'Where am I?'
'What am I doing here?'
'How did I get here?'
I feel a hard surface underneath my feet. I'm standing upright but I stretch my arms out on all sides of me but I can't feel anything. I for sure can't see anything. It's hard to tell if there is just an absence of light where I am or if there is so much of it that it looks like it. There is definitely an absence of sound though. It must be a charm around this area that I'm in because I can't even hear myself breathing. It's really creepy down here.
I sit down and try to remember what happened but I can't remember anything. My name is on the tip of my tongue but it's not clicking. I frantically try to remember anything; my age, my weight, if I'm married, what I look like; but there is nothing. My memory is as blank as everything in front of me. The things that I do know though are that I'm a wizard and that I am male.
'What do I do?'
'I need to get out of here, there's got to be a way. But how?'
I ease into a crawling position and keeping my hands on the floor as far forward as comfortably possible, I start crawling in what I hope is a straight line. There's got to be a wall here somewhere.
After what seems like hours to me but was only a few minutes I reach a spot that seems to rise in an incline slightly. Moving forward on the incline I reach a wall. Feeling up and down the wall I realize that it's made of onyx. The contours and the coldness plus the natural smoothness help me to identify it. The uses of onyx are numerous, but the most common uses are for tranquility or protection. It is also a strong surface to hold wards. The coldness of the wall feels wonderful against my scraped hands. If only I could see it's beauty.
'How is it that I can remember all that? Ah! This is so frustrating.'
I slowly stand up and feel my way around the wall hoping to find a door. The wall curves instead of cornering so I get the feeling that this room I'm in is round. I keep moving keeping one hand against the smooth wall. I vaguely register in my mind that the wall is unrealistically perfect. There's not a crack or seam that I can feel. Pushing that thought process to the back of my mind for later perusal I keep walking.
'Walking, walking, walking, will it ever end?'
The thought barely finishes before the wall and floor just suddenly ceases to be. One second they were there under my feet and fingertips, suddenly stolen away.
But I'm not falling either. What a strange sensation, knowing you're not standing on anything but that you aren't falling to your death. Just being in nothingness, nothing to use your senses for.
'Death? Could that be where I am? Did I die?'
'But that doesn't make sense. I'd remember things if I were dead wouldn't I? Oi, I'm starting to get a headache.'
And what a doozy of a headache too. It's not one of those sit at the back of your mind headaches. It hurts so bad that I fall to my knees grasping my head as it feels like it's exploding. I'm not sure of what's bringing it on, but I do know I want it to stop. I need it to stop. I need to find out who and where I am.
As quickly as the headache came it goes away. Then I realize why it came in the first place.
My hearing is in use again. I can hear everything around me or at least I think it's around me. There are voices but I can't make out their whispers. I try to call out to them but my voice doesn't work.
I wish I could see where the voices are coming from. That I could see anything at all. But all there is, is black nothingness. Or is it white? I can't really tell.
Concentrating on the voices around me, I try to listen to what they're saying. Maybe they can tell me who I am, or why I'm here.
Almost as if they could tell that I was trying to listen, some of the voices faded away, like they were trying to keep secrets hidden. Others got louder so I could hear clearly and they started to circle around me it seemed.
"You are lost aren't you? How does it feel?" asks a voice in front of me.
'It honestly doesn't feel to great. I want to be out of here. Someone's gotta be out there looking for me. A person that will bring back my memories, bring me my name.'
"Haha you don't remember anything of your past, you can't and you won't." says a voice that is circling me, purposely taunting me, laughing at me. "You don't even recall your own name. You want very badly to get out of here, to be back at the place that you came from. In the back of your mind you believe that there are people outside here that will come looking for you. But I ask you, why would they? Why do you believe they would look for you? You can't even remember yourself, why would they remember you? Why would they bother?"
'Could that be true? Will no one look for me? But wait a minute, these voices, they know I'm here. They're talking to me. Wait, that voice just talked about everything I was just thinking. Can they tell what I'm thinking? How is that possible?'
"Yes, we know you are here. We know who you are. We know why you're here. We know your past and your memories." says one voice off to my left.
"And of course we can tell what you are thinking. You humans are like open picture books." says another voice behind me.
'Okay then, that tells me two things, you are not human and you can see me.'
"You are correct on the latter assumption, but you are not fully correct on the first. We aren't human now, but we were long ago. Before little whiny Voldemort, way before even the fallen Gwindlewald. We are ancient yet ageless, we don't count by years, we count by millennia, but yet we count not at all." replies the first voice. He seems to be the leader of this whole shenanigan.
'Ancient yet ageless, millennia but not at all. Hmmm… This sounds kinda like a riddle to me. Familiar, as if I've read it somewhere before.'
I quickly notice that I am alone. Well alone I suppose alone is the wrong word. The one voice of the leader is still here with me but all the others faded off. It feels like a bit of me left with them. That their voices provide a security blanket over me.
"A riddle huh? Well I'll make you a deal, if you can figure out what I am I will give you one thing. But I can't restore your memories or get you free of this place. You also only get one guess. When you think you've figured it think, "I surely guess." That way I'm being fair because I can hear all your thoughts."
'No catch? I don't hear even a hint of one, but that worries me. Why would you be fair when you can so easily hear what my thoughts are. You could be a prat and take the first idea that came to my mind as a guess and I would lose. Why choose to be fair, what's in it for you?'
"I have not talked with a human in ages. You are so much less complicated then those like me, but you intrigue me as well. You as a human feel such a wide variety of emotions where as I feel none but malice or anger. But moreso than that, you as an individual are very interesting. I wonder how in the universe you stand here and talk with me. I wonder what it is that drives your soul not to give up but to fight on so forcefully. That is why I'm being fair. You fascinate me."
'You said universe, do you mean that we're not on Earth anymore?'
"We are on Earth yes, but I… we, are not of Earth. We outstand Earth and rule over our realm."
'Your realm… Well thank you for the compliments, at least I think they were compliments.'
"Yes they were compliments." said the voice while chuckling a little bit.
I smile for what seems the first time in years. Who knows maybe it is. I have no idea how long I've been here.
'May I begin thinking over "the riddle"? You actually given me a lot of information to go off of. Who knows maybe it'll jog my memory.'
"Sure, I'll leave you alone to your thoughts then. Think of me and I will come."
'But how will I think of you? I don't know what to call you.'
"You are quite right, call me Eunoroch. My true name."
'Why thank you. Do you not give everyone your true name?'
"Sadly no I don't. I haven't actually heard it used in centuries. Here, there is no need for it. It seems like a distant memory sometimes, like the memory actually belongs to someone else. It will be nice to hear it used once more."
'And use it I will. Thank you Eunoroch I will call for you when I think I can answer.'
With a slight breeze it goes away. Leaving me in the absence of anything.
