Thirty-one: Shattered
Characters: Steven
Something wasn't right here. "C'mon eyes, open!" he thought loudly to himself, trying to mentally command his body to respond. There was a whisper right next to his ear and he jumped, realizing that his eyes already were open. He'd thought they'd been closed because he was surrounded by complete darkness.
"H-Hello?" he called, hearing his voice echo back at him. He shivered, flashing back to when he was trapped in a bubble, floating through space. Alone… Lost… He had thought he would die out there…
But no; in space, there was the light of a billion stars and galaxies. Squinting, he tried to look around, but it was some time before anything appeared. A tiny sphere of orangish light was glowing in the distance. As soon as he spotted it, others appeared in all of the colors you could ever imagine. He gasped, getting an awful sense of déjà vu as the sequence became familiar. "The cluster…!"
The whispering kicked in and very quickly grew loud. "W-What's going on? Didn't y-you guys bubble?!"
He couldn't make out what they were saying. Shards floated by; touching one, he jerked his hand away quickly, feeling a surge of disoriented emotion. He was afraid to ask his next question, but he managed to choke it out: "Wh-What do you want?"
"Free!" "Help us…" "Where is me?" "Out." "Help!" "It hurts!" "Why?" "You!"
A million answers were forthcoming; he slapped his hands over his ears, feeling the sound thrum through his entire body. "S-Stop! One at a time, please!"
Everyone went quiet at once; he felt the force of their attention on him. A voice spoke out softly, "Please help us…"
"I-I'm sorry… I don't know what else to do!" Steven shook his head sadly, heart clenching in sorrow.
"Help…" "Help…" "We want to be free…" "We want ourselves…."
"You can't form, not without destroying the entire Earth! There's nothing I can do! I'm only one Gem!" Sympathetic tears fell from his eyes, floating in the black space.
The course of the whispering changed. "One Gem…" "One…" "Complete!"
Steven began to feel even more unnerved. What were they talking about now?
The little lights started to come closer, gathering all around him. He was rapidly surrounded. "Uh… W-What are you g-guys doing?"
He flinched when they bumped into him, again struck by unwanted and awful feelings. "Please, not so close!"
"One!" "Whole!" "You will help!" "One!" "With you!"
"Waah!" he cried out, cringing as he was repeatedly bumped into. "Please stop! That hurts!" He didn't understand what they'd all decided on.
The combined thoughts and feelings of all these shards was getting to be too much for him. The pressure in his head was unbearable. Clapping his hands over his ears did nothing to block out their voices.
Unable to avoid them, he curled up in a ball, summoning his bubble shield. To his horror, the gem shards passed right through it. Defenseless, he started to succumb to their will. By the time he realized that they wanted him to join them, it was too late to save himself. His gem began to glow against his will, the light getting brighter and brighter. Pressure flooded him, producing an utterly unfamiliar pain. His entire body ached all at once.
"Help us!" "Join us!" The voice of a million shards commanded. Crack
He screamed, eyes flying open. A set of glowing numbers close by said it was 3:23 in the morning. Uneasily, he pulled the covers tighter around him. He spent the rest of the night staring into the darkness, imagining dim shapes and lights calling for him.
