A Familiar Void

Chapter 28

...REMEMBER...

Here she was again, once more in this world where there was nothing but her and the sun.

Once again she was staring up at the sky above her, the sun burning brighter than ever before.

When she had first arrived here, it was just the size of the sun in the sky, a small ball of fire that if she held up her hands, she could block it out of sight. But now, the object nearly covered the entire sky, her entire vision was nearly covered by the bright orange sun.

Her eyes hurt, as they always did whenever she was forced here, to watch the blaze so close to her made her wish she was blind.

...BRING ME BACK...

The whispers were the worst thing of all, if she had to be honest.

The words pierced her ears like needles, they weighed on her head like lead, and echoed so hard within her that every syllable shook her to the core.

But the worst part of it all.

...REMEMBER...

Was that the longer she heard them, the less it hurt. And the less it hurt, the less she wanted for it to stop whispering. And the less the whispers hurt her soul, the less it hurt to stare at the sun.

Try as she might, she was stuck once more staring up at the sun as the words tried to convince her to remember something that she didn't even know existed in the first place. The words tried to convince her to recall their name, but there was nothing to recall.

Which meant that she was stuck there, frozen like a statue a helpless victim to whatever kept bringing her here.

At least, until she could blink.

On cue her eyelids fluttered close, and for the brief moment she welcomed the soothing darkness.

When her eyes opened, she allowed the waters below her to drag her down.

They had long proven to her that they were trying to save her, rather than drown her. She fell, further and further into the much more welcoming embrace of her element.

But despite the relief that she felt, she knew that it would never last. The more she found herself in this world, the more she would be drag further and further down into the waters below.

Before, just falling back into the water had been enough to blot out the sun. But even as she fell further and further, the sun's radiance still burned itself into her eyes.

The water responded by dragging her down even deeper, it was like the protective hold of a mother.

Soon the heat from the sun vanished.

The whispers were next.

Until finally, the sun was gone from view.

The waters stopped dragging her down, and once more she was left floating in near pitch black waters.

She couldn't see the sun anymore, but that also meant that she couldn't see anything else.