"I keep drifting off." I thought as I was stirred from my slumber. I was awakened by a mass of different voices again. The vibrations were gone though. I was still surrounded by this never ending blackness. Waking up to the same lack of scenery gave me the impression that time had stopped or that I was repeating the same day, over and over again.

The voices this time were more quarrelsome. I sensed anger and argument through the unintelligible mumblings. I hopped that I wasn't the reason for their argument, it's not like I could have defended myself anyway. It felt as if my mother and my grandmother were arguing over something that concerned me, which happened occasionally. I remember not being able to do anything about it, and praying that I wouldn't be punished in the end.

The voices cut out quite suddenly and I was left in silence for what seemed a long time. I strained to hear, but there was nothing there. I tried to relax and see if the voices would return, but they didn't right away. I don't know how long I waited as I had no proper bearing to base time on: a clock would have been useful, but even the basic pattern of a day would have given me a hint.

The voices did eventually return. The voices would come and go in no particular pattern. The tone was sometimes aggressive and other times banal. Separated by long periods of silence. It was irritating, each time I hoped something would happen, and each time I was let down. My mind pointlessly trying to speculate what was going to happen to me or what the origin of the voices were. For all I knew, they might not have been voices at all.

Without warning the feeling of being squeezed came again for a moment, then disappeared. All the while the mumblings continued. They came from all around me. I tried to cry out in a last ditch effort, but my state had not changed. Unable to speak or move in this strange black soup. The sounds were fading away. I felt they would not return. My heart sank, and I braced myself for the end to come.

I lay there staring out into the total blackness. Well almost total, there was that one white dot. "Hang on a minute, that wasn't there before." I observed. My mind was playing tricks on me. I looked around, and the white dot followed my gaze, exactly like when I'd stare at a streetlight when it was dark and then look away, the aftereffect would always follow where I'd look as it would slowly fade away. But this point was not fading. I stared at it as I tried to figure out what it was. Then it exploded!

Everything around me turned blindingly white. Streaks of colour rained down from the center point. A jumble of images flashed by, distorted, out of focus, and sometimes blocky. The streaks intensified and sped up. I heard a whirring sound accompanied the streaks of light. Then I felt my body move. I could move my arms a bit. I struggled to pull myself free. I summoned all my strength and pushed as hard as I could.

"Aaaaah!" I heard myself scream. I sat bolt upright and flailed my arms in front of me. Something went thud to my left. The blackness, the streaks of lights and the whirring sound had vanished. My eyes came into focus. I was sitting in a bed, in a room that was familiar. I look at my hands they were covered by gloves. My arms had light armor, my chest was covered with a breast plate.

"Gasp!" came a voice to my left. I turned my head to look. My eyes widened. A girl was on the floor next to my bed with her back against another bed. She looked as if she had just fallen down. "Karla?" I asked stupidly, still awestruck by where I was. "Wolf!" Karla cried. She quickly got up off the floor and grabbed my right shoulder and stared into my eyes.

Then she hit me with her free hand. "You bastard!" she cursed as she hit me repeatedly with the side of her fist. "Why do you do this to me?" she yelled. I caught her hand as it came down on me one more time. Her face screwed up and tears filled her eyes. I pulled her to me and put my arms around her. She gave up trying to hit me. "I was afraid you were going to die." Karla cried. She sobbed in my arms.

"I'm back. I'm back now." I whispered as I held her tightly. "I'm so happy you're alright. I didn't know what was going on and I didn't know if you were ok. I was freaking out. I had no way to reach you, no way of telling where you were." I babbled. I squeezed her tight. "But I'm back now. I hope I never go there again." I added.

"Back? What do you mean when you say 'back'. Back from what?" Karla asked. She gently pushed away and looked up at me. Her eyes were calmer, though still tearful. "I mean, you never went anywhere. You just stayed there, limp, unmoving. Where could you have possibly gone?" she inquired. I put my hand on her cheek as if I was afraid she would disappear again.

I told her everything of my ordeal. The noises, the vibrations, the feeling of being trapped, and the blackness, that ever present blackness that had surrounded me. She listened intently, not even asking questions even though I felt she wanted to. It's not like I gave her much opportunity to say anything as I spewed it all, without pausing till I was done.

My story finished quite abruptly. There just wasn't anything to add. We just sat there on my bed in silence. I felt like apologizing, but it wasn't my fault and it felt like a cheap thing to do. So I just stared at my hands and reflected on where I was and the bitter feeling that I was really lucky to be alive. Life shouldn't be a question of luck. I wished I could take it for granted, if only for a little while.

I saw Karla falter then catch herself. I looked up, her eyes were blinking repeatedly. She looked so run down. "Karla, are you ok?" I asked. She looked away a little embarrassed. "Why don't you lie down and rest. I'll be here when you wake up." I said. she protested a little and I shook my head. "I think you've been through a lot. Just rest now." She nodded, got up and sat on the other bed.

She changed into something more comfortable. I pretended I didn't notice, it wasn't the moment to add more stress. But I did feel my cheeks blush a little. I also changed out of my armor. Even if I'd spent most of my time on my back, I felt tired, worn down. A good night sleep couldn't hurt. Karla had quickly fallen asleep. I laid down and reached to turn out the light but stopped. I pulled my hand back and laid in bed. I looked at the light and thought to myself

"Tonight, I won't welcome the darkness."