003: Flipped on its head III

My body jolted awake.

Where am I?

All I could see was a darkness deeper than that of a starless night sky.

"WHAT HAVE YOU COME HERE FOR?!"

What?

Who's there?

Where am I?

"IT SEEMS YOU HAVE VENTURED INTO MY ABODE, BUT YOU DID NOT INITIATE SUCH AN ACTION!"

Initiate action?

What is he talking about?

His voice is deep and it echoes through this cavern of darkness.

It sends shivers down my spine, but these don't feel like the shivers Medusa causes me to feel.

No.

These shivers aren't of an uncomfortable feeling.

No.

These shivers are that of pure fear.

"IT DOESN'T MATTER WHY YOU ARE HERE, FOR I'LL DESTROY YOU NOW!"

Destory me?

What is he talking about?

His gibberish makes no sense.

Then suddenly, large red eyes formed in the darkness.

The eyes were completely red.

There was no cornea, no iris, no white of the eye, just a mass of red energy.

It flickered as if it was a flame.

It took the base shape of an eye, but the rest of it flickered like a fire in the wind.

The eyes grew larger and larger.

I tried to scream, but no sound came out of my mouth.

The eyes began to suck in the darkness like a black hole.

I was powerless to stop it.

My body shook in pure fear as I sunk into the darkness that the eyes had absorbed.

"NOW, YOU ARE MINE!"

"Wake up, sweetie."

I heard a familiar, kind voice say.

My body jolted awake again.

This time, I wasn't in a pitch black hole of darkness.

I was located in a cozy hut.

I layed on the one bed located in the room.

There was a brick fireplace with a strange carpet in front of it.

The carpet had a tree that was split in two, one side was the color black, and the other was the color white.

The rest of the carpet was the color red except for a gold line piercing through the center of the carpet.

There was one singular table located at the center of the room, and sitting in one of the seats was the old lady I helped cross the street.

"Oh, you're awake, sweetie. It seemed like you were having a nightmare, are you okay?"

She asked me.

"Who are you?"

I replied.

"HOW RUDE! Do you not remember your grandma?"

"I don't have a grandma, they're both dead already."

"Well that's a pity now isn't it."

Her voice became serious.

She no longer sounded like an old lady.

She stood up straight without so much as a struggle.

Meaning she faked it the entire time.

"So tell me, who are you really?"

"There is no time for introductions, now follow me."

She pushed me off the bed and lifted it off the ground with unimaginable strength.

There was a trapdoor located under it.

"Before I lift this door I must know, are you ready for a journey unlike any you have ever heard of or read about? A journey of sorrow and struggles, yet a story of success. Are you ready?"

She asked me as she opened the trapdoor.

"I'm not completely sure I understand."

"If you are ready, then go down this hole."

I walked over to said hole and gazed down the bottomless pit before me, but there was no way to climb down.

*SLAM*

The old lady hit me from behind and forced me down the hole.

I released a high-pitched shriek as I fell.

It felt like an endless hole.

I fell and fell and fell.

It felt like I was falling for hours.

The hole was so tight, and I hit the wall a few times on my journey to the bottom.

Eventually, the hole ended, and I landed in a shallow pool of water.'

I landed on my head, and it immediately caused me to pass out, but I didn't stay down for long.

I could feel water trickling into my mouth.

It gave me the energy to awaken.

My senses were dulled.

I could hardly see, hear, or smell, but I forced myself to stand up and attempt to comprehend my surroundings.

WHAT THE FUCK?!

I SWEAR I'LL KILL THAT OLD HAG!

IF I COULD GO BACK IN TIME THEN I NEVER WOULD HAVE HELPED HER CROSS THE STREET!

WHERE THE FUCK AM I ANY-A-a-anyway.

I was standing in water, but I wasn't sinking.

I was surrounded by stars, planets, and galaxies.

What is this?

Is this the universe?

The big picture?

The sheer magnitude of what my eyes saw was enough to make me almost pass out again.

The view was life changing.

If this is the bigger picture, then everything I've been doing all this time can't even be seen under a microscope.

I fell to my knees.

Has my life been worthless?

Is everything I've done pointless?

What is the meaning of all of this?

What is the meaning of life itself?

Am I…

Nothing but a pebble?

The intensity was too much, and I passed out yet again.

When I regained consciousness again, I was standing in front of…

Me.

But this wasn't me.

Or at least not the me I know.

His right hand was a mass of red energy, just like the eyes from before.

The rest of his right arm had black colored energy.

His body was riddled with scars, burn marks, frostbite marks, and the like.

His right eye had a scar slashing through it, and his eye itself was a deep red color.

His other eye was normal, but his right eye was like the ones I saw appear in the darkness.

I turned my gaze downwards, and noticed the towering pile of dead bodies he stood on.

I couldn't make out any of the individual features of the corpses, I merely could see they were there.

He reached his right hand out to me.

The energy of his arm flickered in the wind.

"Take my hand, and begin your journey."

He said in my voice.

"But why me? I'm no one. I'm just an average guy you could pick up off the street."

"I don't believe that's true."

"What?"

He began to pace around the pile of corpses he had built up.

"There is no such thing as average. Everyone has something that sets them apart from others."

He told me.

"So then what is it that I have?"

"Well, that's simple…"

He began as he waved his hands upward as if to display some great achievement.

"YOU HAVE COURAGE!"

"Courage?"

"HAVE YOU NOT NOTICED IT?! EVERYONE IS JEALOUS OF YOU BECAUSE OF IT! EVEN IF YOU'RE NO GOOD AT SOMETHING, EVEN IF IT HURTS YOU, YOU JUMP INTO THE FRAY NO MATTER THE CIRCUMSTANCES!"

"That's just me being an idiot. Whenever I do that, it never ends well."

"YET YOU HAVE THE WILL TO SEE IT THROUGH!"

He turned around 360 degrees.

"THE MOMENT YOU STOP THINKING OF IT AS A FAULT, YOU'LL REALIZE THAT YOUR COURAGE AND IMPULSIVE THINKING IS YOUR STRENGTH!"

He reached his right hand out to me again.

"SO TAKE MY HAND AND DISCOVER ALL THAT IT IS YOU ARE CAPABLE OF!"

He's insane.

So why am I reaching out to grab his hand?

It doesn't make sense.

Am I insane?

I don't quite understand, yet it seems like my very being is yearning to take his hand.

"TAKE MY HAND, YUHVEN LIBERT!"

Just before our hands intertwined, I awoke.

I was sitting in the car on the drive to the campsite.

Nothing more, nothing less.

It was all just a dream.

"Are you okay, Yuhven?"

Zephyros asked.

"You've been acting weird all day."

My mom added.

It was then that I noticed my heavy breathing and the sweat trickling out of every dermis in my body.

"It's nothing, just a bad dream."

I replied.

I calmed my body down and noticed a tight grip on the middle finger of my right hand.

Wrapped around it like a ring was a small piece of red string.

It was all a dream…

Right?