After being trapped and fighting for so long, I slowly opened my eyes—this place was unfamiliar to me. I didn't know where this was, but I had been taken away after being defeated in that damned game...
"ugh, I wanted to win it too much earlier."
This place is weird. I can't really explain what happens here, sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not.
But what is clear is that I am in the middle of Samarinda city and right in the middle of Simpang Empat road.
I stood up straight, trying to breathe in the air or the smells around me—there was no taste or smell whatsoever, as if there was nothing here.
But the strange thing about this place is that it is similar to life on Earth, in a place that is very familiar to me.
"What, I'm back?" I thought, confused by the current situation.
I held my face to recognize who I was now. Holding my cheeks, nose, mouth, and hair—I looked down, my shirt and pants were black and I was wearing blue flip-flops like those on Earth.
When I looked towards the east, people who came from nowhere approached me and trapped me in a circle they made.
"What? What's wrong with me? You're all looking at me like I'm causing trouble here."
I thought so, but it wasn't the case. Everyone's gazes toward me were sincere, with warm smiles, like a welcome to a new member of their family who regarded me that way.
One of them, a young woman probably my age, stepped forward, and we faced each other. As we stared eye to eye, everyone else faded and disappeared like ghosts.
I ignored the fading figure and focused solely on the long-haired woman with a smile as sweet as grapes and dressed in elegant attire. The look in her eyes made my heart race. It felt like... I'd met this woman before, but when?
"What do you want, coming to me?"
I thought he had evil intentions, despite his sincere face. He took my hand and held it—warmth and emptiness all at once.
"Welcome to Nothingness." This woman's voice was so soft and gentle as it greeted me.
But I'm still confused, what is Nothingness.
"Nothingness? What do you mean?" I asked him, slowly releasing my hand from his warm grip.
"Nothingness is a world where people who were eliminated from Atheria will be revived here."
After he finished speaking, our bodies both faded away on their own. I, the first to panic, responded and suddenly reappeared.
"What was that?! Why did my body twist and reappear?" I asked him with great curiosity.
"That's how we are here, Nothingness is the World... where we don't really exist in this world." He smiled at me after saying that.
I don't understand and it's complicated to understand.
"I still don't understand what you mean by 'it doesn't really exist'?"
She then answered him again with a sweet smile coming out of her snow-white face.
"Yes, we are like shadows in this world. We are neither alive nor dead. Because we are like shadows that indirectly exist but actually do not exist."
I hear it the more I don't understand it, the more complicated it is for human logic to understand.
"Can you explain it further? Oh yes, I want you to show me around."
I myself didn't know how to respond to it and just pretended to understand it, while also wanting to explore this world.
He then agreed, and we walked together through the surrounding housing complex. It was a familiar, yet strange, phenomenon.
It disappeared for a moment and then reappeared for a moment.
"What you see now doesn't actually exist, it's just your memory that created it. The people before, including myself, didn't really exist in this world because this world doesn't exist and has never existed in any world."
Words that are difficult to manage, every word is nothing and nothing. Strange logic.
The woman's eyes widened as if she had something to say.
"Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Putri. Nice to meet you, Celis."
My eyes widened with light surrounding my eyeballs... This woman, was the woman I loved, back then.
I couldn't get a word out, my heart was beating fast, my body suddenly went weak after hearing it.
I forced out a word to speak to him.
"You..." My eyes slowly released tears that I didn't want to shed.
"Yes, I'm your ex... Let's live together."
The girl I loved so much, left me when I was still in school... She came back with me.
I couldn't hold back my tears that flowed like a waterfall, these... These tears... sad or happy. I don't understand.
I grabbed her hand which her own daughter reached for mine.
We both faded away, as did the surrounding town.
Everything becomes... Darkness or emptiness.
My daughter and I live together in a meaningless void that never existed.
The End.