Nothing.
***
Nothing.
***
Nothing.
***
Why do I still feel nothing?
Why is there nothing?
Is this what death is—just me in my thoughts.
A silky, deep voice appeared invading into my mind.
"Yes and no, young man. This is death, but for you this will be torture once again. Stay still Matthias, I'm still setting every nail and scream in place."
I guess this is what I get.
Suddenly a swirling bright light appeared. Maybe it lied. I'm going to be in heaven after all.
A bubbling energy filled my head.
Pop.
I looked down. My legs were back.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.
Ten toes. Two feet. Two decently sized calves—I really hope they're mine. Two quads. Two arms. Two hands.
Everything seemed normal... except for the fact I have nine fingers and they all had black spots instead of nails.
And for some reason I have one nipple specifically on my right pec.
A deep curious voice floated around me, "Hello there young fellow. Why did father send you here?"
I was attempting to see who it was but I merely saw a flickers like as if I'm glitching in reality. I forced myself to stand still just looking straight ahead.
I swallowed hard.
"I'm not completely sure myself," I admitted.
"Well how about we go somewhere more... professional ?" voice curled with smooth mockery.
Snap.
A pure black room. I turned my hips and my head spiralling around to see him but no physical body.
"Hmmm," the voice echoed louder now, disembodied yet intimate.
"Since you have no clue what wrongs you've done… and yet the Almighty Father has sent you here… what do you think of eternity—with me?"
I didn't know if it was him speaking, but then I saw something—a man, if you could call it that. His face was pitch-black, featureless except for a jagged mouth chewing on something unseen. No eyes. Bat-like wings carried him fluidly through the air, gliding without legs, without motion. He didn't walk. He didn't speak, yet it was speaking—directly into my mind.
"Eternity." The word tasted like poison on my tongue. My voice was sharp, but my heart was pounding.
"Do you really think you can keep me here forever?"
My eyes burned red, creating pure ember. Veins throbbing and bulging across my skin I shove my head forward, glaring into where I imagined his eyes to be. Only to see a faint glimmer of a white frozen teardrop with him chewing the large bulb and the tail flailing out.
Then–click.
A light bulb appeared suspended out of nowhere.
FLASH!
A bright light slammed unto to my skin, searing hot sizzling my body. My body attempting to drizzling in sweat yet everything evaporates before formation. The veins pulsing like they were trying to escape my body. The brilliance dimming slowly, with the heat dying down unbearable weight was gradually slamming down–like gravity itself was thickening, pressing down unto my bones.
I tried to open my mouth—to breathe, to fight—but a long glamorous finger warmly shut my it.
A soft, almost amused whisper.
"Oh, no no no," he breathed. "Open your mouth and it will leave."
I strained my eyes upwards.
And there I saw it to her.
A stunning, voluptuous feminine figure, hovering over me with eyes as sharp as an eagle, wrapped in tattered red silk that was scorched at the ends. A single, glowing red vein pulsed through her neck like a living serpent. She crunched something between her teeth–a golden heart bleeding pure gold.
Her presence was agony. Her beauty, a trap.
"Are you sure you don't want to stay with me?" she purred, her voice silk-wrapped venom.
She extended her smooth hand that shined pale and elegant. Her veins pulsing like crimson lightning beneath her translucent skin. My body glided towards her, no friction, no resistance. My mouth was watering and so were my eyes.
The heat from her body warmed me calming me and melting the weight off my body. Her lipped curled.
My fingers twitched. My breath slowed. My body easing itself to sleep.
"Yes..." Her whisper slithered beneath my skin. "Let it go. Stop fighting. Stay with me. There's nothing for you out there."
I was inches from her now. I could see the faint shimmer of gold dust clinging to her cheek, the twitch of her eyelid, the way her mouth moved like she was chewing her thirst.
Her words cold and sharp cutting through the haze.
"But, never forget Felix—the man who sold your soul and your body to Ted like the little prostitute you are."
His scream. His lightning. His smirk.
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!" Rage tore through my throat. My skin cracked with fiery red veins, pulsing like a molten glass beneath the surface.
I planted my feet down smashing them unto the ground.
I clutched it by the neck trying to pop their eyes out. Flames leaving my mouth "I will not stay here. Send me back."
The crimson glow dimmed.
The light bulb cracked–not shattered but peeled off like skin in a extremely sunny day. The silk robe that scorched melted to ashes carried by a mysteries gust in a enclosed room.
Her glowing vein stopped pumping, instead stiffening frozen.
I took a step back worrying about what was going to happen.
The form collapsed inwards folding like a reflection of a distorted mirror. Blood oozed out of creating a red puddle. A slight piece of the lightbulb fell splashing unto the blood catalysing into a gold liquid that was then swallowed instantaneously. The flesh turned pale almost translucent stretching tightly unto the bones too sharp.
Then there were the eyes.
Blindingly white, almost like it was seeing through me yet reflecting myself when I lose myself in them. It held no judgment, but pure terror and chaos. The lips sneaking and twisting around words, the arms hung limply by its side with a body hunched that remembered pain long after death.
The voice almost soothing and sympathetic not like the voice I just heard before.
"Why may I ask? Why do you desire to go back?" it questioned. Not out of curiosity but to understand me.
The room echoed with the same question with different voices not belonging to it. The light that dimmed no longer felt like it was from a source but reflecting from a glare off a blade.
It changed—not to persuasion or wrath but to understanding and reasoning. The words slid gradually off my mouth as a languid ribbon of saliva collected weaving its path downwards.
"Revenge is what I desire, revenge on Felix" stated mechanically.
The air tightened, the light started flickering. The words hovered in space like smoke—poisonous.
The figure didn't move but a slight just a slight smirk on his lip. Its hunched body straightened up straightening its bright yellow attire. The shoulders shaking off the weight of slumber. It looked at me–not with interest but with recognition.
"Revenge. It is so old it was the first prayer ever whispered into the void. It's never done for justice but for balance. It's burns with the fury of fire whilst enduring the devotion of ice. As the flames consumes, the ice endures till the soul that was bound has freedom to thirst once again," it murmured.
The voice was silk wrapping around me slowly weaving into my ear. No longer a tone of a woman trying to seduce me or the creature ridiculing me. The was deeper–truer. He took a step forward looking down straight into my eyes.
"And what would you do, Matthias" it voice piercing through the silence.
Meeting its gaze "how about my life?"
A silence. It scanned into my eyes scouring to see anything.
"I'll kill him."
The creature laughed maniacally rubbing the tears off his eyes. It grabbed my neck holding my head straight into my eyes. The room suddenly got cold.
The whisper coiled into my ear like a silk sliding over a blade—soft at first, but leaving a sting that lingered in my skull.
"You'll kill him." "But don't just remove of his life. But strip him bare–make him fear of what's coming. Become his shadow—his nightmare—his ruins."
The walls of the room began to twist, bleeding gold from the seams. The floor cracked, revealing a dim reflection beneath—like a mirror submerged in dark water. My reflection stared up at me… but it was smiling.
"I offer you this," the creature said, stretching one limp hand outward. "Life, Matthias. Breath, blood, flesh—reborn." It promised. "You will walk again. With strength sharpened by hate. And when you find Felix, your pain will become his judgment."
Its voice dropped to a whisper "In return how about you do me a favour with your new founded powers." A finger tapped gently against my chest. "The ha–pri ha–asur use it for me to defeat the man above and I will give you the revenge you crave. Use that to take to change your future and past."
A fruit appeared hanging up in the air. It veiled in deep crimson skin, holding faint golden veins that pulsed beneath the surface. The scent was intoxicating holding a blend of honeyed sweetness and a crackle of fire.
"That fruit," the creature said, eyes gleaming "is a malum from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil—altered to suit my preferences. Take a bite and you will return to your past to complete what started."
It turned away gliding on its two feet.
I go to grab it. When touched, my skin gradually warmed. The moment before the bite felt thrilling, exciting and dangerous—it was like I was standing on the edge of the cliff, my toes curled over the edge, heart racing. But it wasn't fall I fear but what I landed in. I close my eyes shut.
Taking a bite deep into the malum. A tender yet crisp taste dripping with juice leaving a warmth that lingered far too long.
Tears poured out of my eyes. The air shifted—softer now, familiar in a way that hurts. My fingers brushed fabric I hadn't worn in years. Once again I heard a voice. A voice that called my name.