Chapter 5 - Everything That Changed

“I might be really dead.” I muttered, leaning on my gravestone while looking at the colorless sky.

Dreams or not, seeing my name in a grave is something I wouldn’t even want to imagine. On top of that, seeing a floating ball of fire too, right? A thing that shouldn’t even exist. I straightened, and looked around, taking my time adjusting to the colors.

Even my eyesight could only see black and white colors, making me totally color-blind. There were no visible other colors besides the grayscale look of the world. Everything looked dreadful.

“Hah…” I sighed. Just the thought of being color-blinded made the world look lifeless to me, making it worse now that I’m supposed to be dead right now.

And now what?

When I’m going to wake up from this nightmare of a dream?

I took a seat on the grass beside my grave, checking on my hands. “So am I really dead. Or what?” I murmured, not sure of what to make out of this situation. “Really a weird feeling, knowing that I’m dead now.”

I tried clenching my hands. “Huh?”

What… I clenched my hand to form a fist again, but compared to earlier, I tried doing it harder. With my two hands forming a fist, clenching it with all of my strength, I noticed something odd about it.

I’m not losing my mind or what, right? For the third time, and without any difference, the feeling stayed the same—I couldn’t feel anything! HUH!?

I stood up in surprise, and tried clenching it again but now burying my nails into my palm. But there’s no pain, I can’t feel anything about it. The nails did nothing and I still can’t feel anything.

“Is it normal to feel nothing in a dream?” I muttered, as I continued clenching my fist. I continued, and continued, until I was convinced enough.

“Maybe I’ve really dreaming all along.” I added, pinching my cheeks, not giving anything different.

As I thought. I couldn’t feel anything. Then this must be a dream. But I should try one more thing. I took a step back with my right foot, and took a stance. “How about this.” I said as I readied my fist, and in one swift—PUNCH!!!

My fist connected to the gravestone, and I looked at my hand. “Okay…”

There’s no bruise, and no blood at all despite punching the gravestone. The fist looked the same, like nothing happened to it. And same as earlier, I didn’t feel any pain. Then a thought came into my mind,

If I can’t feel pain, then it should be okay for me to take a chance again.

Getting into a position, I readied my fist once again. “Okay…” Pulling my arms as far as I could, and making my fist as compact as I could, I took a long pull then—BAM!!!

I looked at my fist, lost and unsure of what to think of this. “I can’t believe what I’m witnessing.” I whispered, then took another stance. I throw a barrage of punches to the gravestone, for a few seconds, with each increasing power. But then as expected, nothing happened.

I took a deep breath, clearing my thoughts in the process. This proves that this must be a dream. If that’s not the case, then how can I prevent these things from happening?

A world without colors, seeing only black and white. A floating ball of fire who is talking. And not being able to feel on top of that.

This must be a dream! I’m sure of it! I shouted in my mind.

I convinced myself and nodded, agreeing with my own statement. “I shouldn’t think too much about this anymore.” I said as I looked at the sky. “It’s starting to get dark.”

It would be bad if I get stuck in here. Not being able to see colors would make it hard for me to find my way home.

I need to go home now. As I decided to go home, I started walking towards the exit.

But since it was my first time in the cemetery, I was not familiar with the place. I remembered the way where the fire ran away, so I decided to follow the same route. Then as I continued walking, I looked around the area, looking for the exit. “Where is it…”

I continued until I saw a gate. I squinted my eyes making sure it was the exit I was looking for. “That must be the gate—huh?” I froze and frowned. I ran towards the gate as fast as I could, and as soon as I got near it, I noticed the difference between the ground.

“What is this!?” I exclaimed in surprise. “What’s is that?”

Staring at the gate, as well as the ground outside of it, there was something unusual about it: the ground was black.

My eyes widened as I approached the gate, seeing only black after it. There was nothing, not a single thing in sight, other than the fact that the ground was black.

“A void…” I muttered, looking at the all-black ground after the gate. I tried looking over it, but it was too dark, it felt like something that would eat you and engulf you in darkness.

What am I looking at… This is not funny…

My mind raced, as I thought of every possible thing I could think about what this black ground was supposed to be. But it didn’t matter, because no matter what I thought of, one thing is certain—I’m looking at a total emptiness.

Nothingness.

That was all I could see. There was no other way to explain it.

How about the other side? I thought, wondering if it had the same black ground on the other side of the cemetery.

I ran towards the other side of the cemetery, and as I reached the end, the other small wall appeared before me.

Since there was no gate, I decided to try jumping over the small wall and pushing myself above it. Only to be faced with the black ground once again. The nothingness stretches over to how far my eye could see, and no matter how I look I couldn’t see anything over the black ground.

“W-what’s this…” I muttered, fearing what I was seeing.

I turned back, seeing the colorless cemetery beneath me. While on top of the wall, a terrifying thought crossed my mind, “Am I locked inside the cemetery?”

That was the only conclusion I could think of. Seeing that the world I’m currently seeing was divided between the cemetery and the nothingness that stretches infinitely.