False Paradise.

Chapter 10 - The endless abyss never seemed so tempting.

The room felt ten times colder.

Li's perpetual smile didn't seem as friendly anymore in the darkness of the room, the only beacon of light in here. It reminded me of the punishment room, far too much.

"If you want to leave, you need only ask," it said.
I didn't know why I felt so scared. Wasn't that exactly what I wanted? I couldn't take my eyes away, but I couldn't back down now. This was my chance to.

I grit my teeth and spoke in a low growl. "Then I'm asking you to get me the hell out of here."

At that moment, I knew I crossed a line I shouldn't have.

Li remained impassive, and I wished that he would get mad, show anger, shout, to at least show some humanity and prove to me that I was justified in some way, that he wasn't a mindless, perfect machine like most seemed to insist. Kristina may be with me, but when I faced a certain threat like this, I felt... powerless.

"I will show you what it feels like."

As soon as Li finished those words, I heard the sound of glass shattering, and around me the walls of the room began to fall apart in shards, raining down to reveal a pure white abyss behind it.

Before I get the chance to say anything, I see how even the screen breaks apart and I'm sent plummeting down into the nothing.

But... I don't feel anything. I know I'm falling, but there's no fear, no wind resistance, no feeling.

There's just... nothing. Less than an empty feeling.

As I continue falling, endlessly falling towards nothing from nowhere, I can hear Li's voice from somewhere - from everywhere, in fact.

"This is what you want. This is death in its purest form: an endless abyss of nothing. You don't feel, you don't think, you don't exist," it whispered, but I heard it loudly.

"You're not the first person to have asked this, nor will you be the last. But after this, I trust you'll understand why we do what we do," it continued, sympathetic.

All I can do is listen. Everything else seems like a blur fading away. I don't feel my body, any part of it; I can't move anything, there's nothing to move. The only things I have left are my thoughts, but even they feel bland and tired.

This is... something more people have passed through, right? The feeling of passing on. It feels empty, there's no other words to describe it.
Is this really what death feels like? My thoughts begin to slip away, I can't... I can't do anything about it.

I continue falling. I no longer belong to myself, and I stare at the nothing from behind empty eyes, losing who I am until there's nothing left.

...

I blink. I'm back in the room.

I almost choke with the sudden breath I take in, a rush of sensations overwhelming me in the seconds that follow. As I hold onto the table to not fall over as my emotions come running back to my head, Li speaks once more.

"What you just felt is an almost accurate simulation of what it feels like to 'pass on', the difference being you realized what was going on. In a real case, you wouldn't even realize." The screen colour returns to light blue and its eyes return to black as I fall to my knees.

The pain that shoots through my legs when I fall is real. It's all real again. I take deep breaths, looking back up to Li in silence.

"Knowing this, would you still desire to 'pass on like a normal human being'?" It asked, even though it knows the answer.