Wish

Chapter 1 || Talo [Rewritten]

Not without light shall all survive, let alone thrive in this time.

A void. A pitch black, empty void. That is all Talo saw as he woke up.

He laid there, trying to continue his rest, not bothering to open his eyes again. In his mind, he was under the warm, smooth sheets of his bed, in his calm, cosy cabin dwelling, explaining the pitch darkness. He would try to go back to sleep fully, believing he still had a few hours before the warm rays of sunshine were cast down upon him. He hadn't a clue where he really was.

After many moments of fruitless attempts to drift back off into a slumber, he came to the decision that he would reluctantly get up for a bit, maybe have something to drink, eat, anything really, before attempting to doze once more. However, he became ever so slightly unnerved when his body would not follow his commands and stand.

He tried to open his eyes. He couldn't.

They felt like they were stuck together with glue, as a small rush of concern carried through his system. His breathing grew from a steady rhythm to an erratic mismatch of inhales and exhales. 'What is...' he thought. 'What is this? What's going on?'

He tried stiffening all of his muscles, hoping that would show results. Nothing. 'Why can't I move?!' He could hear himself trying to propel the words out of his mouth, but his lips remained shut. His body wasn't under his control.

The subtle worry turned into full blown panic, as he tried everything he could to get his body to obey him. His mind raced with possibilities, anxiety propelled through him, before he thought of a way to hopefully free himself from the paralysis' grasp. 'Calm down... calm down...' His muscles relaxed, and suddenly, his eyelids felt less heavy. He slowly opened them, revealing his location. An infinite black space...

'Are my eyes working?' he wondered. He opened and closed them multiple times, testing to see if anything would adjust in any way. Yet, no differences were visible. 'Well, at least I can use my eyes at all now...' His breaths returned to some sort of stability, and he could slowly feel control return to his being. It started with the twitch of a finger being possible again, that spread into his forearm then torso.

His jaw no longer felt like it was frozen like ice, and he could finally open his mouth, thankfully now capable of taking full breaths, which he gratefully did. He stretched his arms out before trying to support himself, as he felt the 'tingle' of freedom spread through his legs and feet. Admittedly still feeling a bit stiff overall, he groaned as he slowly made his way up to standing. The sensation of control over his own body being restored was very strange, but relieving. He was free now.

"Now I just need to figure out where the hell I am." he said, thankful he could actually speak again. Now with the ability to fully roam and look around, he inspected the great abyss of nothingness. Being able to properly process where he was without the stress of some sort of paralysis infecting him, he actually began to feel the dread as thoughts raced through his head.

"What is this? Is this some sort of prison? Am I... am I dead?!" he screamt out into the void. "No... no... I'm..." He put his hand to his chest, and began to steady his breathing. It seemed he had panicked again, but who wouldn't when they woke up in literally nothingness? "I'm just overthinking. I'm alive, I know it." He shifted his hand to feel his pulse. "I still have a heartbeat. I'm alive. Just somewhere, somewhere... unfamiliar."

His voice shaked and cracked at that last word. "Maybe very unfamiliar." He stretched his arms out, seeing if there was anything he could grasp. 'Maybe I can't see because of some dark magic?' he thought. 'There could be things here, just completely covered by a sheet of darkness.' After admittedly looking like an idiot for several minutes without being able to grasp onto anything, he stopped.