Awakening(part3)

The concept of time appeared to be lost in this dark world. Michael had been walking for what felt like an eternity, he attempted to count seconds; to at least keep track of how long it had been. That proved tiring and felt inaccurate. His sense of time was slowly being, twisted. Sometimes felt like he had been here for a few minutes, then it felt like he had been here for hours. It was eerie and unsettling. Try as he may, the feeling wasn't going away.

The land was barren and monotonic making for a boring and dull environment. It felt like he was walking on ground that moved with his every step, making it so he was in the same place regardless of how much or how fast he walked.

He had tried running, it didn't help. Eventually he ended up giving up and just strolled lazily his mind on it's usual escapades as his eyes tried to peer through the veil of darkness that fell over the whole void.

After some time passed, his mind begun playing tricks on him. It was proven that if the brain lacked stimuli for an extended period of time, hallucinations were prone to occur.

He thought he heard someone call out his name only to turn around and find the same emptiness staring back at him. Sometimes he thought he saw someone somewhere ahead, he broke into a run hoping to catch up to them, only for the mirage to fade away into the darkness.

Eventually, he tried to ignore any and everything he saw or heard, he had been disappointed so much to pay them any heed. Slowly, his mind was slipping. He wanted to believe he had been here for a few minutes tops, yet the more he walked the more it felt like hours.

He continued to walk the void, weary of the constant hallucinations that occasionally turned out to be some harrowing creature jumping at him from the folds of darkness. Michael experienced terror many times, his heart racing and his mind slipping even more. Whatever this place was it seemed to have been purposed to torture whoever was caught inside it.

Michael stumbled, he almost fell a number of times. He couldn't see that well, the immediate ground was like a haze, vague and plain. At one point he had decided to close his eyes and just walk that way, it wouldn't make any difference and it kept the images out of his mind. At least he had hoped, only for his mind to offer up images of even more harrowing nightmares forcing him to keep his eyes open at the expense of having a heart attack every minute.

The lack of visual or auditory stimuli, despite causing him hallucinations, allowed his mind to wander. He allowed himself to think about the few happy memories he had in his past life. It was refreshing and a change of pace.

However, after a while, he got tired of those memories. He decided, then, to recount his failures and where he fell short. This were all memories he had recounted a number of times, he had long grown accustomed to the waves of emotions they carried. Even this became tiring.

Counting seconds into the triple digits became a chore eventually.

He tried to estimate how long he had been walking, how long had he been trapped in this void. An hour? Maybe two?

It was futile, he could only speculate and even that would be inaccurate. What even was the point if he couldn't figure out what his purpose here was.

Initially, he had assumed it was to find a way out by simply wandering through the darkness. That proved to be pointless, the place was like one giant endless room that had no walls and if it did, they were a ways off from where he was. Who was to say this wasn't a place the size of a city or a country, heck he wouldn't be shocked if it turned out to be the size of a continent.

Switching his approach, he decided to try and make peace with his past. Maybe the test demanded he come to some profound acceptance. Maybe that was what awakening meant. He hadn't given it much thought after he was made aware of the concept. In his mind, it was merely unlocking the power that lay beneath, the how he had not considered.

In the webtoons, it had mainly involved meditation, or some other method along that line. Hopefully once of these worked.

He had wanted to try meditation but he knew next to nothing about it but after doing some research he had a general grasp of what it entailed. Having seemingly run out of options, he decided to give it a try.He stopped and sat down in a lotus position like he had seen many a times before.

He closed his eyes and relaxed his body.

In the silence, he listened for his heart beat and his blood flow, that was supposedly the routine.

His breath slowed down and tapered off. He held this state for a few seconds, then a minute; hoping that something would happen.

..

...

....

Nothing happened.

It was exasperating, the flimsy hope he held on too begun to chip and almost shatter. After holding the state for a few more seconds, he begun to feel sleepy. He would have fought against the urge to sleep, maybe he should have, but what was the point. He was going to be in this place for God knows how long, he might as well take a well deserved nap.

"I should have asked for more details." he mumbled under his breath as he lay himself on the cold smooth ground.

This time however, something happened.

While lost in the embrace of dreamless sleep, he heard a voice that woke him up. He sat up and craned his neck trying to find the source of the voice in the darkness.

He listened more intently, hoping to at least get the general direction of where it came from. This weird place made it difficult for him to pinpoint it's exact direction, the echoing throwing him off.

So he focused his mind, slowing his breathing instinctively. The echoes slowly faded out and the many voices gradually lessened until one was left.

It was sobbing noises. Whoever the voice belonged to was crying? Michael was alarmed, even more curious and weary with hope reigniting her flames once more. He had thought himself alone this whole time. To learn that there was someone else trapped with him in this void was as relieving as it was terrifying.

Who was to say they were friendly? Also, were they here too for them reason as he, in the same way as he? Maybe that was why they were crying. Dying and finding yourself in a place as dull and dark as this one was depressing.

So he picked himself up and walked in the direction of the voice. His steps were light, their sound echoing only silently through the void, this simple detail had escaped him before.

With no light, he forced his eyes to make out any shapes in the darkness. It had occurred to him that this could be a hallucination, but he shrugged off the thought, welcoming the change and choosing to satiate his curiosity. Also, what did he have to loose, time?

And so it was, he made his way wearily through the void, his breath steady, mind racing and heart beating with hope. Somewhere deep within him, he felt that this was not a hallucination, it had to be a way out of the void, he wanted it to be.

Eventually, the silhouette of a person seated with their feet tucked to their chest came into view.

Gradually a dull light shone from somewhere deep in the void slowly illuminating the entire expanse in a deep gray, allowing him to take in the person's shape to find out it was a child seated alone in the bowels of the void.