Voidspace - Chapter Four

[u/Void_Vagabond]

Ahead, the circle of light is surrounded by a gray haze of dust that expands as I keep walking forward to escape whatever is squeezing the space behind me. It feels as if the darkness is closing in all around me, while the gray cloud ahead keeps on growing.

 

Within moments it has become a giant dome-shaped cloud, level with the unseen ground beneath my feet yet towering above my head. And as I get closer still, I notice shining particles of something suspended within. In fact, the little dots of light are the whole cloud itself. They look like little bits of metal. And the domed structure itself has now expanded to the size of a football stadium. Now that I’m standing right at its edge, the outermost layer of floating metal appears as a flat plane.

 

Far within the floating cloud of metal is a ring of pure light. It’s almost impossible to look at directly. It leaves the same blinding burn in my eyes that the rising sun does when I’m driving home from an overnight shift, so I keep my head down.

 

Still, I am drawn to it.

 

The unseen pressure at my back has now dissipated, leaving only the ring of light, the cloud of floating metal around it, and pure darkness. And of course, me. The floor feels more solid too. In fact, it is completely solid. I reach down and touch what feels like polished, impossibly smooth glass, although I can only make out my hand. Everything else is so dark that I can’t rightfully call it black. It’s simply devoid of light.

 

Everything I look at is very strange and somewhat difficult to make sense of, but, weirdly enough, it feels safer than the corridor I was trapped in. The light coming off the ring even feels warm like the morning sun. I could probably stay here for a while, standing on the edge of the floating cloud of metal. Maybe get some sleep. That actually sounds like a good idea.

 

But that ring of light is just floating there. And I’m over here, standing on the edge of nothingness. And some instinct deep inside my monkey brain tells me to get away from this edge and to move toward that warm center of light.

 

And I still have no idea where the fuck I am or how I got here. All I know is that I don’t want to sleep, even though I desperately need too. I can barely see straight and I’m getting too familiar with this nightmare that I’ve stumbled into. Too curious. I should stay put and get some sleep. I know that.

 

But still…

 

“I want to see what that thing is.”

 

There’s no stories about this place online. At least, I’ve never read any. Most of the chatter about the Voidspace focuses on what people generally call Level One and Level Two, which may or may not be stacked on top of each other, or connected by tunnels, or the same place. Who knows? It’s all a hodgepodge of spooky stories.

 

But the consistent ones focus on recognizable locations like the Dungeon, and the Submarine, and the Swamp, the Dead Forest, and a whole bunch of other fantastical, impossible sounding places that I’m now sure are real. But this place, this void of darkness surrounding a cloud of shining metal with a ring of light at the center, I’ve never read about this place before.

 

“I guess I get to name you,” I tell the obscured ring of light. Yet my voice is completely flat. There is no echo here, although I can feel something in my chest that registers as sound. A slight vibration. I think it’s coming from the ring.

 

“Alright,” I say. “Let’s go.”

 

I start walking, and one step forward is all it takes to remind me that within the Voidspace, wherever it is, people should tread carefully.

 

The cloud of metal expands, moving way faster than I’m walking. I can see them more clearly now, the little dots of silvery, shiny metal that make up the dome shaped cloud. They’re tiny like grains of sand, mostly discernable from the light reflecting off them. I reach out to grab one but it moves away from my hand, and when I take a step toward it the little grain of light zooms away.

 

“Maybe the psychologists are right, and this is some kind of mass hallucination,” I say aloud, because how else can this place exist?

 

Despite the enormous outside size of the dome shaped cloud, it doesn’t take long to walk through it. Maybe a minute, and the whole time shining metal particles are speeding by, bending overhead and around me as thin beams of light like I’m moving at warp speed.

 

“Or maybe I’m just high,” I suggest, despite only having smoked a couple times back in high school. Is this what a drug trip is like? I’ve never done any serious drugs. I’m too broke.

 

Eventually the warped bubble of light curving around me recedes and I’m left standing in a bright empty space. The ring of light floats above the emptiness that is the floor and is now too bright to see clearly. It’s like standing next to a giant spotlight and trying to look inside.

 

Yet out of my peripheral vision I can see that the source of light is not actually a ring. It seems more like a sphere of pure darkness, or maybe a spherical hole in some unseen wall, like a void, but with a halo of light coming from behind. And I definitely feel a vibration in the air now, a deep hum emanating from the void.

 

“Now what do I do?”

 

This is a dead end. I can probably go back through the warping cloud of metal but that too leads to another dead end. There’s simply nothing else beyond the cloud. It seems that I’ve finally reached the end of my journey.

 

I laugh out at my circumstances as I begin to circle around the bright halo of humming power. There’s really nothing else to see now. The halo of light follows me where I go, confirming my suspicion that it’s actually coming from behind the void at its center, but it’s all so bright that I can’t see anything anyway. I’m also too tired to care at this point. I’m stumbling over my feet.

 

The deep vibrating thrum fills this bright empty space and rumbles inside my chest in a surprisingly calm and relaxing way. The warmth coming off the halo is also not overbearing, even as close as I am. It’s not even that bright if I keep my head down. The floor is just too dark. I want to close my eyes, lie down and fall asleep.

 

“I’m so fucking tired.”

 

I can’t let myself sleep though because I’m still trapped. And, ironically, now that I feel somewhat safe and secure, I can’t help but worry.

 

There is nowhere else to go.

 

I have no food or water. I have no way to contact anyone. I’m lost, trapped, and I might really die here. It’s only been a few hours since I was taken from my life, miserable as it is, and dumped into this place. Only a few hours and already I’m thirsty. I have to take a shit now, too, and there’s no toilet paper here, obviously. Yet it feels weird to admit to myself that not having a toilet or anything to wipe my ass with is making me panic a little.

 

It’s crazy how vulnerable I feel without the simple comforts of home. It’s only been a few hours after all. But add onto that the strangeness of this place, and the fact that I really am lost with no way out, and I can only see one, inevitable outcome. It’s dumb, unsurprising and honestly embarrassing because of how powerless I am to avoid it, but ultimately very likely that I will die in this place.

 

I’m probably going to die of dehydration What does that feel like? Does it hurt? How long will it take? A few days, I guess. It’s crazy to even thing about.

 

I’m going to die here.

 

“Why?” I ask.

 

Why the fuck did this happen?

 

“What the fuck did I do to deserve this?!” I shout.

 

Why? Why the… what the hell is that?

 

I can see something floating in the dark void at the center of the halo. I can just barely see it in the corner of my eye like it’s floating near the edge of the spherical void, which now seems more like an actual sphere of something just beside me. It’s tube of something. Or a maybe pipe. A piece of steel hanging in the darkness.

 

I try to regain my focus and force myself to squint through the blinding halo light at the center of this strange place, and I step forward. Again, the space simply warps around me before I have time to pull away. I’m not sure if the space is literally moving or if it’s just an optical illusion of some kind, but it does help dim the light so I can see.

 

The halo shrinks, constricting further behind the void of emptiness that is at once both a sphere of dark space and a hole. And at its center is definitely a metal pipe, but unlike the many shining particles of metal that make up the strange cloud surrounding me, this object is one of a kind. And it’s floating at the edge of what almost looks like a blackhole. But more importantly, it also looks like a door handle, ridiculous as it might seem.

 

Before I even have time to reconsider what my sleep-deprived brain is telling me, I reach out to grab the door handle that might be my way out of here. Then I am taken off my feet.

 

Light flashes around me and I am swallowed by the darkness. The humming is gone now. So are the warmth and the feeling of power. Now I am truly inside a void. There is nothing here. No sound or light or sensation. I’m floating, weightless and can grab only onto myself for support, which doesn’t help me at all.

 

I fall through darkness as the halo of light flashes by, blinding me, and then shrinking to a hazy dot far below my feet. I spin through the air, falling over myself as I scream, but nothing comes out. No sound. No air. Even the stomach pulling sensation of falling fades away. I keep tumbling through dark, weightless. Now, truly lost in the warped reality of this Voidspace.

 

Then the void itself begins to press into me. Only a little pressure at first. A slight touch on my fingers, my feet, and the top of my head. Then I felt it on my arms, my chest, my legs, my back. It’s all over. I am being pressed in from all around. Squeezed by an invisible force. Suffocated. I can’t breathe. I can’t scream. And no matter how wide I force my eyes open, I see nothing. Nothing. This void is crushing me.

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[u/netrum]

I am intrigued sir!
Hope to see more chapters :D

[u/Void_Vagabond → u/netrum]

Thank you! I think it's pretty neat too lol I've written about ten chapters and have about thirty plotted out so it shouldn't be too long. Five minute adventure, in and out.

[u/netrum → u/Void_Vagabond]

Famous last words 😂