-A Cave on a Hillside-
Hours later, the young man finally awoke.
Squinting slightly, he looked towards the entrance of the cave, where bright sunlight was shining directly into the entrance of the cave.
The young man quickly looked away to avoid irritating his eyes and attempted to collect his jumbled and confused thoughts. Trying to make sense of the sudden, strange terror that overtook him and the whispering voice that had appeared soon after.
Closing his eyes, he let his thoughts begin to wander, going over the details he remembered. First came the seemingly alien sky, his lack of memories, and soon after came the forest and the orange lights moving through it, the terror, followed by a rapid retreat into the forest and finally the whispering voice and the cave.
'Why... ' he thought, pouring all of his concentration into searching through his emotions and the blank recesses of his memory in an attempt to discover why the lights caused such a reaction.
And after a while, he found one.
Somewhere in the great void that was his memories, something changed; it was as if a tiny star had appeared, like looking at a far-off star on a cloudless night. The memory wasn't very clear and lacked some things it was supossed to have, like smell and touch, but it still made him shiver.
In his memory, he was bound to a stake above a roaring, smokeless fire, too far above it to be burnt but not enough to escape the heat. All around him were people with smiles and shining eyes; the memory was too hazy for the young man to make out any facial features or even a gender, but the smiles and shining eyes were as clear as day. Directly in front of the young man, at the edge of the roaring, smokeless fire, stood another person. This one was just as hazy; however, unlike the rest, they weren't smiling. Instead, they appeared to be singing something; the words and tone eluded the young man. What followed did not.
The song seemed to send the flames below him into a frenzy, making them leap towards the feet of the young man on the stake. In the next instant, one of the flames caught the you man's leg, making him cry out in agony.
The flames did not stop there, however, they dove under his skin and sank through his flesh before entering his bloodstream and rapidly spreading to every inch of his body. To the outside viewer, his veins would have appeared to be made of flowing lava.
After minutes of this torture, the fire burning in his veins began to concentrate in his heart, causing a small sun to ignite in his ribcage, before sinking into something that the young man had no idea he possessed, something non-physical and almost illusory, his spirit.
The moment the flame and his spirit made contact, his spirit shrank away, attempting to leave his body and find refuge somewhere, anywhere that was not burning with those strange flames.
The memory ended there.
After the memory ended, the young man's mind felt as if it was still being burnt alive, forcing him to slow down and take a break.
'So it's fire I'm afraid of, it must have been an instinctive reaction... but why was I on that stake in the first place? What happened to me after? Did my spirit survive? Or did it leave and take my memories with it?'
With these thoughts flashing through the young man's head, he began to search his mind again, 'Where there's one memory, there has to be more!' thought the young man, closing his eyes now that he knew his fear was instinctual and not because of imminent danger to improve his concentration.
After another unknown amount of time spent analysing every detail of the horrifyingly strange memory, allowing his charred mind to rest and then repreating, the void of his memories had a few more small stars surrounding the original, some small and some large.
From the largest star came the young man's name, 'Clyde', as well as a few other scenes that he sensed would put even more pressure on his fragile mind if closely looked at. 'I don't have a last name. Or at least not one I can remember at the moment. Clyde will have to do... I guess.'
From the next came a memory of a calm lake, he was diving in and swimming in the shallows with people whose looks, voices and scents evaded him. While leaving the lake, he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the rippling water.
He had blond hair that possessed a silvery sheen to it, which came down just past the middle point of his ears. His eyes were an electric blue, with dots and splotches of deep blue and a blueish grey, causing them to twinkle in the sunlight. He had a sharp jaw and slightly fatty cheeks; he was slightly pale and definitely on the skinnier side, with small, lean muscles moving under his skin.
In the next memory, Clyde was walking along a trail in a forest with a few other people on either side of him, as in the other two memories, he couldn't make out any features or their voices; only a sense of calm and safety remained. As they continued walking along the trail, a strange shift occurred in the world, and a strange force began to pull everything into an invincible point that could not be distinguished. Before he was pulled off the ground, however, the sound of a great number of oars simultaneously hitting roaring water filled his ears, accompanied by a white mist that filled his entire vision and took away all but his hearing in the process. The memory ended there.
In the final memory, Clyde lay sobbing on the ground, his spirit split into two and both pieces violently attempting to fuse back together as the dominant half. His mind lay in tatters, multiple imaginary scenes playing out all at once; he was dancing to music, soaring through the skies, enjoying a meal with friends, and so much more. The clash between his souls rapidly grew more violent and eventually turned into a war of conquest for his physical body. The added pain quickly caused his shattered mind to collapse in on itself, breaking the imagined lives of bliss and forcing Clyde back into reality. Before he promptly blacked out.
After all of this Clydes mind felt as if it would explode at any moment, forcing another lengthy break.
'The last one is clearly how I ended up with my memories in such a state,' thought Clyde as he mulled over the few clues he had to go off 'The second and third ones don't correlate with anything else, I don't understand what caused them to appear, they must have some connection!'
Feeling that his mind couldn't handle anymore, Clyde decided to lie down and rest some more while he still had the chance. He had the feeling that he would need all the strength he could get in the days to come.
It was at that moment that a voice resounded all around him.
"Ahh, how interesting, Mr Void seems to have finally begun piecing his mind back together... I may have to call you by something else one day! Not to worry, though... at the rate you're going, I won't have to come up with something new for many years to come..."
Clyde jumped to his feet, rapidly spinning round to find the source of the mocking voice. However, he found no signs of anyone near him, neither in the cave nor outside it.
As Clyde did a third scan of the cave, the same mocking voice laughed again before speaking, "Ha! You won't find anyone here, Mr Void."
Jumping in fright, Clyde shuddered. After a long silence, Clyde finally managed to get his emotions in check. Only for the voice to speak again, "Oh dear me, you're really not in the best state, are you?"
"Who are you?! Come out!" Clyed half yelled, half yelped, his voice husky from lack of use.
"..."
Not letting his guard down, Clyde began to shakily think over the situation, it knows something about how menatal state! How though? I don't see anybody, and no matter where I move its voice always sounds the same. Could it be in my head?!", before atempting comunicate agian.
"What are you?!, Why are you calling me that?"
The voice didn't reply for what felt to Clyde like days before finally saying.
"Your mind truly is a void, isn't it! Think of me as your better half."
Frowning slightly, Clyde replied with another question. "Why, what are you?"
"How rude!" the voice exclaimed, "To think you don't even know that much! Your mind truly is a void, hah! Mr Void is such a perfect name!"
'What?... My mind? So he can sense my mind!' thought Clyde, who then attempted to communicate to the voice his thoughts. 'Should I know what the voice is? It seemed to think I should. What are you!!' Clyde once again began searching his mind for any small scrap of information to help him understand what was going on.
Hearing nothing and finding even less in his mind, Clyde sighed before sitting back down. 'I can't remember anything about a voice... It must be messing with me!' After these thoughts corssed Clydes mind, he was overcome by the extreme thirst and hunger that had been building since he woke up, reminding him that he had other things to deal with. Attempting to probe one more time to learn just how dangerous this voice could be to fime Clyde spoke again.
"Not going to elaborate?"
"Why should I, your heads to empty so there's not even any fun to be had from telling you."
Sighing, Clyde stood up and began walking towards the mouth of the cave. The voice seemed to be content to just observe for now, and he wasn't in any kind of mental state to resist it; digging up those five memoirs alone had put a lot of stress on his mind. Besides, Clyde had more pressing issues to deal with ike finding food and water... and some clothes.