Echoes of the Void

The Vampire Skull - 0. Prelude

Once there was a crow, living all alone in the darkness of The Void, and that was all he had ever known. The Void was a desolate place, no light nor life lingered there. Yet the lonely little crow had seemed to have been born from the dark emptiness itself. He always longed for more, his eyes kept peering into the darkness. The Crow always hoped to perhaps catch a glimpse of another being, another like himself. Yet he was always alone.

Until one day, when The Universe itself took notice.

"Are you lonely, little one?" The Universe asked.

The crow was surprised and excited to hear another voice in the darkness, "Of course I am, there is not a single soul but me out here," he replied firmly.

"Then how would you like to leave? To become a part of me? The Void is no place for one such as you," The Universe said warmly.

The crow felt his feathers tingle at the thought, until now all he had seen was darkness, "There is nothing I would like more than to be a part of you," he responded with great delight.

The stars were mesmerizing beyond anything he could have ever imagined. The lights were blinding, illuminating the darkness of the crow. He was sure, he wanted to see what more was out there beyond The Void.

The Universe wrapped him up and nurtured him, it filled the crow with love, awe, and wonder. Slowly the crow found his place, right at the heart of The Universe. The Void had been such a cold and dark place, here he was always amazed at the vibrancy of it all. Yet the crow kept longing. The Universe could see that his eyes were always fixed on the stars far away.

"Why don't you go? Explore, live, and experience life out there. But one day you must come back and take your place here," The Universe told the crow.

He listened and flew off, the crow spread his wings and soared across galaxies. Across worlds so strange, worlds so beautiful. He lived many lives in all these places. He felt it all, he experienced everything. Yet he could not shake his longing. It grew deeper and deeper for every life he lived. It threw him of course, into a new kind of oblivion. Tragedy became his ethos, and death always followed. For The Void did not let go so easily, it followed wherever the crow went.

So far into despair, so many deaths haunting him. The crow decided he would spite death. A crow is ever changing so he decided to change his very nature. He grew new powers, he could reach the dead from beyond the grave. Grab the hands of their soul and pull them back into life again. Yet tragedy remained. His heart kept breaking more and more, he wept tears of darkness. The crow might have changed, but everything else changed with him as well. He might have been able to pull the dead back from the afterlife, but they did not all reach out their hands to him. It all became meaningless when he could not bring back the one he wanted, the one he had longed for all this time. He fell, and he crumbled.

"Why is life but sorrow and pain? Why did you give me all this?" He shouted to The Universe.

His longing had grown so loud, that it echoed across galaxies before it finally reached The Universe yet again. The crow was given a new chance. One last flight, one more time to spread his wings. To find love, to find meaning, whatever he was searching for. From the first day, it proved to be his greatest tragedy yet. He found what he was looking for, but he lost it. He was lost, so utterly lost. Lost to time, and the world.

His gaze shifted towards the stars again. He did not realize the gravity of what he had done. Of the destruction laid upon this world called Earth, by his very hands. The lands lay empty, shattered, not even the winds graced the air. Solemn and desolate, this feeling left in his chest. He accepted his fate. He accepted his final resting place to be the place he had come to love the most.

Silence

Not a sound.

Until it all went black.

His gaze was disrupted, why could he still see? Why could he still call out? Yet no one heard him. Was there anyone left in this world to hear his cries? His pleas? He thought he would be dead. Yet here he was, back in The Void he had been running away from. The darkness engulfed him completely as he cried out.

And all that remained of him was an echo, a promise:

"Under the stars and the moonlit night sky, I am here waiting for you. Under this tree, I will wait for you. Forever if I must. Will you wait for me?"