From the point where the small dot had appeared, all the way to the horizon, was a large rigged line, expanding itself across the entire sky.
It resembled a white lightning strike that had engraved itself across the sky, moving to stretch itself until it had brighten up the entire dome.
Within a few minutes, it had already spread across the entire sky, shinning brighter, and growing thicker.
Something was wrong. He could feel it.
Hastly, he climbed back up the cliff and ran back towards his house.
As he was running, he stole glances of the sky above him, noticing that he no longer needed the moonstone to see where he was going. The sky was almost fully covered in bright shining light. Day had come early, but perhaps it was the final one.
Keep going.
Just as chiyol had reached the farm land, he noticed that inbetween the shining cracks, there was a black substance, seeping through the middle of the lines.
There was too much surface tension in one drop for it to be liquid, but there was also too little shape for it to be solid. It was seemingly jelly-like but at the same time, it didn't clump together.
Chiyol stopped in his tracks, staring at the black matter. Until, a single drop, dripped from the worlds ceiling, and landed on the ground. It was small, but the moment it dripped onto the ground, chiyol saw how the ground disappeared.
The...gound...is gone..?
The darkness from the sky, was not a mercy. It was a devourer. One, that swallows worlds, leaving nothing in its trace. A void.
Chiyol stared in horror, as the small black drop started to spread, as more and more fell into the world, in larger portions and faster speeds.
This was in my dream. He remembered now.
This has already happened.
No. no. no.
Chiyol turned to run towards the house, he was almost there. He raced, ignoring his surroundings without so much as a thought in his mind. He only cared about two people in this world, and he would go far just to protect them.
As he ran,darkness was falling from the cracks, and seeping into his world. Like ink dripping onto paper, the darkness fell and left voids. His world was disappearing.
He jumped, as the void crept up on him, trying to delay being engaulfed. But just as chiyol could reach his home, a large droplet of void dripped onto the area where the house once stood, like a blanket, it fell atop the house, then immediatly sank. Leaving nothing but emptiness behind.
"NO!" Chiyol screamed. His knees became to weak to hold him up. He crumbled to the ground as tears raced to fall off his cheeks, before they too, were swallowed by the void.
Lying on the ground, chiyol stared blankly at the nothingness slowly creeping up on him. Not a flinch, not a hint of fear.
Whats the point?
He closed his eyes, hoping for it all to be a dream, and that he would wake up, and see his sister again, and that tiresome but lovely old man, and they would all just continue living together, until old age.
The darkness reached his legs, while chiyol simply laid still, defeated. The void climbed up and above the walls of the world, eating away all that he had once called "home". Even the darkness of the night sky was not spared. Everything crumbled, and chiyol sat still, watching it all disappear. Until...he disappeared, into that very darkness.
.
.
.
.
.
「.....」
「.....」
Whispers...
What is that?
So noisy...
「Wake u..」
What?
My voice..?
I feel.....dizzy....
Chiyol slowly opened his eyes.
Darkness...
...?
Where...am i?
I feel like i am floating...there is no weight...
....Didn't i get..swallowed?
What...
At the very corner of his eye, chiyol caught a glint of light.
?!
He sat upright as his eyes suddenly opened. All he could see was the very darkness in which he was swallowed in.
...are my eyes open? Is this in my head?
Chiyol tried to blink, hoping for a clear distction between closed and opened vision.
He couldn't tell the difference.
...it's so dark...
Is this darkness endless?
Chiyol stood up and walked, trying to find something in the endless night.
As he walked, he felt something wet on his cheeks. Slowly, he moved his hand to feel his face.
..this...tears.
.....I was crying.
Why...why was i crying..?
I-
Ahhhh dizzy.....dizzy....
Chiyol held his heavy head, leaning it slightly foward. He stared at the ground for some time, or atleast, what he thought was solid ground.
He couldn't tell, but he knew he could stand and walk on it. He just didn't know for how long. As chiyol stared at ground, he started to see small dots of light appearing. The small dots stayed floating just above the 'ground', scattering as more and more started to appear from nowehere.
Tiny..orbs...?
He recoiled, looking back up. He watched as a path made of unidentified light showed him a way foward, in this blank nothingness.
An invitation...
...to where?
Chiyol was skeptical, but in such a situation, what else could he do? Where else could he go?
Walk on a path made of light, or get lost in a never-ending darkness....
There is a clear choice.
As he traced the path, he noticed how the path would build further as he walked, and the part that he had walked past would disappear.
It was guiding him.
Until, the path stopped. It seemed like the orbs wouldn't appear any further. Curious, chiyol stared at the darkness ahead, comparing it with the darkness behind him.
...Wait.
This darkness...its darker.
Its....spiraling..?
Chiyol turned his face away. Processing the scene. Panicked, he tried to shout for help.
"□ □ □ □ ..!!"
"□□□□...???"
"□□□□□...?!"
.....?
...?!
....Why can't i speak?
" □ □ □ "..??
Huh...? Why...
「Chiyol.」
Chiyol flinched.
Huh...?
「Look up.」
He raised his head, looking at the darkness the path had led him to. An abyss was staring at him. A black hole born from the void.
「How was your dream?」
The abyss infront of him spoke.
Chiyol took a few steps back as he clutched his hand near his chest, while staring at the abyssal entity in terror.
....What is this? Is that my voice? Is this in my head?
What is....
「I am an Other-worldly being」
The abyss stated.
「I apologise. This is the only way we can communicate.」
The voice minicked Chiyol's.
...what is this?
Why can't i speak?
why are you using my voice?!
And..what in an "other-wordly being"?
Chiyol found this deeply disturbing. Did this thing take his voice? Why was it using thoughts to communicate? What did it meant by "his dream"? What is it?
「You can't hear the voice of an otherwordly-being. You would lose your mind」
Chiyol stared at the void in utter disbelief, refusing to break eye contact. Atleast,
contact with whatever he was staring at.
It had no face. No body. No eyes.
「This is mercy」
the word "mercy" was said in a lower tone. It twisted something in Chiyol.
I....ow!
Dizzy....my head....
Tears started to fall, like a waterfall that had been briefly paused by a dam.
He lifted his hands infront of him as he watched the tears roll off his cheeks and land on his palms. In that split second, his eyes glinted a different way. His toned changed. His uncertainty stopped.
He wasn't lost anymore. He didn't care if he was.
...were you the one who brought me here? he asked. This time, his tone slightly darker, less distraught and more direct. He wasn't staring in fear any longer. There was only rage.
He waited for a response, the silence beating like a drum in his head.
「Yes」
....!
....!?
Why?!
Where am i?!
He was desperate for answers. Dead or alive, he needed to understand what happened. Where were the others? His beloved grandpa? His silly little sister?
what did you mean by dream?!
THIS is a dream. He thought, clenching his fits. Unsure what was real and what was fake.
Chiyol scanned his surroundings frantically. All he could see was darkness, with his only form of light emitting from the horizon of the black hole infront of him.
「...No. This time, this is not the dream.」
He paused for a brief moment, processing what he had just heard.
This...this time?
What...are you talking about?
「The life you 'lived' before this. It was a memory already lived, given to you as a dream」
「...You couldn't stay asleep forever. There was no memory for what happens after that world was devoured, so i had to wake you up 」
Memory.....?
Your saying.....
Hah!
That my life was merely a Memory??
Hah...hahahahha
Chiyol managed a laugh in his head, but he didn't find a single thing about this amusing.
Hah.. hahahh.....alright then, riddle me this:
Whose memory was i living?!
Huh?!
Why....Why did you....
You...
Wait.
If,
If that wasn't my life,
If they weren't my memories,
Then...whose life did i live?
What about my life? My memories?
What...
「I didn't say the memories werent yours」
「Simply, that wasn't the first time it was lived.」
?!?
So...i did live that life?
They were my memories?!
「No. They were lived by you, but not the you now.」
....
What kind of sick game...
...haha
HAH! Alright! Funny!
You got me !
Now wake me up.
Wake me....
I...
Just when chiyol thought he was finally losing it, the black hole moved to open itself, to form an eye. An eye, that when stared at, seemed like an endless abyss that just kept going on and on, with no end, eating up all light, nothing escaped it.
This made chiyol think back to a warning his grandpa had said long ago:
< If you stare at the Abyss long enough, the Abyss will stare back at you >
But chiyol couldn't stop staring.
He was using all his strength to stop his jaw from grinding his teeth, to prevent his nails from digging too deep into his palms. Or perhaps, they had already dug too deep. He didn't know, he was too focused on everything else to feel it.
His eyes dialated continously. He was furious. He didn't, no– couldn't, care less if the thing infront of him ate him up in one swoop, he was too blinded with his own devastation to even think that far. He just wanted answers.
No.
I just want to see them again.
Take me back.
Take me...
「I can't do that. They were devoured long ago, there is no reversing such a thing」
Hah.
Then...
Why...am i here?
What do you want?!? HUH?!
Chiyol maintained eye contact, but he felt like he was losing. Like he was fading.
「You don't have long. Lets make a deal, Chiy■■」
....? Why didn't you finish saying my name?
Its Ch■■■■.
?!
What??
Why can't i...
「You don't have long. You can't stay here.」
「Or else you will, ■■■■」
....?
I can't...what did you say...?
I will what....
Chiyol felt dizzy again.
Ah...
「Ch■■■■. Lets make a deal. Save the worlds in your dreams from being devoured, and i will save you.」
I....
what....
His vision was slowly fading.
「■■■■■■■■」
.....?
The last thing chiyol saw before he lost consiousness, was the darkness beneath him opening up, and swallowing him whole. In the end, he was left with more questions than answers. More confusion than clarity.
A never-ending nightmare was about to unfold.