Fear and emptiness
"Hurry up! If someone saw us like this, they'd think we were a bunch of escapees from a lunatic asylum!" Malis said sarcastically, fastening her necklace.
"Well, it's not like it's going to rain gold ingots!" Louis grumbled, looking up at the sky.
"I swear, Louis, if you mention the words 'gold ingots' one more time, you'll only have yourself to blame!" Luca's tone was sharp and threatening.
While they were arguing, I put on my own two-layered black necklace. I felt a strange coldness from it—not the morning chill, but another, deeper coldness.
Louis sighed in disappointment as he slumped into his yellow chair:
"Fine, let's leave the money aside and focus on the ending. I wonder, will our hero survive this time?"
"I hope they live… I hope they live… I hope…" Ivan quietly mumbled, clasping his hands in front of his face.
"Don't worry, they'll all die. I'm certain of it," Yuna said with an amused smile, clearly enjoying irritating Ivan.
Ignoring their squabbling, I lifted the book with the black and red cover, taking a deep breath, ready to open the first page.
But before I could, Luca suddenly raised his hand.
"What? What is it? You scared us! Can't you see the atmosphere is tense?" I asked him with a hint of annoyance; I was unbearably excited.
Luca didn't answer. He was gazing at the park's perimeter with a blank stare—that look which explores and analyzes the details of a familiar scene... only to suddenly discover it's not familiar at all.
He whispered in a low voice that was barely audible:
"Malis… where is Uncle's bus?" His tone was worried and tense as he looked around.
Our movements froze as we listened to him. Malis, who was about to take the first bite of a cookie, slowly put the box down.
The large, blue bus had been parked just ten meters behind us. It should have been visible from here, in this open park.
We all looked behind us, toward where the large blue body of the bus should have been.
There was nothing.
Not only the bus, but the entire street was empty, as if the bus had been swallowed or vanished into thin air.
"Maybe… maybe Malis parked it a little farther away to get coffee?" Ivan suggested hesitantly, his hand trembling over his yellow necklace.
"No," Malis replied in an uncharacteristic voice, a serious one devoid of any frivolity. "I parked it here… exactly here. And I'm sure I saw the road and the nearby café when I got out to buy the drinks."
Liam's eyes widened, and he remembered my words: "The sunlight here is stronger than the rest."
Liam slowly looked at the sun. It was indeed bright, much brighter than it had been minutes ago. But the strange thing wasn't the brightness—it was the absence of sound.
"Where is the sound of the city? Even if it's early morning, what about the birds? The insects?"
An absolute silence fell. A heavy silence, swallowing all sound and amplifying only the rush of our own quickened breathing. This silence was worse than any noise.
As we tried to process what was happening, I noticed that the paper was missing. I was sure I had left it on the chair before we started the experiment.
"Guys, where is that paper?" I asked, hoping one of them had taken it. I looked at them and found them quiet.
"Didn't you have it?" Luca asked, narrowing his eyes, while the rest shook their heads no.
"I think someone stole the bus, and as for the birds, it's early… I think we should convince ourselves of that… Malis, where are you going?" Ivan was extremely tense, watching Malis as she started walking in the direction where the bus had disappeared.
"I don't care! Whether the sounds disappeared or the bus was stolen, open the novel, let's read it! Malis, forget the bus, I'm sure my uncle will give us a fifteen-minute lecture and then forget about it. Now, for the novel!" Louis said, urging me to open it and telling Malis to come back.
"Are you saying I should leave the thief and read a novel?!" Her tone was angry as she turned to us, changed direction, grabbed Louis's hand, and dragged him toward the bus's former spot.
"Forget the novel for now, and let's look for the bus," Yuna told me, nervously playing with her shirt sleeves.
"Louis, I told you not to anger Malis. You deserve to be dragged," Luca said, walking behind them.
Only Ivan and I remained. Ivan began resetting the chairs to their original position until he reached mine. For a moment, I forgot I had placed the novel on it, and Ivan didn't notice it, so he turned the chair into a cube and the novel fell to the ground.
"Oh, sorry!" Ivan said, stepping forward to pick it up.
"It's alright." I also stepped forward, but I noticed Ivan's features freeze, so I looked at the novel and froze myself.
The novel was wide open… No, that wasn't the reason for our fear, but because both pages were blank.
I quickly grabbed the book and began flipping the pages one after the other, my face growing paler and paler. My entire body shivered, and I felt the sound of my breathing get louder and louder. Impossible… Impossible! Why impossible?! Because I am sure there were words! I noticed their presence, even if they were just letters! I saw them… I'm sure!
Just as Liam handed it to me, the book fell violently to the ground. My hands were shaking involuntarily as I looked at the others. I wanted to scream for them to come back, but I felt something strange, extremely strange…
I must… I must call them. If I don't call them… maybe I won't be able to see them again. I don't know where this thought came from, as if all my instincts were screaming: Call them!
"GUYYYYYS, come back!" I shouted with all the strength I had.
It wasn't a normal shout; it was an instinctive cry, stemming from a sudden, deep feeling of impending loss, as if an invisible thread connecting us had begun to snap.
The silence was broken. I saw their feet stop, then they slowly began to turn around. Malis was the fastest. She spun violently toward us, but her face no longer held the anger from a moment ago. Her eyes slowly widened as they fixed on our troubled expressions.
Yuna, Luca, Liam, and Louis followed, their gazes a mixture of annoyance and then dawning, realized concern.
"What is it, Louayane?" Liam asked in a rough voice, ignoring Luca who was about to scold Louis again. "What happened?"
I couldn't speak. I just pointed with my trembling hand toward the book lying on the ground. Its glaring black and red cover was obvious even though it was open.
Luca advanced with quick steps, driven by my terrified look. He knelt and picked up the book. His hand touched the open surface, his face calm as usual, but when his eyes fell on the blankness of the pages… that calm shell shook.
"Louayane," Luca said, trying to keep his voice steady, "Did you… did you flip the pages properly? Maybe it's a separator page…"
Yuna took hold of the edge of the book, ran her fingers over the pages, and then flipped through it with frantic speed, page after page.
"Blank…" Yuna whispered, the word escaping like a hiss of cold air. "It's all blank. No title page, no numbering, no letters. It's just white papers bound together."
Louis, who had been complaining about Malis dragging him moments ago, took a step back. The naïve, enthusiastic look that usually accompanied him completely vanished, replaced by terrifying bewilderment.
"Wait!" Louis said, his voice rising as if clinging to the last thread of logic. "Maybe… maybe the author published a special blank copy? For signing?"
"No, I'm sure… I noticed the words for a moment when Liam gave it to me!" I said with a terrifying insistence in my tone.
My last words carried something strange, something that made them all fall silent. It wasn't just insistence; it was a tone that resembled terrified belief. As if I were announcing something bigger than a mere observation… as if I were announcing a fracture in reality.
In that moment, we realized that our reality was beginning to collapse…
Everyone stared at me for a moment, then at the stark white book in Luca's hand.
"What do you mean you saw words?" Malis murmured, involuntarily lifting her hand to touch her head. The frivolity that had adorned her features had completely evaporated.
Liam, who had been watching me with alert eyes since we read the paper, rushed toward me and placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Louayane, calm down… We're here. Luca, put the book aside."
Luca threw the book on the ground sharply, as if it were a piece of burning charcoal. Then he raised his hands and nervously ran them through his short hair.
"The bus is gone, the sounds are gone, and now the book… The book we waited years for had its content vanish immediately after that ridiculous experiment ended!" Luca said, speaking to the air, not to us. "We have to turn back. Malis, which way did you come in?"
All eyes turned to Malis. She was standing with an alarming stillness, her eyes scanning the horizon.
"The way out of the park is the path I took. There was… there was a paved path that led to the main street."
Louis rushed toward where the park exit should be.
"Fine, let's go out and see if there's anything logical outside! Any car, any sign, any café!"
Louis ran about ten meters, then suddenly stopped. It wasn't a normal stop; it was as if he had run into an invisible glass barrier.
"What is it, Louis?!" Ivan shouted.
He turned to us slowly, and the look of astonishment on his face was turning into escalating hysteria. He pointed forward with a trembling finger.
"The path… the path isn't there."
We all rushed toward him. And what we saw was much worse than just a paved path disappearing.
The park did not end.
Where the edge should have been, where the ornamental trees ended and the fence and the bustling street began, there was now an infinite expanse of identical trees and grassy lawns.
Identical trees, devoid of any yellow or dead leaf, arranged in strictly geometric rows. No fence, no pavement, no buildings.
"The city is gone…" Yuna whispered. She started breathing rapidly, staring at the green void that stretched before us.
I calmed down upon hearing her words. I looked left and right, hoping to find any difference in my surroundings, but reality crushed me. All the trees were similar, as if we were inside an infinitely repeating video game.
I tried to slow my rapid breaths and think logically for a moment.
"Logic… yeah, I don't think I need any logic while I watch the book slowly start to vanish…"
I whispered the words, my eyes fixed on the open book cover on the ground. The glaring black and red colors were starting to lose their intensity, as if the cover itself was being pulled into a layer of pale, gray mist.
The vanishing was slow, but it was clear… like a candle melting in bright light.
"The book… is disappearing!" Luca said sharply, his eyes not leaving the fading cover.
"Ivan! Don't you have any invention? Anything that can locate us?!"
I tried to compose myself and calm down—yes, I must calm down. Inhale, exhale…
But the coldness I felt before, the one that started from my necklace, was no longer just a sensation. It was like it was slowly crawling through my veins, infiltrating my depths and enveloping me in a layer of non-existence.
I turned toward Ivan to ask him for something, anything… but his face had changed.
His features were completely frozen, his eyes wide open, staring at a distant point behind me.
"Ivan? What's wrong?" I asked worriedly, but his voice was trembling as he said:
"I think we're… going to perish…"
He spoke the words with extreme horror, pointing his finger toward a specific direction.
We all turned to where he was pointing, and what we saw made the blood freeze in our veins.
"What the hell is that?!" Liam said, shivering, trying to comprehend what was happening.
Louis backed away, colliding with Luca, unable to make any sound but the repetition of the word "no" in broken whispers.
"Oh God…. No… no!" Yuna cried out in terror, noticing the void that was beginning to swallow the place.
As for Malis, who was the most composed of them all, her eyes were fixed on the spreading darkness, and her lips trembled slowly, uncontrollably.
"It's… the Void…" Luca whispered, his voice devoid of its usual sharpness, instead burdened by the weight of terrifying realization. "It's erasing… this place."
At that moment, the strange coldness I felt was no longer just a feeling; it had become reality!
"We have to run! Now!"
Liam screamed, his first tone bearing undisguised panic.
He grabbed Ivan's shoulder, but Ivan was completely frozen, his eyes not moving from the edge of the darkness stretching before him.
"Where? Where?! The whole place is collapsing!" Ivan screamed hysterically, looking at us.
"I don't know… just run!" Liam yelled, grabbing Ivan and screaming at me, Luca, and Malis to take the others with us.
Liam lunged forward with the force of desperation. We didn't run toward an exit; we plunged deeper into the trap of the endless park. Our feet thumped on the identical grass, making only the whisper of our clothes rubbing together.
I ran as fast as I could, but it felt like running in thick water. The coldness that started from my necklace was now a membrane enveloping me, making every movement heavy and vague.
Ivan, who was held by Liam's other shoulder, was panting loudly, his previous hysterical screaming transforming into silent realization as he looked at the Void.
Behind us, Luca and Malis moved with a cold, survival instinct. Luca reached out and grabbed Louis's trembling wrist, who was barely dragging his feet, while Malis pulled Yuna, who was still in a state of shock.
"Hurry! Don't stop!"
I shouted, and my voice echoed in this false silence, sounding like the slice of a dagger cutting the air.
But the running was a recurring nightmare. The identical trees in their geometric rows began to move, not in a straight path, but in a confusing circular pattern, as if we were running on a spinning wheel without advancing.
My eyes began to see gray flashes amidst the gloomy green, as if the world were losing the saturation of its colors. I felt intensely dizzy and wanted to vomit.
"Louayane! Can you hear me? We need to turn around! We won't get anywhere like this!" Liam shouted, but his voice reached me late, as if coming from the end of a long tunnel.
How could we turn around when the path was endless? The absurdly identical trees were revolving around us, moving in a pattern that declared the place was nothing but an illusion—an extended optical trick designed to mentally exhaust us.
The Void was drawing closer and closer. I felt a strong urge to run, yet I was utterly terrified. The Void was so black, and it was trying to swallow us. Suddenly, I felt it pulling us backward, fast.
I tried to resist the pull, but it was stronger than any physical force I knew. It wasn't muscular traction; it was like a vacuum devouring the air around me and pulling my body toward it. I let out a muffled scream, turning to see the others holding onto each other. Suddenly, I felt it literally swallowing us. I saw them separating from each other. I don't know where the strength came from, but I shouted quickly, with all the consciousness I had left:
"Hold onto each other!"
As if they heard my voice piercing the chaos, everyone grabbed the person nearest to them: Yuna grabbed Ivan, Malis grabbed Liam, and Luca grabbed Louis and me. It felt like a false sense of security.
But a terrible pain washed over me, as if my bones were being shattered and remade! An indescribable, sharp agony—a tearing of life from the body! And from the shock and pain that blinded my senses, I let go of Louis's hand, who didn't notice me at that moment because of the intensity of the pain.
Then, as if he noticed, he looked at me with rapid horror and tried to grab me, but a strange, overpowering light engulfed us. I felt myself burning… burning completely!
This is painful, extremely painful… Oh God!
Then everything around us disappeared, and only a mysterious light remained, consuming us…
And after that, I didn't know if we would survive or not…