And then I was alone.
It was a dark time in my life.
But somehow I kept busy.
But the loneliness...
Madness crept upon the outskirts of my mind.
But I had to keep busy.
Must work, must move.
Or fall into the blinding blackness of the insane.
I wish I had a dog.
But no...
They're gone, too.
And now it's only me.
I call upon nature...
But it has abandoned me as well.
Where is this place?
It is Earth.
This I know.
Yes, it's certainly Earth.
But...
yet it isn't.
The very life Earth has stood for has left.
But why?
I can't remember...
All I see is blackness.
No...
That is orange.
Yes, that's orange...
Of course...
But why is it orange?
Why does the sun never set?
Why is all I see an empty plain?
With cracks in the ground?
I wonder what lies beneath the cracks...
No...
I think I know that.
And so I look around.
The heat of the sun made no waves upon the Earth’s surface.
And yet it was hot.
Almost unbearably so.
Well this is new.
But somehow I'm used to it.
Used to the unbearable pain of the heat stabbing through me.
Unbearable....
But yet I'm used to it.
I take a step forward.
Nothing moves.
Did I move?
Did I even take a step?
I start running.
I run for what seems an eternity, not knowing if my feet were still on the scarred surface of the Earth.
I felt like every step I take was being halved.
I felt like I was leaping over great distances.
But I didn't move.
Nothing moved.
There was no possible way of knowing one crack from another.
I would look at one, and look at another...
Did I?
It's getting dark again...
But the sun still showed brightly in the sky.
I must keep running.
I run
I run
I run farther still
Am I running?
Perhaps I have fallen...
No.
I cannot believe that.
I must keep running...
An eternity later I stop.
I look down.
In front of me is..
Myself....
Lying there, on the ground.
What is this?
I felt dead.
But I wasn't.
I was lying there, on the ground in front of me...
And I felt relieved.
My eyes weren't closed.
I tried to close them.
I could not.
But I know I won’t die.
It's impossible...
Despite the relief and gratitude that my legs had given out, I run.
I run from my fallen body.
I run
I run
And then I stop.
Why am I running?
Was that not me lying there on the rock?
I wish to return, but I will not.
Even if I knew the way.
The gross heat still flowed through me.
I understand now...
I'm frozen.
Yes, that must be it.
I bring my hand up to my face.
It was then that I discovered I had a hand.
It was in a fist.
I realized I was holding something.
I opened my hand.
But no.
I couldn't find the will.
My hand seemed to be shaking.
It seemed to be shaking violently.
But it was still.
It would not let go to whatever it was clutching.
I couldn't look away.
I concentrated my entire being upon it.
But it would not move.
I wanted to release whatever was inside, so that perhaps I could find something that would provide answers.
I wanted it to release me from whatever this was..
Then I looked away.
And I fell.
And I fell
And I fell
And I fell
At first there was nothing.
There was only an eternal soundless blackness.
There were no winds.
But the more I fell, the more things started to change.
I could still see nothing.
But inside of myself I felt my mind and my soul and my being and my heart
...
crack
When I felt it at first, nothing changed.
Then I saw a crack within the void.
What I saw from the crack destroyed me.
But I'm still falling.
and falling
and falling
And I came closer to the crack within the blackness.
I looked at my hand.
It seems to have loosened.
panic
Panic...
Panic absorbed my mind and my soul and my being and my heart.
My hand loosened further.
Now, more than anything, I wished for my hand to close once more.
There was still a whisper of life within me.
Or is that life?
It was still.
And yet I clung upon it with my entirety.
And then I stopped.
And listened.
How can one bear so much pain and still be?
How can such pain be wrought?
And I began to understand.
I looked up.
There, another eternity away, I saw something.
I saw the place from which I came.
I saw the dry, cracked, dead place from which I fell.
And it was beautiful.
I looked behind me.
I saw the place to which I was falling.
The crack of unbelievable emptiness.
And I wanted to enter it so badly.
Why do I wish to enter such a place?
I felt myself begin to drift in the void, refusing to release my grasp on whatever it was I was holding.
And I heard a noise.
It was my voice, singing out.
A haggard, tired thing.
But I began to rise.
And I rose.
And I rose
The more I rose, the faster I rose.
I rose quickly.
So, so quickly.
I should have perished.
But the cracks within me began to mend.
And my grasp held firm.
And what seemed like an eternity falling felt like mere moments as I entered the dead world once more.
But I didn't stop.
I kept rising
and rising
and rising
I rose more
And I wouldn't stop
I refuse to stop
I will not stop.
And then I approached the dead world again.
But it had changed.
I open my hand.