Chapter 17C: Is This A Joke?

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Author's Note:

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Author's Note:

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Darkness.

All I see is darkness. I'm in a place without sound, without taste, and without smell. There's only this vacuous emptiness... this numbness in my body. An inexorable chill lingers and consumes my whole being. The void cradles me in its embrace and I feel as if I am being lulled to slumber -- floating on the black sea of nothingness. Am I dead? I must be, right?

The last thing I remember is struggling to hold on and fight the pain. I recall seeing the mark on my wrist glowing red and realizing that no matter how hard I tried to fight against it, Noa's words were true. Sasuke and I are bound by the spell. And if we are indeed bound, then that would mean his soul would follow me to wherever this is then he-

What the-

A prism of colors coalesce and swirl around me, encasing me inside a glowing orb. And inside that orb, a scene unfolds around me. Long, shadowy figures engage in warfare on a field of rainbow-colored grass. From a distance, there's an impenetrable fortress made of crystal and a purple sky hangs above.

Moving.

I feel myself moving without my volition. But as I come closer and closer to the fortress, everything shakes around me. The crystal fortress crumbles into dust. A sinking feeling engulfs my senses. Something pushes me to the ground and I fall.

I'm falling -- falling hard and fast into a fiery abyss. Fear and uncertainty grip my heart and my mind as I wonder what waits for me on the bottom. My vision fails me, the darkness returns, and only the sensation of falling remains. Knots form in the pit of my gut making me queasy, nauseous, and anxious.

Thump!

I feel myself landing into something hard. Pain creeps back into my body and the numbness disappears.

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Light.

It's warming my cheeks. Beneath closed eyelids, I see red from the rays of light falling on my face. Fluttering my eyelids, I will myself to open but my eyes feel heavy as if persistent to stay shut. I fight against it by wriggling my fingers and I glide my fingertips over the soft, fuzzy material underneath me, trying to rouse myself to be conscious. Breathing in the acrid, musty scent in the air, I hear a rooster crowing from a distance and incoherent muttering around me.

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