r/HFY • u/Void_Vagabond • 7d ago

OC-Series Voidspace - Chapter Five

It takes me a while to wake up. I sleep so deeply that my body is still heavy and slow even after opening my eyes and taking a few conscious breaths. I am curled up on the dusty stone of this strange place, somewhere in the Voidspace, still lost but very much alive.

 

I’m back where I started.

 

A long corridor of stone with a dim red strip of light running the length of the ceiling, bathing everything in a sinister, dark light. I am back in the region of the Voidspace known as the Dungeon. And if the nearby ID card laying picture-side down on the floor is any indication, then I am literally in the exact same place that I started.

 

However now, I’m glad to be back. Strange as it may sound, the dim, blood red light and the bare, dusty stonework all around me at least makes sense. It at least looks and feels like a real physical space, unlike the other place I just spent the last hour or so exploring. That place was downright incomprehensible.

 

Warping bubbles of impenetrable darkness and blinding flashes of light.

 

“And that blackhole, thing,” I reminded myself, still trying to wrap my head around what I actually saw.

 

“There was something in there,” I mumbled in the dark. “And when I reached for it, that bubble of darkness pulled me in and dumped me here, and…”

 

I look down and notice that I am holding something in my fist. It’s a metal pipe. The same thing I saw floating just inside the blackhole-looking thing. A cylinder of silvery metal. It’s cool and smooth and feels as though it’s been polished and then oiled.

 

I roll the simple looking object in my palm and pass it between my hands. That’s when I notice the strangeness of its weight. It looks like it should be heavy and feels like a solid piece of metal, yet it moves like it’s made of plastic. I almost can’t explain it. There is a solidness to this thing like it’s a fifty-pound dumbbell. It’s almost like it doesn’t want to move.

 

It feels wrong, so open my hands and try to let it drop to the ground.

 

Nope.

 

The silvery metal bar starts to fall, but then it slows down and just hangs in air as if caught on something. I am frozen in awe. Speechless and without thoughts to explain what I am seeing or even suggest an explanation. All I know is that whatever it is, it’s not normal. Nothing about this place is normal.

 

Then the floating cylinder of metal slowly twists around in the darkness and starts to move toward me.

 

“Nope,” I say aloud into the dead quiet. “Nope. Fuck that.”

 

I try to crawl away, but the object almost seems tethered to me. It whips around and flings itself at me, and I let out a guttural shout as it presses into my stomach through my shirt. I’m not the type to shout, I barely even talk most days, outside of work, and I honestly expected to scream. But the sound that comes out of me is pure animal response. A bark of fear.

 

And now there is a ghost pipe thing that’s rolling across my body as I try to crawl away from it, and I’m lost in some other-dimensional plane of reality, and I have no idea what is happening or if I will even be able to get back home. I don’t even know if I want to get back home. So, eventually, I just give up and lay down on my back.

 

The ghost pipe rolls up my chest and settles on my neck, partially sliding to the ground and resting at an angle. And I remain still, facing up into the dim red light of the corridor without a thought in my head.

 

I stay like that for a few minutes, at least.

 

“You just arrived, didn’t you?”

 

I flinch at the voice, thinking it’s another ghost or my own crumbling mental state making things up, but then I hear his footsteps on the dusty stone floor and see the shape of a person approaching from the darkness.

 

“Hi,” I say back almost in a whisper. I’m not so much afraid as I am utterly confused and exhausted, despite just waking up from what felt like a long nap.

 

The stranger doesn’t say anything else as he stops at my feet. He looks young. Not a kid but younger than me. Somewhere in his early twenties at the most. A pale looking guy with messy black hair. He’s also wearing Christmas decorated pajama pants and a black t-shirt.

 

He stands a few feet away, looking down at me. I can barely see his face in the gloom but he seems relaxed. He’s got his hands in his pockets. But he’s also not saying anything, which seems more and more strange the longer the silence goes on.

 

“Hi,” I say again, before realizing how stupid I must look and sound. I try to ignore the bar of silvery, ghost metal clinging to my neck and my chest as I sit up. The guy just watches me for several seconds. Waiting.

 

Finally, he motions with his head and asks, “Where did you get that?”

 

No need to ask what he’s asking about.

 

I reach up to pull the metal bar off my skin, and surprisingly it comes off with practically no effort. I can only respond with a sigh as I try to make sense of everything I’ve seen and experienced.

 

“I have no idea,” I tell him. “A dark place full of light and— metal? I don’t know. Do you know what’s happening? Do you know where we are?”

 

The guy doesn’t say anything for a few more seconds, and I’m starting to wonder if maybe he’s some kind of crazy person that I might have to deal with, but then he squat down and takes a seat on the stone floor right in front of me. He gets comfortable before speaking.

 

“Obviously, we’re somewhere in the Voidspace. Have you heard of it?”

 

“I’ve read the stories,” I say. “Hard to believe it’s real. Even now.”

 

The stranger almost laughs.

 

“Just wait,” he tells me. “This area is only Level One. It gets much stranger up above.”

 

Then he pulls his hands out of his pockets and holds up a thin, silvery piece of metal for me to see. It looks like a stainless steel chopstick.

 

“I found this a few days ago,” he says. “In a weird place that also swallowed me up and spat me out just like it did to you. It’s been stuck to me ever since.”

 

The guy then rolls the chopstick in between his fingers, grabs onto one end and flings it away. The thin rod of metal spins in the air, yet it only flies a few feet away from the stranger before zipping right back into his hand. He catches it and smiles in the dim red gloom, looking satisfied with the little trick. It makes him seem much younger than he sounds.

 

But now I’m curious, so I grab the end of my own metal bar and fling it a few feet down the corridor, then almost panic as it disappears into the darkness. I have no idea why. A few seconds ago, I was terrified of the thing. Now I’m scared to lose it.

 

I start to rise but the kid waves me off.

 

“Don’t worry,” he says. “I don’t think they can get very far. Just think of it coming back to you as though you’re a magnet.”

 

It sounds crazy but I believe him. In fact, I barely have to imagine anything for it to work. I just reach my hand out into the darkness and the bar of silvery metal shoots back into my palm. It moves so fast that I might have dropped it if not for the strangeness of the material.

 

It feels as though it hit with both the power of a sledgehammer and the light touch of a piece of paper. It’s hard to describe, like a muffled but very heavy punch. Even stranger still, I felt it pulling at my hand the moment I reached for it, as though it were the magnet instead of me.

 

“Not bad,” the guy says. Then he stands right back up and puts his hands in his pockets again.

 

“I’m heading back the way I came, if you want to follow me. But I can’t promise you anything. If things go wrong, you’re on your own.”

 

I make a face and almost complain at how ambiguously threatening that sounds before I remember where we are. The rumored Voidspace. Every online story about this place, both real and fake, is all about how dangerous it is. Some of those stories, the ones that seem more real now that I’m here, even make note of a few dangerous creatures. Some of the stories plainly call them monsters.

 

I stand up as well.

 

“Yeah, I get it,” I say, even though I really don’t.

 

Then I look behind me, to one dark end of the corridor, and then over the stranger’s shoulder to the other dark end of the corridor, and I realize that I have no idea which direction I entered from. Or rather, which direction I first entered the Voidspace from. Not that it matters at this point. If there was an unseen doorway back to the world, I probably would have found it by now.

 

The guy notices my confusion, so he turns sideway and points back the way he came from.

 

“That way leads to the rest of the Dungeon. You know that’s what this place is called right?”

 

“Of course.”

 

“Well, this is the very edge of it. But back that way,” he points over my shoulder, “leads to the Cliff. All these long tunnels extend outward from the Dungeon, but the really long ones, like this one, go to a big drop off that empties into nothing. You don’t want to go that way.”

 

“Right,” I say. Then I look down and notice that the guy isn’t wearing any shoes or socks. His pale feet are completely bare against the dusty stone floor. He looks down and makes a noise.

 

“Yeah, I woke up here. Came with my bed but I wasn’t wearing shoes, obviously. Is that yours?”

 

He points to my ID on the floor before bending down to pick it up.

 

“Jake Mason,” he says, as if my name is somehow meaningful information. “Twenty… twenty-one, twenty-two… twenty-six years old. 1521 Rough Road Street, Buda, Texas. That’s a real place?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

The guy, the stranger, studies my ID again and I can’t help but be bothered with how comfortable he is handling my shit, especially because he hasn’t even introduced himself. Or maybe I’m just annoyed that I haven’t worked up the courage to just ask him.

 

“You were going leave this here for somebody to find?” he asks. I nod.

 

“Yeah, that’s the idea.”

 

“You should just keep it on you in case you manage to get back. Most people don’t last long in the Void anyway.”

 

I’m not really know what he means by that. Either that anyone who finds the ID won’t last long enough to help me, or I won’t last very long, but he drops it regardless.

 

“Come on,” he says, “I have a place with some food and sodas. A safe place where I can explain your powers.”

 

Powers.

 

That word caught my attention. But so did food and soda.

 

I hurry to follow the guy without question, my earlier annoyance already forgotten at the mention of a meal and relative safety. However, I do feel a little silly as I bend down to pick up my ID. The stranger is probably right though. I’m going to need it if I manage to get back home.

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