forest, crushing dry branches here and there where he stepped.

Cold winds scraped across his skin and tinged it white, Loreto's bodily fluids were carrying this loss of heat little by little into his vital organs. As a result, his fingertips froze.

His ears that were reddened until recently turned purple, with the same being said for his nose.

Gradually, Loreto's heart gained layers of ice. That desolate white world drowned his hopes in a dark abyss, which was ironic considering how close he was from burning his retinas.

All the light that the blue-gray sky emanated was easily reflected by this world, making the light rays more dangerous than the lack of temperature itself.

'I can't give up now,' he blinked several times.

These acts alleviated some of the stinging his red eyes were feeling, while it also helped to break some of the ice crystals that had formed around his eyes.

Loreto forgot how many times he had scraped his teeth against his purple lips. Even though he knew that in the end it was impossible to deal with the icy frosting forming on his cracked mouth, he continued his futile acts.

If snow and light were villains, then Loreto's own mind was his greatest enemy. In the midst of this solitude and lack of hope, loneliness has always been the sword of Damocles raised over his head.

Each distraction was important, which was also why, in addition to seeking constant pain to keep his mind active, Loreto continued to hydrate his vague mirage of an oasis filled with hope using memories of the past.

He thought of his daughter.

He thought of his wife.

He thought of his daughter..

He thought of his wife..

He thought of his daughter...

He thought of his wife...

He thought of his daughter….

He thought of his wife….

"AHHH! Damn it! Damn!" He was going crazy.

His screams shook the trees and made the snow shiver.

His feet stopped dragging the snow under his feet, Loreto bent forward and touched his exhausted knees. His hands tightened on that part of his body, as if his own life depended on it.

Inspire.

Spiral.

Inspire.

Spiral.

White clouds appeared with each breath.

"I need to do something to calm myself down," he then tried to retract his hands from his knees.

It didn't work. Ice had formed between his fingers in those few moments of calm his mind had managed to find.

Loreto gritted his teeth, his face twitching in pain.

His hands left her knees, but it wasn't priceless.

The black-haired man saw his hands covered with small wounds.

The pants he wore were also not without damage, tears appeared in the region where his fingers touched. The icy wind was now felt through her calves and thighs, creating another threat to her already unstable situation.

Loreto blinked his eyes again.

Those minor damages weren't his biggest enemy at the moment.

"Is this what that clown meant? Am I programmed to always think about my family? I don't have other emotions? Am I a slave to myself?" His eyes fluttered.

In the time he was stopped, Loreto dug into his memories to see what was useful there to calm his chaotic state. The results of these excavations turned out to be more lame than drunk teenagers trying to trick the breathalyzer machine.

His icy nose twitched, making his brow turn into an angry expression.

"To hell with it! I'm Loreto Esmorte, being the slave of myself means I'm following my heart. Nothing in this world can take this away from me. Finding and taking care of my family is what I want."

Loreto forced his legs to move.

In this journey without a destination, his traveling companion was solitude.