Nothing

The wind was blowing gently, the green grass swaying with it, as if following its rhythm. The sun was shining as always, not taking any breaks and radiating intense light and heat on the empty meadow. There were no man-build structures or ruins. No hills, rivers or trees. It was also entirely devoid of life, with not a single living creature in sight. The meadow was peaceful and tranquil, its silence only broken by the gentle wind.

The sky looked as usual, but with one slight difference.

The bright yellow sun and its massive size were the same. There were still no clouds or birds to be seen, making the sky seem empty and the sun lonely.

But today, the sky was not totally vacant. If one were to look straight up from the ground and not be blinded by the merciless sun in the process, they would gaze upon a strange being soaring through the sky with elegance and grace.

The flying being was mostly humanoid in shape, but with one striking difference. It had wings.

The wings were both breathtaking and blinding, making one never want to look away, yet at the same time unable to stare for too long. They were pristine white in color without a single imperfection, exhibiting bright and almost holy light.

If one could—or rather dared to—take a closer look, they would notice the soft, yet firm feathers. They looked as if they were the most pleasant and comfortable to the touch, but at the same time firm and unbreakable, tougher than the most durable steel.

They grew directly from the human’s back, spanning more than three meters in width.

The human himself though... spoiled the wings’ beauty and magnificence somewhat—which was quite hard to accomplish, considering just how holy and divine the wings were.

The boy donning the wings looked weak, fragile, and utterly exhausted. His entire body—besides the wings—was limp, appearing as if lifeless.

But he most definitely didn’t feel like a corpse. In fact, he felt more alive than ever before in his entire life. His face was covered in sweat and paler than usual. Despite that, he wore a wide and joyful smile, like he was the happiest human in existence.

Vrak was soaring through the sky at unimaginable speed, feeling like he owned the entire world. Maybe he really did—after all, he had not met anyone else in this flat world covered by grass.

Gliding forward, heading in the direction of the elusive and unreachable dot, Vrak was loudly and happily cheering, unable to contain all the excitement inside.

“Hell yeaaaah! This. Is. So. Damn. Awesome!”

While screaming at the top of his lungs, Vrak thought:

‘Worth it. It was so fucking worth it.’

It had been a long, long time, since he managed to grow his wings. At the start, he was unable to move them by even a single centimeter, but eventually, after countless hours, days, weeks, months, perhaps even years—he really couldn’t tell how much time had passed—of trying endlessly with little to no rest, he finally succeeded. He was flying. Not in a plane, or a helicopter—not that he had ever flown in something like that—but actually flying, all by himself, thanks to the new favorite part of his body.

Well... maybe second favorite.

All that time, Vrak had done almost nothing but try to learn how to control his wings. He didn’t walk, he didn’t run, he didn’t sleep, he didn’t even eat or drink—not that he actually needed to.

All he did—besides taking a short break when he really couldn’t go on anymore—was stand upright on the grass with his eyes closed, focusing every fiber of his body and mind on moving his newly acquired body part.

At first, it was painfully slow, with almost no progress whatsoever, only managing to make his wings twitch a little.

But eventually, after not giving up and never faltering in his stubborn determination, Vrak started to improve.

Little by little, he was able to move his wings more easily and more often.

It started with just making the wings react at all, then moved to making them lift up, spread wide, and finally, controlling them completely—which had taken the most amount of time and effort by far.

By then, Vrak still had to learn how to use the wings to actually lift himself into the air and fly, but once he was able to make the wings his own, it all came to him easily.

And now, after all that time, he did it.

Once again, Vrak set a goal for himself, cleared his mind, and achieved that goal. He had conquered the sky. Vrak—a human—was flying through the air like a bird.

Sure, he still wasn’t the best at it and would have to practice a lot in the future if he really wanted to master it, but that wasn’t really on his mind at that moment.

‘I’m gonna reach it. I’ll reach that stupid dot, no matter what. I mean, it’s not like I have anything better to do anyway.’

As he was soaring with the wind, he allowed his mind to become flooded by numerous thoughts for the first time in a long while.

‘I still don’t get it. Why didn’t I return to my world like always? Will I just remain here forever, stuck and unable to return? And if I do manage to go back, will I just wake up the next morning as usual? And what about after that? Will I still have my wings if I appear here once again? Or will I have to grow them again, going through... that again? Am I going to have to learn how to use my wings and fly all over again? Hell, I hope not. Took me so long after all...’

With nothing better to do but glide forward and overthink, he began planning for every possible situation that could occur.

Vrak had grown quiet, no longer crying out in joy, and tranquility once again returned to the endless sky and peaceful meadow.

*

“Man, I know I never get hungry here, but I could really eat something right now. It doesn’t really make sense, huh? Yeah, it doesn’t — you don’t have to tell me. But I just have this urge, you know? Like... I don’t really know how to explain it. It’s like my brain doesn’t know I don’t have to eat, so it’s making me want to eat anyway. Now that I think about it, I am kinda thirsty, too. Have I gone crazy? Nah, I feel great. In fact, I feel better than ever. And I think I must look super cool right now, as well. Wouldn’t you agree? Hahaha, yeah, I thought so too.”

It didn’t take long for the peace and tranquility of this strange realm to be disturbed once again.

After Vrak was done thinking of all the possible scenarios, he swiftly grew bored and started talking to himself—and answering his own questions.

Vrak sighed and opened his mouth to start talking nonsense again, but then he noticed something, and his eyes narrowed.

He stayed silent for a bit, then said, uncertain and suspicious:

“Hey, don’t you think that the dot has gotten bigger? And it somehow seems like... it’s higher? Yes, exactly, like it’s floating in the air, whatever it is.”

Vrak frowned, suspicious of this unnatural development—as unnatural as anything could be in this weird place.

“Hmmmm.”

Vrak studied the dot with doubt, then his eyes widened all of a sudden. He really felt like slapping himself across the face at that moment. So, he did. It hurt a little and made him lose his balance. His flight path got thrown off for a few seconds, but Vrak managed to steady himself without too much effort.

“What the hell is wrong with me?! Isn’t this what I’ve been trying to accomplish the entire time? This is it! This is the reason I did everything I did. It’s finally here!”

Flapping his wings rapidly, Vrak sped up, too impatient and thrilled to think about anything else.

As he flew toward the dot, it was indeed getting bigger, but more slowly than Vrak thought it would.

He was quite annoyed at first but forced himself to calm down.

“It’s fine. At least I’ll have more time to think things over. I mean, what if I meet some kind of monster there? Wouldn’t that suck? Wait, it totally would, wouldn’t it? Damn, what if there really is some demon? Should I really go there if I don’t even know where I’m going?”

Vrak was suddenly full of worry and unease.

Many possible bad possibilities and outcomes came and obscured Vrak’s mind, infecting it with doubt. He slowed down subconsciously, hesitating.

What if something dangerous awaited him there? What if the dot itself was dangerous somehow? There could be some kind of vile, bizarre beast—or multiple of them. He could get seriously hurt. He could even... die.

Vrak shivered and suddenly felt cold, despite the radiating heat of the enormous sun hanging above him.

“No, it’s fine. Totally fine. I’ll just fly slowly and carefully. When I get close, I’ll only observe at first, then decide what to do after. Yeah, that sounds like a plan, right? Yep, yep. Solid plan if I do say so myself. It’s not like I have anywhere else to go, anyway.”

Vrak took a deep breath and sped up again, but not by much. This time, he paid all his attention to the dot, trying to discern its details from afar, scared to get too close too fast.

And so, Vrak kept flying forward, his expression tense and anxious, but at the same time firm and resolved.

*

“I don’t know what I expected, but it definitely wasn’t this.”

Vrak had been flying for a long time now, but strangely, his wings didn’t feel tired or spent at all—which could not have been said about every other part of his body.

By now, Vrak looked like a dead mouse caught by a large bird, hanging limply in the air, letting the wings do all the work.

Vrak currently hovered midair, flapping his wings to stay in place.

And in front of him was... fog.

It wasn’t some kind of grand structure or a disturbing and harrowing creature—although something could still be hiding inside the mysterious fog.

Vrak’s sight couldn’t penetrate it at all from outside, which meant he had no idea what awaited him there.

The fog was totally normal-looking, light gray in color and a few kilometers wide. At first glance, the only abnormality was how exceedingly thick the fog was—it was simply impossible to see anything inside it.

And that was exactly what Vrak was so worried about.

“Well, there goes my plan to observe carefully from the outside first, I guess. Fucking great.”

Vrak tried to fly around it, above it, and even below it. All in all, the area the fog covered wasn’t very large, about ten to fifteen kilometers in each direction.

If he wanted to, Vrak could fly through it in mere minutes at his full speed.

“Yeah, there’s no way I’m doing that.”

Vrak took a deep breath, closed his eyes, straightened his back, and exhaled slowly. When he opened them again, they were determined, adamant, and devoid of doubt.

He moved forward very carefully, and when he was only a couple meters away from the fog, he extended his right hand, reaching to touch the grayish-white mist.

Vrak’s index finger inched forward at a painfully slow pace, but eventually, he touched it. And when Vrak touched the fog... absolutely nothing happened.

Vrak sighed in relief.

“Damn, that was stressful, huh?”

Then, everything was gone.

It all took no more than a second.

First, the gray fog surged forward, rushing to envelop Vrak in an instant. He literally had no time to react, becoming surrounded immediately.

Soon, he saw nothing but the mist. Even the light of the everlasting bright sun couldn’t penetrate it.

But even that changed, giving Vrak no time to process that he couldn’t see the clear blue sky and huge yellow sun for the first time in ages.

Because right after that, Vrak lost his sight. He wasn’t even able to see the impenetrable fog anymore. He simply saw... nothing.

Vrak had gone blind.

Unfortunately for him, it did not end there.

He stopped hearing the wind and his shaky breathing. He couldn’t smell the sweat his body produced from the merciless heat. He couldn’t taste his saliva or feel his dry mouth. And lastly, he lost all sense of his entire body. All the exhaustion and fatigue had suddenly vanished, leaving him without any pain or soreness, but also without any feeling at all.

There was simply nothing left. It was that kind of nothing where even the concept of something was forbidden and banished. Everything was nothing, and nothing was everything, all of it only... void.

It was at that moment that Vrak finally realized that something really bad was happening. But by then, it was already too late.

All that remained of Vrak was his mind, but even that was gradually fading into the void of nothingness, his thoughts hazy, scattered and unable to fully form.

Despite everything—or rather, nothing—Vrak stubbornly tried to resist being erased. He struggled to think, but even that was proving to be too difficult for him.

Nevertheless, Vrak still tried. All of his efforts were rendered meaningless in the end, but he still refused to give up, even if he didn’t actually know what was happening to him. He didn't even remembered who he was anymore, his memories swiftly fading.

But this nameless being was still sure of one thing.

‘They’ wanted to live. ‘They’ wanted to survive. ‘They’ wanted to prove to the world that they, too, had the right to exist.

Eventually though, ‘they’ ceased to exist, as well, until there was only nothing once again. The ‘void’ got rid of its intruder, peace returning to the meadow once again.

Even so, ‘their’ will to exist remained with ‘them’, never being stolen or separated from ‘them’, until the absolute end.

But then again, even the concept of an ‘end’ was not allowed—and therefore did not, in fact, exist.