Epics of Noche 3, Limbo

EON CH 24 - ACT 37, GLASS STAIRWELL

ASCEND.

1774, NOVEMBER 28th, MONDAY1:06 pm.

Noche walked up glass stairs that seemed to extend infinitely before her. She was surrounded by cosmic space dust and rainbow lights. Broken pieces of a grand cathedral and shattered stained glass murals floated about in the distance amongst the nebulas. It was almost as if she was walking through a beautiful portion deep in outer space.

She paused and turned to glance behind her – the stairs continued as far as the eyes could see down just like they did up. Above and below her were an infinite number of steps.

"Fuck this place," she grumbled.

Noche walked up the stairs for what felt like hours. Her grip tightened on the wooden oar for the hundredth time as her mind returned to her greatest fear. She reflected on the mess she was in after narrowly escaping that fate. Her face reddened at the pathetic state she was left in.

"I'm fine," she muttered.

Despite her words, the trembling in her limbs didn't stop.

"I'm strong now. So I'm fine," she continued. "If I get stronger, then everything will be better."

Her grip tightened on the wooden oar again, but her hand continued to shake.

"For now, I just need to get out of this place. Then I'll recover my memories, kill Edward, and become so strong that I'm basically a god," she paused. "Simple really."

The cosmic space dust separated and in the distance were more stairs. They were similar to hers in that they were made of crystalline steps, but the formations were all different. Some ascended in a straight path like her own, others wound like a snake, and some spiraled like a strand of DNA.

Countless stairwells dotted the endless, star-filled sky like seashells on the beach. There was one thing they all had in common, they all originated from the same starting point far below. They were like tree branches that all reached out to different places but shared the same trunk.

Noche squinted her eyes, there were people on these stairwells. Not just people, but clones of herself. They were all Noche – an infinite number of Noches on an infinite number of stairwells. Most were exact copies of herself, but some were unique. Wearing different outfits or having different forms.

She couldn't explain it, but she knew they were all her. No matter how similar or drastic they appeared. Whether they were human or alien, male or female, young or old. All of them were different versions of herself.

Her left arm glitched in and out of existence as she stared at the endless number of doppelgangers surrounding her. Then Noche's voice filled the air, but it was not her speaking.

"There's a lot of everything to experience, but I have an eternity."

The blonde paused – how had she not heard the voices until now? There were millions, billions, trillions, countless Noches talking. So many of her were talking that it formed a pseudo silence due to the overwhelming noise.

"I like erasers. There are many things that need to be erased."

"Time to cook the kids for lunch."

"These microplastics are delicious."

"You are a drop in the ocean. Focus on your drop, not the ocean."

"It's much easier to give up than to fix your mistakes."

"I love the smell of fresh smoke on a cold day."

"I want to trust myself so others may trust me."

"Striving for permanency in an ever-changing world is ludicrous."

"My bean-sized brain is no match for these bean-sized beans."

Noche couldn't help but stare as all these copies of herself continued to chatter as they walked up their respective stairs. All of them seemed unaware of each other, she was the only one who stopped to scan about. The blonde shook her head.

"It's just this weird realm. It's trying to mess with your head," she muttered.

"Can you hear it? The siren's song beckoning you?"

"It calls your name. Promises to help you escape that desert."

"And in exchange, all it asks is for you to hurt those you love."

"To make people suffer. To kill."

"And you're so afraid of the nothingness, that you're willing to commit any sin to avoid it."

"Fear lures you to dark waters."

"And you swim along, drowning anyone in your path."

"Because you're evil."

The stars below her winked out of existence. An inky void of darkness welled in the abyss growing below. A shoggoth of tentacles and pain unleashed an unholy wail as it transformed into a black sea of crows.

Mutated flesh and feathers fused together and filled forever with its writhing flesh. The biomass bubbled like a living ocean and ate the stairs as it crept upwards. Noche had enough time to blink, let her mouth hang open, and turn to run.

"Fuck this place, fuck this place, fuck this place!"

"There is no cure for your fear."

"It'll never disappear."

"You can't face the dark inside your head."

"Creeps is coming for you."

Noche ran as space was divided into two halves – one becoming an infinite void of monsters and darkness; the other being rainbow nebulas with twinkling stars and a stairway up. At this rate, there was no escape, no end in sight. The black sea of flesh was going to catch up to her.

Baby Noche appeared and adult Noche screamed.

"Get me outta here!"

She chased desperately after the small child, but the little girl seemed to always stay just out of reach. Crow beaks were close enough to nip at her heels – a thousand voices shrieked from the growing void.

There was an explosion of light as a being of pure radiance appeared. It banished the ocean of crows, turning the infinite mass into black wisps of smoke. Noche was blinded by the brilliance but managed to see enough of it to recognize the white silhouette. It was Jack.

As quick as it appeared, it vanished. Taking baby Noche with it and leaving the blonde alone on the stairs. She had to stop and gather her breath.

The world had gone quiet – not like before when there was so much noise that it seemed quiet, but genuinely quiet. As she took her hands off her knees and raised her head, she blinked. Noche stood at the top of the stairs.

Unlike all the other glass steps, this last one was made of wood. The planks weren't connected, they floated in space with a gap of an inch or two between each one. Before her was a wall composed of branches that held lanterns. Bright yellow light illuminated the deep blue of the world around them.

In the center of the wall was a stained-glass door that had the motif of a dream catcher. Noche opened it to a room full of stained-glass shards dangling from silver thread. Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, Noche entered the next phase of wonderland.