As Ethan steadied himself.
The feeling of happiness that he felt after not being in that creepy darkness anymore started to decrease.
But instead of becoming clear-headed, his heart became heavy, as a new creeping feeling of unease started to take over.
While he moved his eyes, wanting to distract himself from it, scanning all over the surroundings, taking in the place he was lying in.
As he found, he was lying on a soft bed that was in the middle of a room.
The room seemed to be made up of stones, and it clearly looked very different from Earth's because of its oddly old-fashioned appearance.
But Ethan didn't seem to notice it, because, seeing the room, unease started to settle, and happiness once more started to take over his heart, as his mind whispered to him.
You are alive.
You are not dead.
It was nothing but a bad dream.
But just as this thought came to his mind, paranoia started creeping in.
'There's no way I am alive.' His thoughts echoed, opposing his mind.
Ethan himself wasn't sure whether he was dead or not. He could feel his body again, he could see, he was breathing, and he could feel his heart hammering against his chest.
Everything around him, including his own body, was telling him that he was alive.
But what about that darkness, that creepy feeling, he had felt all over his body?
He had also felt his body in that darkness.
Yes, he couldn't move it, but it didn't erase the truth that he had felt it.
So, how was he supposed to digest the moments that he had spent there?
'Maybe all of this is just a hallucination...y-yes...hallucinations...' He thought, clawing his hair with his hand, as his breathing grew ragged.
"Ha-h" "Ha-h"
Or maybe that's how it feels after death. His mind once more whispered to him, as though it had become its own separate entity.
The thought entered his mind, making him remove his hands from his hair as he tried to control his breathing and closed his eyes before opening them once more.
'Maybe I am alive or maybe I am not.'
'Whatever the fuck I am...at least I can move my body again.'
He thought, trying to compose his unstable state of mind, while he tried to sit up.
But as he moved his body, a sudden pain jolted through it, making him fall on the bed once more as a curse escaped from his lips.
"Fuck!"
'WHAT NOW?'
As if answering to his thoughts, the pain that was like a small ache started to spread through his body, stealing the breath from his lungs as his heart started to beat faster and faster.
The pain started to grow, now feeling as though he was being pressed from all sides, like his bones were getting chipped bit by bit slowly.
Like, his skin was getting pricked from all sides.
Like, a person was trying to mercilessly pop his head under a hydraulic press.
And, like, someone was churning him, folding him, or cutting him from inside.
Even as the pain increased, not a single scream or groan came out from Eden's lips, as though he couldn't even feel the pain.
He just lay there, his face emotionless, his eyes staring at the stone ceiling, as though accepting his defeat.
Even though he looked defeated, it wasn't because he just accepted everything and was not even trying.
He was.
Eden was trying his best to move his body, all the while enduring the pain.
But all of his efforts were useless, as the same thing that had happened with him in the darkness started to happen once again.
He couldn't move his body once more. He could feel it. He could feel the raw shearing pain. But every time he tried to move or shift his body, it was like a puppet getting its string cut; he couldn't move it.
'Is this what happens after death?'
A thought struck Ethan. Is this what God, or whatever entity that controls death, does after death?
First, plunging them into darkness, making their minds unstable, and then giving them hope.
A hope that you are alive, a hope that it was nothing but a bad dream, and then stealing that hope too before the person could even comprehend what was happening.
His mind spiraled, his thoughts becoming more and more erratic.
As many other unknown thoughts and images that he never knew, saw, or thought started to get poured into his mind.
After a few moments, everything came to a stop altogether, as the pain intensified, making his senses dull and then coming to a standstill.
He stayed like that for minutes or maybe hours—Ethan couldn't tell. The pain clouded his thoughts, making him unable to think properly.
Time passed—how long, he couldn't tell again—and the pain in his body started to ease slowly.
After a few moments, the pain in his body dulled, coming to a stop...except his head, that is.
His head started to hurt more, this time feeling as though someone was hammering his head with a sledgehammer while it was being pressed under a hydraulic press.
As he endured the pain, darkness started to creep from the corners of his eyes, the surroundings started to melt, and the world lost its color.
Ethan, sensing he could move his body once more, shifted his hands to his head and pressed tightly, trying to endure the pain, with bloodshot eyes.
After a few moments, the pain in his head also started to ease before coming to a stop.
As the pain came to an end, his vision returned; the darkness that was creeping from the end vanished as the world once more gained color.
His thoughts, feelings, and emotions, which had become erratic, calmed—as if coming to an end.
The feeling of suddenly going from a mind filled with unstable thoughts to a calm mind was very unsettling.
It was like the time he had spent in the darkness, the longing to meet his family and friends once again, and the pain he had felt never even happened.
He could still recall the memories and the feelings, but it still felt like it was just a thought or a nightmare—a worse one at that.
'Am I even sounding sane?' He thought, rubbing his temple, 'Well, it would be pretty insane if I even sounded sane after all these things.'
Eden shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts as he stretched his palm in the air and looked at it with tired eyes, before muttering, "What's even happening?"
"And where am I?"
And as though his question was the cue, darkness once more overtook his vision.
'And here I thought this was the end.'
Before he could begin to wonder what new surprise there was.
In the darkness, something flashed.