There are three questions I would like the answers to:
"Where am I?"
"Who am I?"
And maybe even, "What am I?"
As I lie in this pitch-black abyss of lights these thoughts pierce my mind over and over relentlessly. Wait, how long have I been here?
His thoughts had dwindled to nothing more than mere observations by now. His thoughts had become repetitive questions that would never have answers, for there was not a single person there to answer them. Thus, he found himself lying still as can be in the void of lights.
The lights shimmered with an unusual chatoyancy in shades of magenta, blue and yellow. Alas, this was the least unique aspect of this peculiar prison the young man had found himself in.
"Oh! You're so sweet!"
"I can't do it! Leave me alone!"
With a pique in curiosity, the youth's steely-blue eye peeked to his left. Unstable, yet still clear were a plethora of varying imagery, visuals playing like televised programs floated by little by little. Every now and then voices would come through and, just barely could he make out the scenarios playing in these screens. The images seemed to have no limit on the genres that were played. They were as wide ranging as nonsensical mish mashes to sword fights and fallen kingdoms.
Despite this vast array of content, the youth found little interest in any of it.
I just want to know my name...
No, I'd like to know my purpose.
Despite this hunger for knowledge, he continued to remain still, his eyes steadily coming to a close once again.
He wanted to know. But for how long had he wanted? He remembered the first time he opened his eyes. He wasn't panicked, he was just confused. Those same three questions were used for the very first time that day, and it most certainly wasn't the last. He wandered around but was fearful of his surroundings. He didn't know what would happen if he strayed too far or if he touched anything. After a while of this, he stopped and waited, thinking, "Maybe someone will find me here. Maybe someone will help me."
He waited...
He waited a little more...
He gave up.
The youth began to wander again, this time with more curiosity. He touched the screens that floated around, but he felt a painful shock and thus, decided to leave them be. He ran his fingertips through the boxes of light that inhabited this realm alongside him.There were no curious sensations or pains so he believed these were safe. He continued walking. But as he walked he grew more and more tired. This place seemed to be never-ending and he was ready to give up. So he did.
The youth dropped down to the ground and sat.
What was he to do? There was nowhere to go, nothing to do, no one to talk to.
He was all alone in this space of nothing. A place with no beginning and no end and no life other than himself.
Yet he wasn't feeling scared nor was he becoming belligerent and losing his sense of reality (though it is debatable as to whether he had this to begin with or not). He had come to accept this world as his truth.
No one would come for him. No one would save him. This was all there was to it.
He couldn't even be sure there were really others like him out there somewhere. How could he be sure? Of course, there were the visuals he was seeing every day and all day, but what these could be he hadn't the foggiest idea. How could he know what any of this was? He had to stop seriously questioning this. No answers would ever come.
This was all there was to it. No more.
"O-oh... O-oh m-my... H-Ho...s"
This peculiar audio caught his attention.
The youth had drifted in and out of consciousness as he was accustomed to doing at all times. Due to his lack of concentration on anything in specific, he had only caught pieces of this, but the last word had turned his stomach, a sensation he could recall feeling before, but no situation was associated with it. What could it mean?
He glanced at the passing visuals in search of the source of the voice. The audio was always fading in and out, so he would never get a full story, but he could at least focus on that voice in particular and try to use the hazy sound as a guide.
The youth's gaze fell from one face to another as he strolled past the walls of imagery. It took almost no time at all for him to cross the source; a gloomy picture with heavy shadows, but blaring lights that his eyes strained to focus on.
He didn't like this one.
But that fascinated him.
The youth watched with an intensity that was new to him. He moved closer as he watched this visual, the increasingly slow pacing, the heart-wrenching atmosphere, the shattered glass sparkling in the blaring lights across the ground at this young woman's feet, seemingly sprinting with all her might. Softly, but with a force that sounded like it shredded her throat, came the word,
"Hollis!"
"Nghhk!"
The boy's stomach felt like it was turning and he toppled over on himself, gripping at his abdomen and clenching his mouth to keep it shut. That name felt all too familiar. Pairing it with those visuals made something in his head click in a painful, blinding way.
He climbed back onto his feet and inched away from the large visual, his face lowered down to keep that horrible image from his sight.
Only a moment before, that image had his full attention, but now he wanted nothing to do with it.
Hollis? He asked to himself. Who is Hollis? Am I Hollis? Is that...bad or good?
What could all of this mean?
Head clenched in his hands, he tried to think. Was all of this important? What does it mean? What am I missing?!
The young man had stumbled back from the imagery. His head was spinning with thoughts. Nothing like this had happened before.
What does it mean?
He wanted to forget that he had seen this. He wanted to forget that he had heard this.
But...
This...is this... Is this some kind of sign?
In all the time he had dwelled within this space, nothing such as this had happened before. What else could this be if not a sign?
Now, the only thing left to do was to decide...what to do.
If he ignored it, he could continue on in his carefree, albeit boring existence without having to deal with the consequences of learning whatever it is that audio was. But if he followed the trail...
With a deep inhale, he decided to take the bait.
Approaching the visual as it floated along, he reached his hand to the picture. That familiar shock that had once startled him snapped at his fingers, but he pushed through.
If there's something here for me...I have to try whatever I can.
He continued to push. A slight force was pushing back, but it took almost no time at all for him to feel said force give way and then his body was pulled forward.
He felt his feet leave the ground and a feeling of weightlessness overwhelmed him as the image he had watched grew foggier with each passing second.
In the depths of an abyss, a young man awakens to a world of strange images and inky blackness, his memories lost to amnesia. With hope gone, he finally succumbs to his solitary new life when, out of the blue, a voice calls to him.
"Hollis!"
With hope ignited, he finds himself venturing into the unknown, though regret is never far behind. Through this, he encounters a mysterious young man who sets forth a series of events that force Hollis to question everything; even his own state of being.
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