-5- COSMO

The being lay in the rubble of the great ruins in which he awoke for hours. Morning was approaching as small rays of light beamed through the giant cracks in the ceiling of the ruins, puncturing the night that once covered them.

A voice came to the being's mind, a low, very faint, echoing noise. When it spoke, the vision of the being began bending and twisting, his vision failing and his eyes hurting as the voice entered his thoughts.

"We see you, Cosmo," the voice started, pausing in its speech to create a dragging echo that seemed to bang the insides of the being's mind. The voice continued, "You are far from us, but we have not lost you." The being placed a hand on his head as the voice spoke. His entire skull felt pain and his vision became severely blurred while this voice occupied his mind.

Suddenly, the world around the being began to change, much like his earlier dream of a long beach had changed into the ruins he was laying in. The decaying structure he was laying in began fading away into an empty white void. The being found himself standing upright in utter whiteness, all sounds of the world he was once standing in now gone. He began looking around for any sign of something in the nothingness.

The voice came again, but this time without any pain or blurring of the being's vision.

"Cosmo," the voice continued, calling the being by a name. "He is coming. He longs for our destruction. Prepare…" After this was said, the voice appeared to fade away. The being, named by the voice "Cosmo," stood in the void, confused. He looked around the whiteness for any clue as to who was speaking to him, if anyone at all. There was no one to be found.

Even after turning his gaze in several full revolutions across the void, Cosmo suddenly found something in the white emptiness after turning one more time to face the area behind him. In the distance from where he stood a spherical gray object had suddenly appeared. Surprised to see something, Cosmo began walking towards the object.

Eventually, he arrived at the sphere. It was a large object made of a strange metallic material. Cosmo walked around the object, studying its irregularities and noting that it was not a perfect sphere. As he studied the object, he noticed on one side a small circular window. Cosmo leaned in to examine the window, hoping he could get a glimpse of what, if anything was inside this object. As he pressed his hands against it to peer in, the object suddenly vibrated and hissed. Cosmo swung backward in shock.

The area of the sphere that Cosmo placed his hands on began sliding downward. Steam began rising from the sphere as the plate of the sphere slid down. Cosmo moved closer to the sphere as this was happening, wondering if he could see what was inside it now that it was opening. After the plate had stopped moving, an opening in the sphere was revealed. Cosmo craned his head to look inside. The inside of the sphere was filled with a gelatinous, semisolid substance. The substance was black in color with twisting streaks of blue cutting through. Cosmo stared at the substance with interest. As he did, the voice faded back into his mind.

"Cosmo!" the voice was now a yell. Cosmo stepped away from the sphere and began panicking. It was then that the sphere suddenly rolled forward. Cosmo moved even further away, watching as the mysterious substance within the sphere began pouring slowly out. The bluish-black ooze slid out of the sphere, collecting itself together as it did.

"Stop him!" the voice shouted again. "Stop him before the end!" Cosmo turned around and began running away from the sphere into the endless white around him. As he ran, Cosmo turned his head around to look back. The substance from within the sphere was rising in size. It was now becoming a mass so large it dwarfed the sphere from which it came. Alarmed, Cosmo looked away and continued running into the void.

Suddenly, shrill screaming blasted through the white void. It echoed through the air, indicating the distance of Cosmo from whatever made the noise. Cosmo stopped his run and turned around to see if the scream was coming from the substance. When he turned to look in the direction of the substance and the sphere, both were gone. Cosmo was startled by this, and began looking around again for another possible source of the screaming.

The mental image of the white void slowly reverted back to the ruins Cosmo had been laying in. Cosmo felt a brief headache as the vision changed back to what he believed was reality. Cosmo could now see clearly his surroundings. For a moment, he waited to see if the voice that had been speaking to him would contact him again. When nothing came, Cosmo then began looking around at the same ruins he had been laying in for hours.

The shrieking noise came again. Now, Cosmo knew that whatever was making the noise was real and somewhere near his location.

He stood up from where he had been laying, his legs feeling unsteady and weak when using them in reality and not in visions. When he adjusted and situated himself, Cosmo stood and looked in all directions at what was creating that screaming noise.

The screaming came again, but this time fainter. Cosmo let out a sigh of some relief, assuming whatever was making the screaming noise was travelling farther away from him. While standing, Cosmo studied the ruins he was in again, this time with a wider range of view.

Cosmo stopped what he was doing when an aching pain took over his back, rising up from seemingly nowhere. He placed a hand on his back, leaning himself against a piece of nearby debris. Cosmo turned back to look at where he had been lying down for the night. There was a shape in the rubble he had been lying in. It was the shape of his body, as if he fell from a tremendous height and smashed into the ground on his back.