The portal closed.
Silence ensued
The skeleton lingered on the expanse where the gateway had just been, then remembered the soul. He tugged gently on the tiny, blue heart, and it obediently floated into his hand. He gazed at it for a while, contemplating what had just happened. The threat was gone. The soul was safe. If he focused hard enough, he could almost feel it pulsing to a soothing rhythm. It seemed to know he was a friend.
He looked at the tiny, fragile thing that had once been a friend; the Human's soul. Something from his world, from his universe, his home. Even if it couldn't talk, it was worth the company.
They were all worth the company.
Despite himself, the skeleton laughed. He could do this. He looked up at the white expanse all around him, a seemingly endless field of nothing. It had to stop somewhere.
Perhaps it was the soul talking, but he was filled with Determination.
"Alright, human," he said, drawing his friend a little closer to his chest.
"Let's find our way out of here."
He soon found a wall, or something close to it; he could put his hand against it, and it hit something vaguely hard, and he felt a sense of completion when he touched it.
He tried to remember how his captor had gotten in and out. He had waved his hand over this so-called "wall", and every time, a glitchy portal or screen had appeared, allowing one to pass from wherever this was to wherever it led out. He didn't really know how the multiverse worked, but he would find out. The other person couldn't have been the only one to know about all this, he would find someone who knew what they were doing! Right now, however, he had to get out of here. The silence was getting to him.
He held the soul close to reassure the both of them and waved his hand to open the portal.
But nothing happened.
He frowned. That wasn't right. He pressed his free hand on the wall, and it was still there. Did he have to focus on a location? He thought hard, so hard that his skull started to groan under the pressure, of his brother, and their house in the woods, and of his commander-to-be, and his soft warm bed and his sibling's bad jokes and cooking lessons and color and sound and please please please.
He tried again.
And again.
Nothing happened.
He stared in confusion. Then, a terrifying thought hit him.
What if multiverse teleportation wasn't a feature...but an ability?
He walked from one end of the expanse to the other. He couldn't tell how long it took, as time was kind of a shaky concept here, but he made it. He pressed his hand against it. It felt just as real as the other.
He started pacing. After a time, he discovered it was more like a dome, with a single wall going around in a circle around him, without corners to give him landmarks. It was kinda terrifying, actually, keeping one hand on the wall and the soul in the other, following the edge of nothingness in an endless loop, around and around and around and around…
The soul, still under the influence of blue magic, throbbed in time to his steps, willing him to go on. He'd find a clue, a sign, something, if he just kept going.
He counted his steps and stopped after two thousand and thirty-seven.
His tarsals were tired, so he sat down.
The blue magic on the soul eventually started to wear off. With an echoing thing that pierced the silence, he let go of the magic. The soul turned cherry red and fell on the bottom of the nothing, creating a hopeful klink noise as it hit, before settling back into the rhythm.
It almost sounded like a clock.
The skeleton drew his arms to his chest and tried to focus on the beat. It helped. But only a little.
The wall made no sound when he hit it. He smacked it with his fists in frustration, flailed with his arms in an attempt to create a portal, kicked at it with his boots and succeeding in creating pain that didn't exist.
He made sounds of frustration at it, demanding answers, requesting a way out and nothing more. He grumbled, he shouted, he shrieked and screamed, he cursed it in childlike manner, he pleaded and demanded and just plain-out threatened it.
The wall stayed empty.
He walked over to where he had left the soul, seeping with anger. He lifted a hand from his face. Even the soul was quiet, its throbbing dulled down to imperceivable tremors. He suddenly felt very, very mad. He questioned the soul, asked why it was leaving, why it was so quiet, why it was ignoring him. He tried to get a point across, he yelled and griped. He started STOMPING on it like a petulant child, calling down some force to awaken the human sleeping inside, to make them talk, to prove they were real, to prove HE was real to damn them AND him to hell and to help him please help him help him help them help him help me help me HELP ME PLEASE!
He fell to his knees and started to cry.
He wiped away his tears.
He looked at the tiny husk of a soul that had once been his friend.
He was getting tired.
He lay down on his side and feigned sleep. Maybe this was all a bad dream.
He never fell asleep.
And he never woke up.
Worlds hanging by a thread.
Intricate webs crisscrossing in the air, clinging and grabbing and snaring like chains.
A thousand whispers, held back by sanity.
Tiny heartbeats, unaware and instinctive.
Ashes, ashes.
We all fall
down
down
down
down
down
down...
Something was breaking...
He staggered around, clutching his head.
Something was breaking...
He staggered around, clutching his head.
Something was breaking...
He staggered around, clutching his head.
Something was breaking….
He staggered around, clutching his head.
Something was...
He staggered around…
Something...
He opened one eye…
Something...
He opened the other…
.
.
.
Something broke.