He didn’t exist. Body reduced to raw energy floating in the void, emotions raging like a thunderous storm. Unable to restrain them, he let them drag him around the foam of blackness, reading no pattern in the idle wandering.
“Concentrate now,” an ominous voice resounded in the emptiness. “Your greatest foe is lurking near, feeding on untamed fear and doubt growing inside you.”
Those echoes were gnawing deep at his ethereal existence, their resonance waking inexplicable fright within him. The cosmic rays that carried him gathered the strength of an uprooting gale, tossing him about like a rag. He writhed in pain that struck the very heart of his essence, struggling to push this invader out of his soul. Yet with every second, the darkness advanced in its conquest, showing no mercy.
“The strongest weapon is ignorance. Fading away of the enemy. It is not the opposite motion that prevents the crash. Fighting fire with fire only sparks an immense blaze that can hardly be tamed.
“Calm down your angered spirit. Exhale colours of your emotion. Fill the head with tranquillity. No foe exists without ground to stand on, no rival can breathe in the absence of air.”
Her words were permeating through his body, resonating in him. Suddenly, he felt at peace. The demons threatening to consume him were disappearing, floating away on the gusts of wailing wind.
“You learn fast, my dear. Now practice your newfound skill. Hone it well and wield like a blade that breaks the greatest adversary. Remember though, that this is merely training. The true face of your opponent is far stronger. But you can prevail. Attune your senses to the universal balance. In this vast void where time flows like thousands of meandering rivers, you have every minute and hour to spend on perfecting your knowledge.”
Ethan roamed the nothingness like a comet travelling through the endless reaches of space, letting impulses guide him, but tempering them when they gravitated towards shock and fright.
It felt like a rollercoaster ride, an amazing experience that connected him with every nook of the universe. He had unimaginable powers at his disposal, believing himself a god. He could create whole galaxies from primordial emptiness, smashing them in an instant and squeezing the colours out of them.
The shadow of his illness covered behind bright constellations whenever he looked in its direction. Its strength largely diminished during this eerie adventure, it couldn’t harm him. The roles switched as he cleaved his way through the nebulas and tore apart the helpless image of his own dread.
Yet as with all good things, even this began fading away. The playground slowly evaporated and his ethereal existence gained shape. He stood as a warrior again, a man whose might could shatter the mountains.
“Irene?” he wondered as he glanced around the empty tent, sighting nothing besides eyes of crystal balls gazing at him with curiosity. How long had he been unconscious? It felt like an hour or two during the dream, yet now days appeared to have passed.
He left the marquee, inquisitiveness guiding him. Cold gusts caressed his skin as he gaped in front of him, finding the realm frozen and lifeless, having plunged to a deathly embrace of silence.
His reason couldn’t understand the twist of events, skimming over motionless statues of once breathing people. Ghastly hum sang a disturbing ballad of a catastrophe and the wheezing carried the tones of grimness on its wings.
He asked himself what went wrong. Had his imagination brought upon the end? Had he perished in process, trapped in the oblivion that followed after life? Warm colours breathed no more, shades of apathetic grey paralyzed the world formerly gushing with variety and teeming with vibrancy.
YOU ARE READING
Intensive Dream Unit
Science FictionEthan, a boy living his last days under the ravenous shadow of cancer, finds solace in the alter-realm, a world of unparalleled fantasies. Yet the darkness will never give him reprieve, determined to hound him to the deepest edges of the world. Howe...
