JJE: Ashes to Flames -- Prologue

    Darkness wasn't the right word for this place, but the only one that seemed fitting. it was neither warm or cold, wet or dry; as close to nothing it could be. A thick fog did fill the air, with a haze darker than black, masking the sky somehow darker. There was a ground, rough and uneven, but his feet hollowly echoed with each step.

    "Hello," he shouted into nothing, and received nothing.

    His own heartbeat thundered from his chest, the sound reverberating back into his now-ringing ears from the wall-less void. He wasn’t too sure why, but he felt deeply compelled to keep moving. Putting one foot in front of the other, he began to walk. He only hoped that wandering would find him a sign to where he was.

   “Hello??” he cried out, and was again left empty-handed. Something inside him pulled him forward, feeling like an old wooden toy on a string. The thought pulled him back to his youth, and it gave his mind warmth. His body, however, could not feel it; it was not warm, but neither cold. The surrounding blackness was a vacuum, sparing no morsel of sensation. Like the memories of before, that was taken from existence. 

“Can anyone hear me,” he belted out, and was now given back an overpowering echo. It struck from all directions, a stab deep in his ears. He let out a wail as his legs buckled, bringing him to his knees. He covered his ears with his hands, fruitlessly shielding himself from the crushing noise.

“Make it stop!” he screamed, curling his body in half as he now collapsed to the ground. His head incessantly throbbed, and he felt like the ground spun below him. His breathing only quickened with the rapidly-moving gravel, and each thrust of sound forced a yelp from him.

“Please!!!”

The echoes vanished. One second, they suffocated him and the next, gave him mercy. It was the same impossible quiet, a silence that didn’t dare to be penetrated. In the stillness, though, was a distant ringing. No sound came, but the waves gave a deep chill right into his bones. He clambered to his feet, and he began to run. He was clueless which direction to take, but understood he needed to escape . He was far too afraid to take flight, fearing he would become even more confused. He may lose his way, or even forget where the ground is. This place wasn’t like any place, and he didn’t trust it. It reminded him of someone.

The flash of memory triggered something deep within, and he slowly stopped running, panting softly. It was him, the reason he was here. A spark burst forth a fire that burned ferociously in his chest, and unseeable weights locked his feet to the infinitely-black earth. It was him, yet he couldn’t find it in himself to blame him. He had truly believed he’d done the right thing when he-

A scratch; the soft sound forced itself from the abyss. It was somewhere behind him. He didn’t know exactly, but he couldn’t muster the courage to look. He sprinted instead, and began to cry. He was so confused, so lost. Why was he here? Why was he running? Why couldn’t he remember? He didn’t even know what was coming; but what he understood, without doubt, was that he. should. not. get. caught.

He moved in every direction; left, then right, straight ahead, left again, then turned around, back to the right, another right, another left. He sharply dug his heels into the gravel as the noise came from different directions, making him lose his place in the closing darkness. Dread pitted in his stomach. He had faced this before, whatever this was. He had seen it before, in his dreams, his nightmares. This, however… he felt as awake as the day, and that was the worst of it all.

He desperately pleaded to the darkness, but the scratching only grew louder. He ran as fast as he was allowed, but the sound only began to surround. His heels ached, his legs burned, and he worried his knees would give out. The small glint of hope would only follow soon after, and he accepted it with open arms.

And there it was…