White.
White noise.
Fading in at the edges of her awareness, beginning to glow a foggy snow inching inward until everything was white.
No shape. No form. No shadow. White.
Bright and blinding.
In the white noise is a sound, so faint. A slow, steady repetition.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Quiet yet growing closer. Louder.
Floating above the expanse of white but pressure, unmoving pressure at her back, beneath her body.
Her body? She could not feel it, really feel it, as if she's not connected to it at all.
Connected, tangled, something pulling at her arms, tugging at her hands like webs, fine chains, cold and smooth.
At the farthest edge of her consciousness she pulls at the fibers and feels a sharp pain but free as the entanglement falls away.
The steady beep beep beep suddenly panicked and pitches in one long unbroken scream.
Swimming through the cloud of her consciousness she pushes out and away from the stinging sound.
Away from the cold dark white. Away from the emptiness.
Impeded by a barrier outside of her vision, cool and smooth and solid. Beyond it she can feel them, a myriad of minds milling over thoughts of life, death, living, dying, detached. Cool and smooth like the barrier in front of her. Feelings unfeeling. She pushes out against the barrier, trying to escape from the emptiness.
One now within the congregation of minds she can see them floating in the distance. Wrapped in white, surrounded by white, seemingly heads floating apart from themselves and heedless to this new one among them.
And then she feels it. One she knows. Here somewhere amongst the teeming mass. She follows it as if a beacon towards the unknown but more known than this unknown she doesn't know where she is but she knows that if she can find it she'll find salvation from this numbing void.
Pressing past another barrier as cold and smooth as the last, and another yet another she winds her way through the labyrinth until she feels it close, close enough to feel in her skin.
Here her ears pick up that steady repetitious beep beep beep but muffled under a low, labored shift of air. She drifts towards her intention and the sounds do not falter, guiding her closer. Finding herself hindered by another barrier, lower and less substantial, she navigates around and over and into the vibration of that arduous sound.
Her diminutive form climbs towards the source of the sound, careful as she feels the same chains of entanglement that trapped her earlier. Unsteady on the uneven surface beneath her, her hands and legs slipping as she struggles to pull herself closer. Pushing out she finds it, that place that space that sanctuary. Her body molds itself against the form of the mountain beneath her, sinking into it with exhausted abandon. Her head alight on her aegis she allows her mind to take that final leap, falling in to this familiar space. The shadows begin to encroach into the blinding white, shapes and forms etching themselves from the nothingness. Cradled now in this place she knows.
Safe.