Everywhere at the end of time

Dustin awoke in an empty mall, he is confused but not exactly scared, a calming ambiance played over the speaker system putting him at ease. He gets up and slowly starts looking around the place, searching for any sign of life. After a little while he finds a sign, the sign asked “who are you”

He replied out loud “I'm Dustin.” Although he was somewhat hesitant about saying his name. After a few more hours it's starting to feel like the music is forgetting itself, as well as the world. Shadows dance from the corner of his eyes, it seems as if the void resides in the darkest corners. The more the music tries to remember the worse it gets, it's repeating the same bits trying to continue, it tries to make new parts of how it's supposed to be heard but it stops abruptly as if it remembers that is not how it was. Dustin lays back on the floor and sleeps, but it's almost impossible, he's on guard, he doesn't know why or what is causing it, The music starts feeling more and more out of place. Once he fell asleep a voice in his head said Don't forget. He once agains rises from his rest, and the song that was playing changed to a more somber melody. He spots a door presumably leading out of the mall, but it wasn't there when he slept.

Hesitantly he reached for the door and gave it a tug, it didn't budge, it's odd, he knew it was night time and slept, it feels daytime now, but the glass door is completely black. The music starts repeating. He backs off the door. Why was he panicking? Not even he himself knew the answer. Something was clawing at his mind. Something nameless. Something invisible. Even if you can't see it. Even if you can't hear it. Even if you can't touch it. You can feel it, it's still there. He backs into a square pillar. Was that always behind him? Not only that but the pillar color didn't match the color scheme. Or did it. Was the place always an orange color? The music abruptly changes. It plays the theme of a proper farewell. He swivels his head trying to desperately remember everything. Fear causes his body to start sprinting in a direction, any direction. Not soon after he started running it feels as if his body is being dragged down. Even though he traveled a far distance it looks like he's right back in the center. A paper note appears on the ground. The note asked the same question as before. “Who are you?” he drops the note in terror. “Who is he?” he questions himself. The music begins to distort. The ground begins crumbling. The void is revealing itself. “Where is he?” “What is he?” “Who did he know?” All of these questions rushed through his mind. But the more he tried to answer them it became worse. He remembered less and less. The ache in his heart and mind grew. “Each time he tries to answer he thinks that it’ll be ok and he has time left, however the reality was he was already out of time. It was too late for him, He was at the end of time. The whole world as he knows it, is gone.” The music grows silent, only leaving scarcely audible beeping noise. He clutched his chest, his breath growing heavy. Everything had disappeared besides the floor he was standing on. The beeping sound grew slower and slower. And then. It. Stopped. The floor below him disappeared leaving only him and the void. He tries his best to recall anything, anything at all. But in doing so he slowly begins to disappear. His legs and the tip of his fingers start giving into the void’s compassion. “I'm sorry my child.” A voice says as it extends his hand. He goes out to reach it. It comes into view when he reaches his hand, a bony creature with no concrete figure. His hand fades back. However he dematerialized faster and it crawled to his torso. The being looked at him then looked away leaving his side and drifting away. The voice once more. His time was almost up and he was about to lose consciousness. There was a whisper in his mind “I am the caretaker, and I'm sorry.” A sound plays, It was nostalgic. The sound of a flatlining heart monitor continued even though he was unconscious, even though he couldn't see anything he could still think. His thoughts were sporadic. Unmerciful. Savage. They left no room for hope, and despair set in. He was confused. He was scared. The flatline noise grew louder. He could feel something crawling all around his body. It poked and prodded. Feasting on his flesh. Cutting him and tearing his body apart. The noises it made was the sound of people crying. Crying out in agony. Crying out in pain. Crying out in suffering. Crying out of fear and sadness. He tried questioning who the voices belonged to. But it was as if the memory was blocked. Or at least fuzzy. Soon the flatlining quieted down. But now he has uneasy feelings if he was being watched. It was an intense feeling. He began to feel innumerable pain as his body began dematerializing. He asked himself why this was happening. Why him? The questions just made the pain more intense and slowed down the dematerialization. No one was there to witness. No one was there to watch. He was completely alone. Isolated. Stuck nowhere. Yet the place feels like everywhere. There was nothing he could do. No memories to look back on. He couldn't move or see. He could only feel the pain as he was slowly dying. Faint music that can barely be heard over the Flatlining sound started playing. iT wasn't calming or relaxing. The music has lost its place and it's confused as to why. It tries to regain it by playing multiple different songs at once. The songs are distorted. They pause, repeat certain segments. In some of the songs it was playing it consisted only of screams. The pain reached his chest. He was expecting to not feel anymore. However it slowed down once it reached there. Has it been a day, no maybe more. He questioned but he lost count hours ago. Hours later the pain reaches his nape. It's unbearable. He couldn't handle it anymore and wanted to go back. He was desperately wishing to go back to even the-. What was it he was doing before? What was it that made this seem unnatural or unbearable? And as quick as he started his cries for help it vanished. The pain was searing. But he was fine with it. After a day straight he forgot what he was forgetting. He Forgot what makes this seem bad. He accepts what's happening as he stops feeling entirely.

Dustin awoke in his apartment bed, in a panic. His palms were sweaty. He took deep breaths to try and calm himself down. He looked around. It's still nighttime. He noticed that his sheets were soggy and it seemed that he was bleeding from his eyes, ears, and mouth. He glanced at his digital clock. 4 days have gone by. Nightmares crawl to his aid, and he lets them comfort him. By the time the nightmares lulled him to sleep he never stopped thinking of The Caretaker.