Beyond the Lamppost

XVI. Unknown

Chapter Sixteen:

X

Unknown

I kept feeling everything. From cold air to warm touch and excruciating pain. I noticed familiar feelings of guilt, sadness, anger, remorse, pain, hopelessness, and emptiness. From a tiny bit pang to a magnitude amount of feeling around me.

It's like I've been floating long but in a place I don't remember.

I heard incoherent sounds from time to time but I don't understand them.

"Hello?" I shouted at the top of my lungs but my voice seems to be swallowed by a wide space, not even an echo resonated. I can't see anything other than black. Not even myself.

I don't know how long I've been there or how I've got there, it just happened. I can't remember my last memories, I can only recall the warm embrace of my mother. With that thought, I began crying though I can't feel my tears. My heart tightens though I can't feel my chest. I poured my heart out until I got tired.

I heard the same incoherent sounds from time to time until something new came. Soft clear words.

"What are you doing here?" From afar, I saw a glistening light heading my way. The image got clearer and I saw a beautiful maiden in white dress robes. Her long black hair flows behind her back as she smiles at me.

"I don't know, I don't even know what is this place," I said feeling lost. She looked confused too.

"This place lies where neither time nor a place to live exists. The dimension of Unknown."

"But what are you doing here and who are you?" I asked. I didn't saw anyone other than her.

"I've been waiting. Patiently waiting for someone."

"Is it me?" And by that question, she laughed a beautiful one.

"No, but it won't be long now before he will come. You, on the other hand, doesn't belong here," my brows creased.

"I don't know how to go back." I shyly said.

"You just got to find your heart. Find its beat and you'll come back."

"What about you?"

"I'm waiting for my dear echo. He'll come soon. Now find your way back." I nodded. I don't know what exactly to do but I'll try. "And another thing, trusts your heart. You are way more capable of things than what you knew."

And by that, she disappeared and I am again in a black space.

Find my heartbeat? How can I do that?

I tried closing my eyes though it doesn't make any difference. I emptied my mind and heard the usual incoherent sounds. I tried to concentrate harder to find a beating rhythm and I did.

dug dug dug dug dug dug

I tried to touch my chest and started to feel something.

dug dug dug dug dug dug

It's beating!

dug dug dug dug dug dug

It really is beati----

I breathe a lungful of air in though as if I've been revived from drowning and cough erratically.

"Natalie! Thank God you're alive." I heard a low pitched voice and it sounds familiar. My blurry is still hazy and the darkness of the place is not helping my vision.