In the expanse of darkness, A low moan emerged. It was a sound that seemed to resound into an infinite abyss, a lonely cry against the oppressive quiet. A single soul stirred, its consciousness flickering like a dying ember. A peculiar buzzing sound filled his ears, a steady drone that seemed to last forever. A pervading coldness permeated him, not bone-chilling, but leaving him feeling completely alone and vulnerable.
"Huh...what?" he said, his voice scratchy. A searing ache surged behind his eyes, forcing him to close them in an attempt to block out the assault.
Thump.
"Ugh..." He moaned again, louder this time. His head hammered, as if a jackhammer were digging into his skull. He attempted to open his eyes, but they felt heavy, as if glued shut.
"What the heck?!" he said, his voice breaking. Panic poured over him, a cold dread clutching at his throat. He drew a nervous breath, trying to calm himself down. "Okay... okay."
With a great deal of effort and by some miracle, he managed to open his eyes, expecting to see the intense glare of fluorescent lights or the dull glimmer of a streetlamp, anything recognisable. But there was nothing. Just an infinite expanse of inky darkness reaching in all directions. No colour, no music, and no life. Just smothering emptiness.
"Huh...?" he mumbled, his astonishment mixed with terror. "Where the hell am I?"
He tried pinching himself, hoping to shock himself awake. But his fingertips encountered nothing. Panic rose again, and a cold sweat broke out on his nonexistent brow. "What the hell? This must be a joke."
"Where are my hands?!" he said, his voice full of panic. He attempted to lift his arm, feeling its weight and sturdiness. But there was nothing. No feeling, no pressure, and no weight. Simply nothing. "No..no..no..."
"Where are my hands?" "My legs?!" He yelled and thrashed around, hoping to feel something. But his body did not respond. It was as if he didn't exist, a ghost stuck in this suffocating nothingness. "What the hell is happening right now?!?"
"Was this a dream? A nightmare? Or some twisted experiment gone horribly wrong?" Victor's thoughts spiraled, each question more terrifying than the last. He pushed away the most awful thought, the one that briefly flickered into his mind.
"Okay, okay, let's think rationally," he muttered, trying to get a grip. "How did I get here? What was I doing before this?"
He racked his brain, desperate for any clue, any memory that could explain this mess. But his mind was a blank slate, as empty as the space around him.
"I can't remember anything," he whispered, fear washing over him. "Nothing at all."
He tried harder, digging deeper into his mind, but it was useless. The past was a blur, a hazy mist that refused to clear.
"I can't even remember my own name!" he yelled, panic rising. "Who am I?"
The question hung heavy in the emptiness, a chilling reminder of his forgotten identity. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to force his mind to recall anything, anything at all. But his mind was a swirling vortex of darkness, offering no clues, no landmarks.
"This is insane! I don't even know who I am!" he cried out, a desperate, humorless laugh escaping his lips, dissolving into a choked sob.
"What am I supposed to do now?" he whispered, his voice barely audible. "I'm lost, alone, and completely forgotten. Forgotten who I am, forgotten where I came from..."
As the realisation hit him, a wave of despair washed over Victor. He was a ghost in his own life, a nameless, faceless entity adrift in a void of nothingness.
Ba dump~
Out of nowhere, a sharp pain shot through his head, a sudden, intense spike that made his eyes squeeze shut. It felt like a thousand needles were piercing his skull, a relentless assault on his senses.
"Ugh!" he groaned, his voice thick with pain. "What the hell is happening?"
As the pain intensified, a flood of information began to pour into his mind, a chaotic torrent of images, sounds, and emotions. It was overwhelming, a sensory overload threatening to drown him. "Uugghhhh….!!!"
He struggled to grasp onto the fragments of memory, desperately trying to make sense of the chaos. And then, amidst the storm, a name emerged, a single word that anchored him to reality.
"Victor," he croaked, the sound barely a whisper. "That's right, my name… it's Victor Gabriel."
"Thank goodness, I can still remember my name," Victor muttered, feeling relief, but it was short-lived. The question of how he ended up in this desolate void remained unanswered. "What was I doing before this? What happened that led to this?"
"Let's think," he then muttered, closing his eyes and trying to recall the events leading up to his current predicament. His fragmented memories seemed hazy. "Oh, you gotta be kidding me."
Desperate for answers, Victor focused all his energy on delving deeper, trying to piece together the puzzle as much as possible. "Okay, the last thing I remember was…"
"Oh god…" Victor soon whispered, the sound barely a breath as a series of images flashed through his mind—a damp, cold, and slightly dark alleyway, the smell of gunpowder and blood in the air.
As he felt overwhelmed by the information, Victor suddenly burst into endless laughter, which, if anyone heard it, sounded both tragic and absurd.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….."
It was the kind of laughter that comes from a place of deep despair, a desperate attempt to cope with the impossible. He continued to laugh and laugh until his sides ached and his voice was hoarse.
"I'm dead," Victor finally managed to gasp out some words between the fits of laughter, his voice barely audible. "Can you believe? I'm actually dead!"
After a while, Victor's laughter died down, fading into a series of ragged gasps. He finally caught his breath, his chest heaving, a bittersweet smile playing on his lips.
"Well, this is certainly a unique afterlife," he muttered, his voice a mere whisper. "I've never really been into supernatural stuff, but I guess anything's possible, huh?"
Victor paused, his gaze drifting across the endless void. "I'm dead, but somehow I can still think, and feel... exist? This is... so weird."
"I can't believe I'm stuck in such a bizarre situation," Victor muttered, shaking his head in disbelief. "It feels like this whole thing is some kind of twisted joke."
He paused, his gaze drifting across the endless void once more. "I do wonder if this is what they call the afterlife. It's a lot different from what I expected."
"But I guess I'll just have to accept that I'm dead, and this is my new reality," Victor sighed, his shoulders slumping. "But... what now? What do I do with my time here?"
?!
For whatever reason, a sudden chill ran down Victor's spine. He gradually recalled the sensation of searing pain in his abdomen and his own life slipping away from him. "Okay... okay... okay..."
"It's fine... it's fine..." he gasped, trying to calm his breathing while shifting his focus to anything else. But the pain, for whatever reason, was so overwhelming that Victor could feel himself gradually losing focus.
"Goddamn it..." He groaned, trying to overcome or at the very least resist the pain as much as he possibly could and stay conscious. "IT FUCKING HURT!!!"
As the pain intensified, it felt like his very soul was being ripped apart, a sensation so agonising that Victor thought he might scream. But no sound escaped his lips, only a silent scream in his mind.
At that moment, a light suddenly shone brightly from within him.
Gleam~
The brightness was so overwhelming that it shone twenty meters around Victor, yet somehow it eased his pain.
However, the "man" himself was completely unaware of what was happening. Before Victor could notice it, the light quickly yet gradually died down, and Victor's expression relaxed a bit.
After a moment, Victor soon opened his eyes, feeling a little relief that the pain had finally lessened to a tolerable level. He blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the darkness while groaning, "Oh... that was fucking crazy."
"What the hell was that?" He quickly checked every part of himself, and even waited a moment, tense, anticipating the return of the excruciating pain. But when he realised it didn't come back after a while and everything was fine, he sighed in relief and then let out a shaky breath, "Holy hell."
"That was..." Victor muttered, closing his eyes tightly, trying to shake off the lingering terror. "Absolutely insane."
"I-I've felt many kinds of pain before," he then said, his voice trembling as his mind drifted back to his days as a gangster. Victor had endured beatings, stabbings, and even a few near-death experiences. But none of those had compared to what he had just experienced. "It was like... my soul was being ripped inside out."
"Anyhow, what can I do right now?" Victor muttered, his voice echoing in the silent void. He looked around, his gaze sweeping across the endless blackness. "I can't exactly read a book or watch TV, can I?"
He paused as a thought occurred to him. "Wait a minute... can I even move at all?"
To Be Continued