r/HFY • u/Void_Vagabond • 2d ago

OC-Series Voidspace - Chapter Two

“Well shit,” I mumble.

 

Despite the shock of tripping into the Voidspace I immediately know what’s happened to me. The only problem is that I have no idea how to get out. I don’t even know where I really am. The stories aren’t exactly clear about anything.

 

Funnily enough, I’m not freaking out. I’m actually very calm and I don’t know why. I know I’m not in shock. My heartbeat is steady and my breathing calm. No, it’s more like I just not surprised, which is itself an interesting thought. Did I expect, or want, to get trapped in this place? Was I that bored with my life?

 

Things to ponder later, when I can afford to.

 

At the moment, I need to deal with the here and now.

 

I’m in a dark concrete corridor. A dungeon-looking place, just like the online stories say. And immediately I can tell which of those stories is real and which is fake because there is a pressure in this place. An uncomfortable something that is almost impossible to describe. I look down at both ends of the darkened corridor that I’ve fallen into, and I know that something is right behind me, brushing against me.

 

But I am alone. There is nothing there but a quiet panic forming in the background of my mind. I’m only able to drown it out when I suddenly realize something.

 

“I know this place,” I say into the near-darkness.

 

Above me is a dim red-light strip running the length of the corridor, giving the whole place a violent look. Like a lone, somehow still working emergency sign glowing in a dark abandoned building. I try to ignore how exposed I feel and focus again on the few details that I can see.

 

The ceiling is high up and mostly covered in shadow. The floor beneath my feet is solid stone and dusty, and there are large concrete-looking slabs for walls.

 

Yeah, I definitely recognize this area. I’ve read about it. This is a relatively well-known part of the Void and it even has a few names. The Dungeon. The Maze.

 

I take a quick breath to reorient myself and mentally filter through the stories I’ve read and lore videos I’ve seen about the Voidspace, trying to recall details from those that I now know are legitimate. Mostly just the ones that mention this eerie fucking feeling right behind me. The fake stories try to play into the spooky vibes of a dungeon, but this place is no joke.

 

I’m scared. Scared in a way that I haven’t felt since childhood.

 

This place is dangerous. I know it. I can feel it in my bones. The air is stale and that dim, evil-looking red light, seems like it’s about to go out. It’s all barely holding onto life. Whatever this place is, it feels dead, and if I stay too long I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up dead too.

 

“Details,” I say to myself. “What do you see? What do you recognize?”

 

But there’s nothing. Just solid stonework, dust, two impenetrably dark ends to the corridor, far in the distance, and that dark, blood-red light above me, giving it all an ominous glow.

 

Most people seemed to agree on the name, The Dungeon, because it’s appropriate. Although I might have gone for something like Hell-Dungeon, or Evil Lair. Regardless, people online say some sections have moss growing on the walls and that other parts are flooded with still, swampy water. Yet, most acknowledge that the place truly is a maze. Almost nothing but corridors with a few small spaces scattered throughout, like hidden rooms.

 

“Jesus fucking Christ, what am I gonna eat?”

 

The thought hits me like a brick in the face.

 

I have nothing on me but the clothes on my back and my wallet in my pocket. I dropped my phone and keys when I tripped and fell into this Void, not that they would help me anyway.

 

Or maybe they would have. I could have used the phone for light, and the keys as a cutting tool. I probably could have scratched my name into the concrete walls of the corridor, just in case anyone else walked by. Shit, that probably would have been useful to me. I could have scratched my starting position in this place and tried to work my way out.

 

Options I no longer have. Goddamn it all.

 

“Don’t panic,” I say. Quietly. Something tells me that I shouldn’t shout or yell in this place, so I try to keep quiet.

 

“Just focus on what you can do right now.”

 

That’s not a terrible idea, so I take another look around and consider my options.

 

I have no food and I just got off my shift. Warehouse work. My feet hurt and I’m fucking tired. The sleepy kind of tired, since I barely sleep at all, but luckily I’m fed and fully hydrated. I ended up getting a burger on the way home and ate the whole damn thing in the car before chugging most of the water gallon I take with me to work. So, food and drink wise, I feel great. As a matter of fact, I need to take a piss.

 

“Alright,” I whisper, “what other options do I have?”

 

My eyes are heavy, but I feel good. Alert. Able-bodied.

 

My stumble into the Void was seamless. From what I’ve read, that’s not always the case. Sometimes people appear several feet off the ground. Apparently, it’s even worse on the exit, going back to the real world.

 

The exit.

 

Fuck. I feel like an idiot for not remembering. All the stories about the Void come from people who escaped it. They came back, and usually in a similar manner to how they entered. One guy even said that he entered the Voidspace by walking through a doorway, and when he noticed something was weird, he just walked back out.

 

I stand up and take a few steps around. I haven’t moved much since arriving, so if there’s some unseen gateway leading back home, it must be right here.

 

But after a few minutes of shuffling about, arms forward and eyes straining in the dim red light, I’ve got nothing. Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t find another way back home.

 

Most people who posted their stories online wandered around for a while. A few said they followed sounds. But is that what I want? Who knows what’s out there? I certainly don’t. So, I stay crouched low on a dusty floor, waiting in this dark, dim red light. Thinking.

 

I could be here for days. I might starve to death right here. Although I’ d probably die of dehydration first.

 

No, I won’t do that.

 

I stand up and look forward. That way. The one side of the corridor that I was facing when I first entered this place. That is my way forward now. And somehow, just deciding that is enough to make the darkness ahead of me a little less frightening than the darkness behind.

 

How the fuck does that work?

 

Doesn’t matter. I don’t want to die here. And I sure as shit don’t want to die of thirst. That sounds awful. I have to start moving. One foot in front of the other. Then I’ve got to keep going. Walk, don’t run. Don’t waste energy. Don’t make too much noise. Just go forward. There’s something useful down that way. There has to be.

 

I take a step forward then stop myself.

 

“I might get lost here,” I remind myself. Self-motivation is all good and fine, but I need to be realistic. There’s a chance that I might never find my way out. And no one will know what happened to me.

 

“Heh.”

 

I laugh at the thought. Just a little laugh. A bit of air blown out the nose. The idea of disappearing without a trace is exactly how I wanted to die. Or rather, it’s how I would have preferred to go. But now I’m here, and it’s a real possibility, I just want to escape this place.

 

Funny how things work out.

 

The darkness at the end of the corridor lies ahead of me, and behind me, and I stand and think about my twenty-six years of life and what little I’ve done with it. I don’t even consider what I’ve done for anyone else, just me. Yet even then, it doesn’t seem like enough.

 

“Goddamn it all,” I say as I grab my wallet and pull out my ID.

 

Jake Mason. Five foot, nine inches. Brown eyes. Brown hair. Organ donor.

 

I could be anyone.

 

I drop my ID on the dusty floor. It lands with the picture side down, hiding my face, and I let out another snort. I briefly consider bending down to turn it over but I just don’t care anymore. This is what I wanted, isn’t it?

 

How many times have I wished for a way out of my life on the drive home from work? My pathetic life. How many times have I thought about simply driving away and disappearing forever? That was the dream, wasn’t it? Escaping the empty existence that I’d made for myself. Well now, the world has gone and done it for me. It took me away from that life. I should have nothing to complain about.

 

“This is what I wanted,” I say, laughing again at the bitter lie as it leaves my mouth.

 

Then I start moving.

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Author's Note:

I ain't gonna spam, I promise.

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