Nothingness
When people hear "Nothingness," they often imagine a pitch-black void. But that's just an image, a trick of the mind. True nothingness? It's beyond perception—an absence even of darkness itself.
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In 1970, a group of scientists secretly launched a spaceship to an alien planet. The inhabitants, who called themselves Aetherians, welcomed the humans, sharing their knowledge and technology. The Aetherians' world, Aetheria, was sustained by eight powerful energy spheres, all derived from a massive core called Vorux, capable of producing limitless energy.
However, the humans, driven by greed, stole Vorux before departing the planet. Realizing the magnitude of their crime, they hid the sphere deep underground and disbanded, each carrying the burden of their betrayal in silence.
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In the pitch-black depths of a room forgotten by time, where hope was a distant memory, a creaking door shattered the silence. The sound was like the death rattle of an ancient, withered man. Footsteps echoed, their presence more felt than heard, until the silence swallowed them whole.
"Silence? That's what you've chosen?" a serious, masculine voice pierced the darkness, dripping with disdain.
Suddenly, three torches flared to life, held by three men dressed in black from head to toe. Their faces were hidden, but their intent was clear. The old man leading them stepped forward, his eyes filled with a cold fury.
"What a waste!" he spat, his voice rising from a calm murmur to a thunderous roar. His fist slammed into the wall beside a young woman. Her body was a canvas of agony, bruises, and blood covering her like a second skin. Her hands were cruelly shackled, metal rods driven through them, shattering bones with each brutal strike. Without hesitation, the old man yanked the rod from the wall, and the woman's scream echoed, a harrowing symphony of pain.
"Why do you need a vocal cord if you don't use it?" he mocked, his voice venomous. He thrust the rod into her mouth, tearing through flesh and bone. The sound of her scream reverberated in the darkness, a horrifying wail that refused to die.
As he turned to leave, he noticed the woman, miraculously still alive, struggling to remove the rod from her shattered jaw. His eyes narrowed with irritation. He returned, pulling out the other rod that pinned her hand. Gripping the rod in her mouth, he struck it against the other, igniting them both. The flames consumed her broken body in an instant, her screams finally silenced.
The three men holding the torches chuckled, their laughter a chilling counterpoint to the horrific scene. "Prepare everything," the old man commanded coldly. "I'm heading out. Don't mess up."
---
Far from this nightmare, a much different scene was unfolding. "Come on! I told you I'd buy you a new one when we get back!" Mushfik Shahriar Shayaan's exasperated voice echoed through the bus. He was trying to placate his friend, Akib Ahsinan, whose lunch—an eagerly anticipated bento—had fallen victim to Shayaan's appetite.
"Yeah? Are you planning to travel back in time and hand it over to me?" Akib shot back, his tone brimming with irritation.
Before Akib could finish, Shayaan interrupted, "I'm not dumb enough to create a paradox!"
"Shut the hell up!" Akib screamed, more out of frustration than anger, as he climbed up the ladder to the bus roof, seeking solitude.
"Just leave him," Mr. Mahim, their teacher, suggested with a shrug. "He'll eventually forget about it. We're running late, and if we delay any longer, it'll be midnight by the time we reach Sylhet. We promised your parents we'd be back before nightfall."
"Fine," Shayaan conceded, heading toward the bus. As he climbed aboard, he called out, "Watch your head when we pass under the bridge!"
"No one asked you to be my babysitter," Akib shot back from the roof.
"So you admit you're a baby, huh?" Shayaan quipped, earning a round of laughter from everyone below. Akib clenched his fists, forcing himself to stay calm as Mr. Mahim signaled the driver to start the engine.
---
The bus journey was lively, music and dancing filling the air as the students enjoyed their trip. Meanwhile, Akib, still stewing over his lost lunch, had drifted into a restless sleep on the roof, his head resting on his backpack.
Without warning, he jolted awake, an unease settling over him. He rubbed his eyes and sat up, just in time for disaster to strike. The bus passed under a low bridge, and Akib, unaware, was knocked off with brutal force. He tumbled from the roof, hitting the ground with a sickening thud. Blood oozed from a gash on his head, and his backpack lay scattered beside him.
Then, out of nowhere, a bullet tore through the air, striking him in the chest.
---
Akib slowly opened his eyes, pain searing through every fiber of his being. He tried to roll over, only to be met with excruciating agony. He found himself lying on a mystical, glowing surface, its light strange and unsettling. His head throbbed violently, visions swirling before his eyes as he struggled to maintain consciousness. As he teetered on the edge of reality, he fell off the surface, plummeting into darkness.
Just before he blacked out, a drop of blood splashed onto his face. Through his blurry vision, he glimpsed something drenched in red but couldn't make sense of it. His heart, which was on the right side due to his rare condition, Extracardiar, was the only reason he was still alive.
---
In a distant part of the city, a ragged rickshaw driver pulled up to a dimly lit alley. His clothes were torn and stained, his frail body barely clinging to life. "Is this the place, sir?" he asked, his voice trembling.
"Yes, it is," replied the man in a black suit, his tone devoid of warmth. Without warning, he raised his briefcase and smashed it against the driver's head, the impact leaving the man bleeding and unconscious in the gutter.
---
An hour had passed since the bus set off. The students inside were still absorbed in their merriment, oblivious to the chaos unfolding outside. But inside Akib's mind, a storm was brewing.
He awoke, dazed and disoriented, in a cell. His hallucinations had ceased, but the pain remained, a constant reminder of his fragile state. Somehow, he managed to stand, though his legs threatened to give out beneath him. He stumbled toward the cell bars, closing his eyes for a moment.
In that brief instant, he felt as though he were slipping into another world, a place far removed from reality. But as quickly as the sensation came, it vanished, leaving him with the blaring sound of a siren and the unsettling realization that he was no longer in the cell.
With no time to think, he ran, fear driving him forward through the darkness. He was a hunted animal, desperate and lost. When he collided with what he thought was a wall, he realized it was a metal door. A screen lit up, but his vision was too blurred to make sense of it. He instinctively placed his hand on what seemed to be a handprint scanner. The screen flashed red, and another alarm blared.
But against all odds, the door creaked open. He stumbled inside, and the room exploded with light.
---
"Is it safe to enter the Conduit's room?" a grunt asked nervously into his microphone.
"Yes, it is. Eliminating an intruder takes priority over everything else," a cold voice replied from the control room. "He's right in front of you, next to the center table!"
One of the grunts, trembling with fear, stepped forward, wielding a metal rod adorned with blue patterns. As he neared the table, Akib could see the terror in his eyes, the fear of someone they called the Conduit. The grunt took a deep breath, then screamed, "It's all over for you, intruder!" and swung the rod.
Akib barely managed to dodge, the weapon crashing into the floor with a deafening impact. As he looked back, he realized the rod could channel electricity. His entire body ached, the pain from his earlier ordeal amplifying his terror. He staggered backward into a bookshelf, sending books and papers cascading down around him.
The grunt struck again, and this time Akib had nowhere to run. Desperation drove him to grab the nearest object for defense—a rolled-up piece of paper.
With no hope left, he closed his eyes, bracing for the end. But instead of pain, he felt a strange sensation, a powerful surge of electricity coursing through him. The paper in his hand caught fire, but the shock didn't harm him. Instead, it caused a massive power overload, the room shaking violently as the lights flickered and died.
When reinforcements arrived with torches, they found the room in disarray, the grunts unconscious on the floor, and Akib nowhere to be seen.