Eternal Darkness

2: Reborn in Darkness

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James didn't wake up. Not in the conventional sense. There was no jolt back to consciousness, no fluttering eyelids. Instead, a dull thrumming replaced the cold, endless dark. It wasn't a heartbeat, not quite. More like a distant engine idling, a faint tremor that resonated through a void. Panic, a primal instinct even beyond the need for oxygen, clawed at the edges of his non-existence. And something else, something that James had never noticed before. He was not even sure what it was, but he could feel it, inside him, yet unsure what it meant. 

He couldn't see, couldn't feel the soft sheets he covered himself with in bed. He couldn't even scream, the concept of sound as foreign as the idea of warmth. Yet, a sliver of awareness, sharp as a razor's edge, remained. He was aware of the unnatural sunlight filtering through unseen eyelids. This strange light seemed to penetrate his every cell and sent a wave of revulsion through him, an alien sensation in this in-between state.

A chilling truth settled in the void that he occupied. The once tireless engine that had driven him through countless missions, life-threatening chases, and late nights finally sputtered its last. James Miller, the man who had stared death in the face a hundred times, was officially dead.

Consciousness was elusive, as if in the throes of an extreme fever from falling ill, he faded in and out of awareness, a part of him, a defiant ember, refused to be extinguished. A detective's curiosity, honed through years of chasing the shadows, flickered to life. How? How had he crossed the line, and where was he now? This wasn't a peaceful slumber, nor the fiery inferno he'd half-expected. This was... a blank canvas. 

Dreams, or fever-induced visions, or maybe his mind in the last minutes of being alive was making his dreams seem so vivid, yet so elusive... a flicker at the edge of his non-perception. Usual perception eluded him, plunging him into a disorienting void. A voice, raspy and ancient, echoed in the void. "Lost, are we?" it seemed to force the words. A single question, but it held the weight of ages.

James, with a desperate effort, willed himself to respond. There was no sound, no movement, but a thought, a burning desire, lanced outwards. "Who... where..."

The voice chuckled, a dry, humorless sound. "Patience, detective. There's always time for answers. But first, we need to decide. Fade away, or... cling on." Then silence, a drawn out nothingness... but there was something.

A choice. A sliver of hope. James, the detective who never gave up, who chased every lead until his lungs burned, wouldn't go down without a fight. Even in this spectral existence, the fight raged on. He focused all his non-existent will, a silent scream against the void. "Cling on."

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The past few days had been a blur of heightened senses and existential dread. His memories of the last few days, fleeting at best, jumbled and confused with more questions than answers. James felt like a newborn calf learning to walk – or, more accurately, a reanimated corpse learning to... well, not exactly breathe, but exist in this new, unnaturally hyperaware state.  Everything seemed so loud. He not only seemed to hear the world around him, but feel it more acutely as well. The world buzzed around him. He could practically hear the blood thrumming in people's veins, a horrifying symphony that both repelled and fascinated him. Sleep, a blessed escape in life, now held no solace. Sunlight, once a welcome friend, was now an agonizing enemy, sending a searing pain across his translucent skin whenever he strayed too close to a window.

He knew he needed to talk to his partner at the office, Adrian Sterling. Adrian had been in the private investigation business for a long time and had been the owner of Sterling Investigations for longer than James could recall. They had worked together as Partners and Private Investigators for the last 6 years, but James had known him much longer than that. Adrian had been a great resource of information while James had served on the Police Force, Adrian always seeming to be able to get information that eluded the bureaucracy of the force. Finding information to help James along his path to success at the force. His closest friend and the person he trusted more than anyone else in his life.