The end of everything

Empty, yet full. I could feel nothing, yet I could feel everything. I was nowhere, but I was everywhere at once. I was infinite. The darkness around me emitted a cold chill that I could feel strongly, it was everywhere at once, and there would be no getting rid of it anytime soon, that I knew of course.

“I don’t want to stay here.” I whispered. “I want to go back home.”

I reached my hand out to the small orb at the center of this dark void as I said those words, and then the orb turned white. A small spot of light in this entire sea of shadow.

The tip of my fingers made contact with the orb, and I felt a strange sensation, one of warmth, rather than the cold that had been surrounding me this whole time.

A small string of light emerged from the opposite side of the light orb, and started to weave across the sea of absolute, terrifying emptiness, like a small, tiny flicker of hope in this vast amount of despair.

A small crack opened, and somehow I could sense that it lead to a place outside of The Void. The string entered the crack, and I decided to follow. The crack was large enough for me to fit through, but small enough that I had to really struggle to do so.

I emerged and came face to face with a large sealed door. The door shone a bright white as soon as the string came into contact with it. I felt something tugging on my shirt…no, not jusgt my shirt, my chest. A second white string emerged from where my heart was, joining the original one as the door then opened, and a wave of exhilaration suddenly blew onto me.

I suddenly felt incredible relief dawn on me, as if I’d just gotten rid of a huge weight I didn’t realize I was carrying.

I was then forcibly pulled into the door by an invisible weight, and then the whole world went white as my eyes were blinded.

The first thing I saw when I woke up was a very familiar ceiling. I quickly looked around to find myself in a hospital bed. A person had been waiting on a chair, immediately bursting into tears when she saw that I’d woken.

I was back on Earth.

I’d succeeded. I’d gotten everything I wanted. A second chance at life.

Yet, this all felt so unsatisfactory, for some strange reason.

A bunch of people entered the room at once. I heard many people talking, I don’t know if they were talking about me or to me, but I didn’t bother responding.

“Where’s Maria?” I asked.

Everyone’s faces immediately dropped.

I instantly knew at that moment. She was in a coma. Just like I’d been. She was still stuck over there, in the Void. I’d abandoned her over there and just ran back here with my tail between my legs.

Frawa was probably still raging on, probably. What had happened to Arthur’s body? Probably safe, since he had been the one to summon her. But why didn’t she erase me, instead of sending me back here?

Perhaps she assumed I’d just enjoy the rest of my life without consequence. Obviously, she was wrong.

But, how exactly was I supposed to go back…?

Then it hit me. The doctor that had sent Maria there. Perhaps she could send me back too? But wait, the way that doctor had done it, Maria had been sent back a couple of years. Surely I wouldn’t have to wait years to go back to that moment, would I? And if I were sent back years, I wouldn’t even know exactly when that would all take place….

Fuck it, I had to do something. I couldn’t just leave it at that. I immediately jumped out of bed, ignoring all the cries of the people around me, and started scurrying around the hospital in search of that doctor.

It took quicker than expected, as I found her walking through a hallway.

“I need to go to the void.” I immediately said, prompting her to raise an eyebrow, but then she quickly collected herself.

“Go back to your room and wait for me to come to you.” She said quietly.

I nodded and returned to my room where mostly everyone was waiting, but there were less people. I assumed that they had gone looking for me. But I didn’t know who any of them were. I couldn’t recognize them, it was like they were just blurry to me, as I failed to focus on their faces.

I was reprimanded, but I couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying. I didn’t care. I had to go back. It couldn’t end like this.

I had to save her. She came back to save me, it was my fault that she was there in the first place.

I had to save Maria. I ruined her life, so it was the least I could do. So what if I had to wait out a few more years? It was nothing less than I truly deserved for everything I’d done to her. For the years I’d made her wait for me.

It took two days for the doctor to come to me, but I wasn’t worried, since it appeared that time worked differently in these two worlds. When she eventually came, I found out exactly how it worked.

The first time I was dragged into the void by a ritual from within, now I was pushed into it by a ritual from outside. An eerily similar ritual, might I add. Fortunately, it didn’t consist of any strange symbols or anything, so the doctor could work without arousing any suspicion.

Finally, I felt my consciousness slip away, and I knew I’d now been going back to that place once again. The place that I’d so desperately worked to escape, I now had to go back, for one purpose.