Disclaimer: The world of Harry Potter, and all characters therein, do not belong to me! They belong to JK Rowling; I've merely borrowed a few of them for a little while. Blacksun, however, does belong to me. Noone else would tolerate her.

Warning: mild violence, adult-themes, mild coarse language.

A Beginner's Crash-Course to Dimensional Travel

By CalamityM

Chapter 2: Blacksun Symphony.

"I am the voice inside your head

And I control you"

- Nine Inch Nails, Mr Self-Distruct

It has been documented, that in times of extreme stress or pain, that the human mind 'distracts' itself. Individuals that have undergone days of physical torture have reported seeing visions of deceased loved-ones; witnessed the universe unfold before their eyes; or seen strange sights of bizarre beings or animal spirits who have spoken to them and told them of the secrets of the worlds, both physical and spiritual. As I lay on the hard ground, pain shooting up my spine and down every nerve, all I got were multicoloured spots in front of my eyes. I couldn't help but felt somewhat cheated.

Finally it let up. Though I think it may have been due to boredom on the part of my torturer.

I rolled onto my side, desperately gulping air and coughing uncontrollably. Before I could barely breathe, now I knew I couldn't. In a weird way I was almost pleased; the torture had knocked me around quite a bit but the asthma would kill me before this arsehole could. It was like a little triumph on my part.

I heard him approach, his footsteps loud in my ear while my head rested against the concrete. He stopped close-by, standing over me.

"Is there something wrong with you, muggle?" he asked, sounding almost curious.

Not at all, retard, I'm just doing my regular fish-out-of-water impersonation! I thought irritably.

I saw him crouching down, in my peripheral vision, to get a better look at me. The torch was shone on my face and I squeezed my eyes closed to protect them against the assaulting brightness. I wanted to lash out and punch him but my arms didn't want to work. I felt so exhausted.

"You seem to be having difficulty breathing, don't you? Why can't you breathe, little muggle?"

It's the wretched stench you're emitting; the smell is suffocating me. When was the last time you showered? I wanted to say, but my mouth was too busy trying to put air in my lungs. My vision started to go patchy, black spots popping in and out over my view. 'S lack of air to my brain, I decided, I'm going to faint. Need. Ventolin. Fuc-!

Everything slowly began to fade to black. I could still hear his voice in the distance, calling,

"Muggle? Muggle? Little muggle? Answer me, little muggle, or I'll…"

I never heard the rest of the threat; I was too busy being unconscious. I finally had my vision, but it was so dull it certainly wasn't worth the wait – or the torture, for that matter: I found myself standing in a white room. A boring, nondescript, little box of a room in which there was nothing else, other than me, in it; it had four white walls, a white floor and a white ceiling. And a red door set in the wall opposite me. The room was brightly lit wherever I looked, but I couldn't help the feeling that the corners grew dark with shadows when I wasn't looking directly at them; and I even begun to think that I saw, once or twice, movement out of the corner of my eye. The red door was the only prominent thing here.

I started thinking: I wonder what's behind that door?

Then there was definite movement in my peripheral vision; so I slowly turned around.

I knew her name, because I had seen her before; but never in person and never this clearly. Her long hair was stark white and left hanging freely over her shoulders and shadowing her face. She was wearing a plain, non-descript, off-white dress, which looked almost like a gown, like one of the ones you see on metal patients in the movies, except this one had buttons down the front. She stood a few inches from the back wall of the room, quiet and still and watching me all the while; with her shoulders slumped forwards, her back stooped, her arms hanging by her sides and her head tilted down, she looked like a puppet with most of its strings cut.

Hello, Blacksun. I thought, tensely. And strangely enough I didn't seem to need to speak out-loud, here in the white room.

I saw a slight smile spread slowly across her half-hidden face. Her eyes were still covered by her hair, but I still knew she was staring intensely at me. She always stared when she was excited; stared and grinned and then uttered her strange, insane little tuneless song. Her Blacksun Symphony.

I am madness creeping… Eyes peeping… She told me.

Yes, I thought, you are.

Her smile widened.

I am shade and shadow and watching world…she said with more confidence. I am darkness and death and Hell unfurled!

Why are you here, Blacksun? I thought, shivering despite myself. She should have been dead. She had already died, after all. She certainly shouldn't have been here inside this room with me!

She looked up at the ceiling, her pale hair falling away from her face to reveal her one real eye and the one fake. Anyone who saw her would ultimately assume that the strange one was the fake; the normal-looking one, with no scarring around it, seemed like it should be the real one. But the only reason there was no scarring around the fake eye was that she hadn't woken up when the man had removed it. It had driven her insane, losing that eye; suddenly the world had only seemed half real. Then again, she hadn't been all that sane to begin with--

She turned her gaze from the ceiling to stare at me again with her fake blue eye and natural amber eye, her slit-pupil dilating for a brief second. She placed a finger to her lips and mockingly gestured for me to be quiet.

Wha-?

And then it hit me, the same terrible pain as before. It tore through me; coursing down my body like someone had poured acid through a hole in the top of my skull. I screamed and fell to the ground, withering and wailing in pain on the bright, white floor. I realised then, what the hooded man's threat had been. Through the tears I saw Blacksun standing above me, staring at me with her creepy eyes. Another shock of agony tore through me and I threw my head back and screamed. I couldn't seem to stop and I heard it echoing back to me as my wails and cries bounced around off the white walls.

Then just as suddenly the pain stopped. Relief washed over me, my nerves slowly calmed though my body still ached. I wondered if he was waiting for me to wake up before he continued, or maybe… An unpleasant thought occurred to me and I tried to force it away. I was sure it wasn't true.

Maybe I was now dead?

I sat up painfully, my body still shivering from the residual shock from the agony it had endured. No, not dead, I decided, if I were dead I wouldn't feel anything and I felt awful. I looked around the quiet, white room and gradually it dawned on me that there was something missing.

Blacksun was gone.