The Ascension and the Punishment: Freedom

Chapter 3. Frustration

            The room has no windows. It appears to be a corridor with doorway on it end. You proceed there. As you get to the doorway, you find yourself out of the building. It seems you were in some sort of garage, and now you are on the street. It's a city full of box-looking houses of 5-6 floors. There is no sky, instead of it there is black space. Like as if the space run out of stars all of sudden. There is no moon either. Though the street itself and the buildings are as bright as if it was daytime. The light which you were following is now brighter, though it's on the left from the street. You go along the street looking for some passages to get on the way towards the light.

On the street, you see some people. They are stuck. It seems that time got frozen here. The people are faceless. Though it appears they didn't bother about it before got frozen in time. They are stuck in poses that present their good feeling. Kids – walking, jumping, car drivers – during their drive, cat – walking, dog – barking. Even animals have no face features. No living creature has any face features here.

All the houses seem to be abandoned and on some stage of destruction. There are unclear graffiti all over the walls. Some windows are broken. Some houses don't have doors, though there are figures that are stuck in the position of opening the doors and windows, literally interacting with empty space as if there was something.

As you keep walking, you see that things decay even more. Some houses start having holes in the walls, broken glass appears, cars rust. You see that skin of the faceless people gets wrinkles, even faces of children. As the decay increases, the distant light seems brighter. It feels like... this place is a desire. Desire for better life, but as you keep going, it only decays more. The light feels warmer, the light feels safer as you go closer. Though the further the decay goes, the more brightness the light gets.

You find a passage between the houses which leads right towards the light. You keep going and you see that some figures appear to look towards you. As you pass them, they don't turn towards you, but the distant one definitely look at you.

In one of the windows, you find a child figure which points finger on you.

People get older and older... It seems that a bit more, and they are no longer alive.

You see an old wooden gate in the distance. You start to notice that some figures start following you with their gaze. They turn their heads towards you, and as you walk further – bodies as well. You get a strange feeling that they all envy you. You sense their emotions. You sense they envy you for your ability to walk. Your ability to see. You feel that they have some regret, and the light is their hope but they gave up on following it. They try to move, but they can't. Their despair literally has frozen them in their position, so they are full of that feeling you experienced when was in the complete darkness. You can sense that they feel your presence just as you felt vibrations when was in the darkness. As you are there and have what they lost long ago, they start to sense each other. They are scared. One of the people stands right next to the gate. You look in the very face of the person. You can see that it's like... covered with skin. Underneath it there are eyes, lips, nostrils. You touch the person, and you see how the eyes underneath the skin move. Then you put your hand on the old wooden gate, and it falls. You are outside of the city. You see it's an endless desert of dried out soil and dead grass. Suddenly everything turns black...

Light re-appears within a couple of seconds. The sky is no longer black. It's blank white. There is a colossal statue in the distance. So far away, that it seems it would take a day to go there. The light disappears again to re-appear in a short while. The statue changes the pose and location. It looks towards something on the right. There is no source of the light anymore. The sky itself is the source of light.

You see that another statue appears near the first one after a couple of cycles of the blackouts. With every new cycle, they change their position. At first you see them greeting each other. You can see that the statues have no facial features, like the people you encountered. Second cycle makes the statues stay in the poses as if they were discussing something. Third cycle makes one of the statues give a look at you. Fourth cycle – it is pointing on you. Fifth – the second statue gives a look at you. Sixth – both of the statues stay straight, looking at you. Seventh – they have come to you. They are right above you. Interesting, you don't hear them move at all. Eighth cycle – a statue puts its hand behind itself. Ninth cycle – its hand is in front of you, a couple of meters. Tenth cycle – its hand is lifted up, and on the place it was, you see a black door. Eleventh cycle – the statues disappear. Thirteenth cycle – and the sky stops shining. It gets bright and slowly turns completely dark. You see that the only source of light in this place is something behind the door. You are slowly moving towards the door, as you hear some movement behind you. You hear somebody muttering in distance, but not far. The sound is similar to human voices, they speak but their mouths are covered with something. You understand it's the faceless people. You hear steps on the ground. You feel them coming.

You hurry towards the door. You feel the faceless figures. You can sense their presence right behind you. You hear the muttering from all around you, even from the front of you. You can sense their hands reaching out to you, but you can't feel them with your very skin just yet. You feel they are begging for something. They feel... They don't feel like that darkness that has been chasing you this far. They are different. They feel real, yet they lack consciousness. They are like frozen screams. Emotion which was given out, yet imprisoned. You feel like they want you to not leave them.

You touch the handle of the door. Suddenly you feel a giant eye behind yourself. Muttering turns into whisper. Clear whisper, yet you can't distinguish word. It gives you chills. You hiver from fear. Then everything turns quiet. Completely quiet. This time you feel intense consciousness in the gaze you are experiencing on yourself. You turn back, but see nothing. You open the door and step in. it's a dark grey corridor. Suddenly you hear a roar behind you and how it's rushing towards you. You turn back and push the door to get it closed and fall down. You blink.