Chapter 1 - Name the Fallen Human

I awoke with a start.

My eyes were wide yet I could not see. Open or closed it was the same. I could feel nothing. Hear nothing. Smell nothing. There was only the pitch blackness.

I stood. Or did I? Was I here, wherever here was? Did I exist, whatever existence is? I tried calling out, but nothing formed. There was silence. An endless void.

I tried to recall in the back of my mind what had happened before I woke up, but even my sense of self was dispersive, light and barely coherent. When you could hardly make sense of yourself, memory is far from reach.

I walked. There was no indication of progress or movement. Just my vague sense of self here, and a hope I was changing place.

Then, there was a pinprick of white in the expanse. That vague sense of movement brought me closer and closer until I stood before it. A box? A floating box with white borders and text with quivering letters underneath, with another smaller box above the letters. It's glow was stinging me. But I adjusted to it and read the line at the top.

Name the fallen human

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Quit Backspace Done

I brought my hand up to the screen's light, but nothing was there. Still, there was a brighter glow around the letter I'd intended to select and a click. Again, I selected another and the same occured. Looking up, the smaller box now had the selected letters. I continued, running on an insistent instinct upon my mind until the result was satisfactory. I read the new letters in the box:

ERROR: CORRUPTED FILE CANNOT OPEN

I pressed done. The text disappeared, only the name remained growing in size, with a single question replacing the command from before:

Is this name correct?

No Yes

A gust of wind poured from the box, cold and harsh. There was a booming cadence. I held my hands to my ears attempting to block the sound, but it continued to rise. A bright light flashed, consuming my vision. A light, burning hot, that I couldn't escape from. It broke the void and entered my being, pushing me.

No I wasfallingImfallingsomeonehelp-!

I awoke with a gasping breath. Chills running down my spine and my heart beating a mile a minute. I grappled underneath me, finding the soothing presence of solid ground. Looking down, I found my legs covered with blue jeans, and a short sleeved grey t-shirt on my chest. Here, right here, in front of me was my arms. I bring my hands directly in front of me, and examine them. The palms are slightly red and dirty due to me touching the ground, but they are here. The four creases in my palm, the three creases of my five fingers, the unique swirl of my fingerprints.

Why did I expect anything different?

I looked around and saw mostly darkness, but, if I focused I think I could make out walls of some kind. In front of me was a dark path with no lighting. Far above me, though, was a gaping hole that allowed light to filter down, and my eyes following it's path onto a batch of golden flowers behind me. A bit of grass was even growing in the circle of light, surrounding a circular bed of golden flowers. The light was far, far away, but if I strained my ears past the echoing draft of winds, I think I could slightly hear the chirping of distant birds.

I was in a cave of some kind. The rock surrounding me having a purple tinge. My body shook slightly after a particularly harsh draft of wind flowed past me and down the dark path, carrying with it the sweet smell of the flowers.

Carefully, I stood, brushing off my hands on my jeans and taking a better look around me from my taller vantage point.

There was movement in the flower bed. I stared, not daring to get closer. The figure struggled to get up, slowly lifting up off of the flower bed with its hands. A child, maybe 7 or 8. It was wearing a blue shirt with magenta stripes and blue jean shorts. It had tan skin and short brown hair. On it's leg was a dirty band-aid, and it had brown leather shoes. Against all instinct, I called out.

"hey…" No response. It looked around the cave, eyes glazing right past me. It was just standing there. Maybe I wasn't loud enough?

"HEY!" I tried again. Still nothing. I slowly walked forward in front of it, crouching down so I could be level with it.

The kid's face… there was something uncanny about that face. Flat and empty, it had no affect. "It", inhuman, an unknown. A chill went down my spine. It's eyes were brown, normal, but… so empty, looking past me like I wasn't there. I waved my hand in front of it but there was no response. Eerie.

"Can you… not see me? What am I a ghost?" I joke. Still nothing, geez. Okay then. I get back up and look around. This place was creeping me out. I look above us again, and seeing how far up the hole was, dred built in my stomach.

Okay, so we must have fallen. Authorities will come looking for us eventually if we just wait, but that's only if they know we're missing in the first place, which at least for me they probably don't. I pat down my pockets, hoping for something of use (such as a cellphone) , but they're empty. I sigh, looking down the dark corridor. The darkness was familiar. It seems the only way forward is towards the scary corridor. I look back down towards the kid. It hadn't moved an inch.

What a headache. I rubbed my temples.

Okay. Maybe there was another way out. Should I leave the kid here? All alone? Maybe not the best idea, but it seemed safe here. Yeah, leave kid here, scout ahead.

"So… uh, s-stay here, okay?" The kid wasn't responding, so I don't know why I bothered. I begin walking towards the corridor, when I hear a rustling behind me. I stop and turn around.

The kid was right behind me.

I nearly jump out of my skin, stumbling backwards only for the kid to follow.

"O-okay kid, not so close. You scared me!" I laugh. Still nothing. Still staring past me. Curious, I take a step to the side. It follows. I take few steps in the opposite direction. Again it follows. I sigh. Guess the kids coming with. I turn back around to face the corridor and begin walking down it, the footsteps of the kid echoing in the cave behind me.

We walk down the large passage, the further from the light, the darker it becomes. I reach behind me to grab the kids hand and we continue until the way brightens the smallest amount again. I wait for my eyes to adjust.

There, to the left was where the dim light was coming from. A huge doorway, framed by two massive doric pillars carved from the surrounding purple stone. We walk in front of it, and I examine it. At the top of the pillars was a slightly extended roof under which was a symbol, but it was too dark to make out. I look through the doorway and see a circle of light coming down from the surface, like the cave behind us, but here there was no flowers, only a patch of green grass. I let go of the kid's hand and walk into the room trying to see if there's any unseen dangers lurking in the shadows, but there was only the dark. It was like the small patch of light reached nowhere but directly below it, the rest consumed by the pitch black surroundings. It was unnatural, giving me goosebumps. Past the light was another intricate doorway like the one we had past.

Wanting to continue as fast as possible, I walk around the patch of grass looking up to inspect the hole above. The cave was just as high as the flower room, so no luck just crawling back out. Maybe further inside we'd find a way out. I turned towards the doorway, taking two steps forward.

"Howdy!"

A/N: Updates on this will be sporadic as I'm mainly focusing on my other fic, so if you like it, comment, follow, ect. ect. I'll try to update it at least once a month.

Better formatting at AO3 at /works/14694423