Paramecium-like

The flat, round inner layered creature that looked like paramecium with short appendages at edges has been with Elias since the beginning. It fed on his memories and the little emotion it got and fed it back in the form of a movie. 

It wanted to evoke an extreme emotion. Such as rage, panic, despair or deep longing… And that will open a gate for it to gain what it needs from Elias.

There were other creatures smaller and bigger but this Paramecium-like creature seemed more imposing and to those that are above it, didn't seem interested in Elias.

In that darkness, time is only a concept and relative. Hours can feel like seconds, days, months, or centuries.

One creature can feel weeks have passed and for the other, it was just a fleeting moment of seconds.

On the scale, Elias's patient can be ordered as Great Centurion.

It was well known to everyone that any life form, no matter how miserable their life was they still tried to struggle to live.

Killing someone just because they are suffering might never be the solution as even if they seek death at the last stroke that will end their life there will be a Will to live stemming from their very being.

Suicide survivors gave a refreshing testimony to that. Explaining that at that very last moment when they jumped off the roof, or they pulled the trigger or jumped under a train, or did anything that would kill themselves, there was this weird sensation that went against everything they were willingly doing.

A Will to survive. A hope that they pass the ordeal they desperately seek on their own. And if they do survive, there was a grand relief that washed away all their worries, even the ones that forced them to commit suicide. 

Either the will to survive was bodily instincts or stem from the soul, it doesn't matter, but it was often depicted as fire or flame, that keeps one going no matter the odds.

No matter how odd Elias was, the raging flame that depicts his will to survive was raging, despite the seemingly countless hours that passed.

However, Will was never endless. 

The creature that wants Elias was the embodiment of patience, it can wait until Elias's flame dies down and then he will be its own for the taking!

The raging inferno slightly and surely reduces in size amidst the endless journey to the dark endless abyss. By the time the flame was just like a wick of a candle that was on the barge of dying, Elias' legs touched solid ground and that gave oil to the flame!

Elias stood and looked around. It was his human instinct but he doesn't see with his eyes anymore, but rather with his body.

Just two-meter sight from any part of his body is visible in what seems to be a dimmed blue colour! 

He stood trying to gain his bearing, the wick flame trying to grow by jolting his memory up. He sensed his surroundings before he chose a direction to walk. With no fatigue whatsoever, no element that may hinder his movement, Elias walked for an unknown amount of time.

The dying flame that was desperately trying to grow lost its fuel and then began to die again. Suddenly, Elias trips and falls. That jolted his memories to remember something. Well, anything relating to tripping.

If he can see he would have seen a long serpentine creature coiled around him, trying to feed on his fear but void of any emotions and memories to elicit that, it needed to make Elias remember something relating to that from his life.

Indirectly reignited the dying flames.

And Elia's non-existence sub-consciousness was also reignited, making Elias behave with more logical instincts.

Before Elias woke up completely the Serpentine-like creature was attacked by the Paramecium-like creature and then were embroiled in killing each.

Though Elias was in the middle of the conflict he was not affected much. Only extreme exhaustion hits him whenever they pass through his body. 

Unlike the Serpentine-like creature, the Paramecium-like creature knew for sure that Elias can't be obtained through his memories. Only through the void mind, he was talented at. 

Gradually, the passion to Survive which was the Flame will die out and be the husk of a human with no mind of its own. And then... he will be for the taken.

Unfortunately, another creature has foiled everything.

The battles bring about a crack in the dark and Elias finds himself in an empty dark city. The sky is dark and the floor is dark, only some objects shine with a dimmed light.

Elias walked unperturbed by the eerie grim dark alley and gradually, his eyes were able to take in shapes. His mind is returning to normal.

And he saw something. He wasn't alone. The place is teeming with dried corpses. 

As he passed a presumed corpse, it moved and cracked its eyes open, staring at Elias with a husk of dried up eyes.

The dried person wanted to move but he couldn't, and this slight movement caused his body to crack and break apart. The closest object which was a rusty hammer glowed and became part of those few objects that barely illuminated their area!

Elias sighed and walked forward. His eyes trained on those that are barely alive. There are male, female, young, adult and old...

*Yaaaa*

Elias heard a baby crying and he moved in that direction as he turned a corner he saw a shadowy figure of a lone woman bending, looking at the crying baby.

Elias stopped as he stared at the long woman, he himself was like a child before her. And she looked at him, her face having only swirling darkness that threatened to swallow him. 

But she was startled by him too as she quickly took the baby and ran away.

His heart beat and he turned around as fear was gradually creeping on him. His awakening mind was trying to understand who he was and what he was doing here.

Elias roamed around in the dark city, meeting different strange creatures and dried humans. 

He bent and picked a dried living boy but the boy broke. He tried helping some but in the end, they always broke apart and died making the closest object glow.

"Are you human?"