Void
His body felt weightless, untethered from the constraints of gravity. His limbs drifted aimlessly, seemingly disconnected from any sense of direction or purpose. He tried to move his arm, to reach out into the void, but the command never reached his muscles. His body remained still. The sensation was unnerving, as if he had become a prisoner within his own form.
He had become a formless cloud, a wisp of consciousness lost in the all-consuming darkness.
Daron tried to think, but his thoughts seemed lost in a thick fog, fragmented and elusive, making it hard to think clearly. Daron struggled to grasp onto something real, but his mind remained numb and unresponsive.
Time lost all meaning in this realm of nothingness, seconds bleeding into minutes, hours into days… Or perhaps no time had passed at all and he was trapped in a single, eternal moment. The oppressive darkness pressed in from all sides, suffocating and infinite.
Fragments of memories drifted through the haze of his mind, tantalizingly close yet always out of reach. Fleeting images of his parents flickered in his mind's eye, their faces distorted and indistinct. A profound sense of loss welled up within him, but the numbness dulled its edges, leaving him hollow and detached.
Daron wanted to scream, to shatter the silence that engulfed him, but no sound escaped his lips. The void swallowed everything, even his own voice. He was trapped in a world without sensation, without connection, a lonely soul cast adrift in an ocean of emptiness.
Daron tried to close his eyes, but it made no difference. The blackness penetrated his very being, seeping into every crack and crevice of his consciousness. He felt himself sinking deeper, the fog thickening with each passing moment.
Out of nowhere, a sound caught his attention. A whisper, faint and distorted, drifted through the void. It brushed against Daron's consciousness, a silken touch that sent ripples through the stillness. A sensation, finally!
He strained his ears, trying to catch the elusive sound, but it slipped away like smoke through his fingers.
The voice came again, a distant echo that seemed to originate from the very depths of the abyss. Daron focused on the sound, his mind grasping at the fragmented words that floated through the darkness.
"Da...ron..." The syllables of his name, broken and incomplete, drifted to him from across an immeasurable distance. The voice was unfamiliar, its tone ethereal and haunting, yet it resonated with a strange sense of familiarity. Although Daron had never heard the voice before, he felt a deep connection to it. It was as if it were a part of his innermost being. Daron tried to respond, to call out to the unseen speaker, but his own voice remained trapped within the confines of his throat. The fog that enveloped his mind thickened, muffling his thoughts and dulling his senses yet again.
"...ou...re...ot...alo..." The voice whispered, its words disjointed and cryptic.
The voice grew fainter, its presence flickering like a dying candle flame.
Who was this mysterious being reaching out to him? What did it want? Daron tried to hold onto the sound, desperate for any connection, any anchor in this realm of isolation. But the words dissipated, swallowed by the darkness, leaving him once again alone with his thoughts.
Frustration and confusion warred within him, the emotions muted by the inescapable numbness that clung to his being. The voice had offered a glimmer of hope, a promise of something beyond this empty existence, but it had vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
He tried to summon the voice again, to will it back into existence. But only silence greeted him.
For a moment, the loneliness had lessened, but now it returned with full force, like a tidal wave ready to consume him. It was more than just an emotion; it felt like a physical presence, like tendrils wrapping around his heart and squeezing until he thought he might break. These icy tendrils seemed to be pulling him deeper and deeper into its cold embrace.
It was a seductive call, a promise of oblivion that whispered to the darkest corners of his soul.
"No," he thought, fighting against the encroaching darkness with every ounce of his being. "I won't let you take me. I won't give in."
But even as the words formed in his mind, he could feel his resolve wavering. The temptation to surrender, to allow the void to claim him, whispered irresistibly in his ear. It's insidious influence seeped into his mind like a poison. It promised an end to the pain, the loneliness. It offered a release from the burden of existence—a chance to finally rest.
Daron's mind grew heavy. It would be so easy to let go, to drift into oblivion and leave his pain behind.
But then suddenly, as if to save him, a memory surfaced. His parents' faces, smiling and full of love, their hands reaching out to him, guiding him forward.
"I can't. I have to keep going. I have to avenge them!"
The void recoiled at his words, as if the very mention of his parents was a threat to its existence. The pressure lessened, the icy tendrils retreating like shadows before the dawn.
And in that moment, Daron felt a flicker of hope—a tiny spark that burned brightly against the darkness.
He clung to that spark, nurturing it with every fiber of his being. It was a fragile thing—a candle flame in a howling wind—but it was all he had. As he focused on that light, on the love and memories that sustained him, he felt the void's grip loosening, its power diminishing.
The shadows kept trying to creep closer, threatening to extinguish the tiny glimmer of hope that he clung onto with all his might. He fought on. Every fiber of his being strained against the encroaching darkness, determined to keep that flicker burning bright. He kept nourishing the small spark of hope within him, coaxing it to grow into a blazing flame of desire. The determination to avenge the tragic death of his beloved parents burned fiercely within his chest, fueling his ambition.
He refused to let the oppressive weight of despair overwhelm him, even as it clawed at his mind and soul. With every ounce of strength he had left, he battled against the darkness, unwilling to surrender to its relentless grasp, until finally, after what felt like eternity, a sudden burst of light pierced the darkness and ended the relentless onslaught.
It was a blinding flash that tore through the void like a bolt of lightning, banishing the shadows. Daron instinctively closed his eyes. The light pulsed and throbbed, searing through his eyelids, painting his vision a brilliant, fiery red.
As the brilliance subsided, the next sensation assaulted Daron's mind—a searing pain that wrapped around his skull like a crown of molten iron. The agony pulsed through his head in relentless waves, each throb a vicious hammer strike against his temples.
He reached for his head, trying to alleviate the pain, but something was restricting his movements; he could hear a metallic rustle nearby.
Daron gritted his teeth, he felt as if a white-hot spike was being driven into his brain, searing through his thoughts and memories.
He drew in a shuddering breath, his lungs aching as though he had been holding it for an eternity. The void around him seemed to shimmer and ripple, its oppressive presence weakening. He could feel the weight of his limbs returning, the sensation of his own body gradually solidifying.
And then, as abruptly as it had begun, the void shattered.