The road (rewritten)

The darkness lasted a long, long time.

I tried counting the seconds but lost track after a billion.

My thoughts melded in on themselves and the difference between words and concepts slowly disappeared.

Painful memories and mistakes would play over and over in my head until I completely forgot them, and there were long moments of quiet existence where I just observed my mind and the complex interactions within.

There were no dreams. No sleep. No rest. Only me and everything I could comprehend.

I was stuck. Chained within the agonizing system of my ken.

If I were given the option to let my flame flicker out.

I would have.

BUT!

After those long painful moments, something finally changed. I felt…. Something. Pressure around the formless being that was my. Was my…. me?

And I have to tell you, after so long of never having felt anything. Any sanitary person would be glad I didn't have a body as I would have soiled whatever pants I may have been wearing.

And from that pressure of me I heard things. Little snippets of speech. I was almost certain I was going Insane.

"For a child to not cry but laugh moments after their birth. I think you've got yourself a jester ma'm."

The joy I felt as I heard that sound was akin to walking into the heavens and having the gods inexplicably bow to your greatness.

It took years until I heard another sound.

"I love you."

I swear I moaned. It was beautiful. My mind created a thousand stories the second I heard it.

"Let's run away together."

A thousand more tales were made. The joy. The existence. I was a human. I was a real person.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" And then came the last sound. A scream. One so loud that it engulfed my mind.

The sound didn't make any stories. But it did make a new sensation.

It was a beautiful symphony of pain. Searing my soul. Scorching my being.

And then came the moment….

....

I smelt something. Fetid, metallic. I foggily understood of what the smell was connected to, but it was still utterly unfamiliar.

~Do I have a body now.~

I'd felt pain. Some touch. A sense of possessing weight. But I've never smelt anything. And there were more sensations that that.

There was an itch. There was the sensation of hair.

The weight of clothes.

There were to many senses. More than I'd ever felt before.

Testing this question, my mind scrambled through its old encyclopaedia of commands until It finally found one that would be suitable.

And so my eyes opened.

For a few moments, I felt the scorching pain of light. It was another new sensation. A cried from the pure joy of experiencing it.

~Am I a masochist.~ I wondered. That question was quickly struck from the record, though. After a long, long time I finally saw something. Truly saw something.

A blue sky dotted with the occasional hanging clouds and swaying branches dancing with a breeze I could just barely feel.

A goofy grin covered my face.

"LUGHT. EXISTA!" I rolled onto my side, my blood flowing with excitement.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The image I saw the second I performed that action was unbelievable, especially for someone whose longest memory was that of an unending void.

Before me was the torn-up face of a woman. Covering the entirety of her face were cuts. They each went about an inch deep and were covered in dried blood, holding a dark red colour. But that wasn't the most terrifying part.

The most terrifying part was that she didn't have a body. Where one would expect a body to be, there was only ground and the occasional blood splatter.

My mind inputted rapid commands trying to find something. Anything. To escape the sight before me. I thrashed and twitched on the ground as if I was having a seizure while repeatedly yelling. 'Fibble fibber!'

The sun moved through the sky as the inputs continued. By the time they were done, I was a foot farther away from the head and wheezing heavily.

~What Is this?~

I asked myself. I could not immediately find an answer. So I closed my eyes and focused on nothing. Then, slowly as the sun fell further, I remembered something.

A time when I walked. A time when I acted. Slowly the inputs gathered together In my mind. And like that, I stood up.

You never know when an epiphany going to strike you, and for me, this was that unexpected moment when it did. I was standing. I went from a man that knew only a formless pit of his own consciousness to a being who could defy the fundamental limits of gravity. The pull of a world. I felt like a titan.

"HAHAHHA! BAHAHAHAHA!" Laughter streamed from my mouth as I experienced the feeling of titan-hood. I had stood. With the whole world pulling me down, I had stood. That accomplishment mattered more than anything at that moment.

"Haaaaaaa." I looked up at the sky with a sigh. Something within me was telling me to do something.

'Find a road.'

It said. And from there came the urge to search. And so that's what I did.

🐐🐖🐐🐖🐐🐖

The sun burned brightly in the sky as I walked. It was getting to the end of the day. And I still hadn't found anything my mind strongly identified as a road. Sure, I had found what I would call trails and the like but nothing that I could call a 'road.'

But I did find one thing I found interesting.

A small pond clear enough for me to see my face in it. And my face was definitely different from how I remembered it. The again I don't remember having a face. So any face would be different. I had a sun kissed farmers face, a grey scar around my neck, and a large hooked nose as well as very large muscles. I didn't remember much to compare to. But I thought I had quite an excellent physique.

After spending a few minutes admiring myself in the pond, I went off to do something else.

And that something else was obvious. I was looking for the road!

I walked until the sun had left the sky and there was only the moon to keep me company.

And finally, after the moon had moved a bit in the sky. I found it. Something I recognized as 'road'. Packed down dirt with ditches to the side. Images in red paint were placed upon the trees nearby. It was the defintion of a road.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEE!" I screamed and started hopping up and down from the ecstasy. A new experience, a new existence. It was a joy.

So. SO much joy.