HAPPY INTERNATIONAL ANGST DAY! XD Don't you just hate short chapters? I'm doing it anyways, though. :p
The Lost One
A Danny Phantom FanFiction by Cordria
Part Four: Nothing
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The cracks are big enough to see through, I notice with a start of surprise not long after I saw my first tree. I could, if the chains were long enough, reach through the cracks in my prison walls with a few of my fingers and touch the blackness beyond. I can't, but I wonder what would happen if I ever could
The thought crosses my mind, not for the first time, that my prison is holding back the blackness for a reason. That it is keeping me safe from it… only my prison is breaking. Soon the blackness will be able to get in. A burst of fear makes me jerk my hand away from the crack, whimpering slightly, backing up a few steps before I can catch myself. True panic crushes me for a long moment and my whole body trembles, my mind caught up in the image of the blackness rushing through the cracks to swallow my soul whole. The blackness could kill me.
My hands are pressed tightly against my chest, my breathing harsh in my throat. Never before have I contemplated the idea of death. I've always assumed that my prison would continue for eternity, my body locked up, my mind curling around insanity for all of time. The idea of an end to that existence has never crossed my thoughts. For the first time, I fear for my soul.
I can't tear my burning eyes away from the largest of the cracks, even as my feet stumble backwards, my body coming to a stop in the dead center of my prison. From here, I can still see the blackness, shiny and shimmering and new and strange, waiting for me. It's poised, stealing my breath from my lungs, drilling into my mind, consuming my thoughts, ready to take my and do what it will.
Arms crushed against my chest, fingers tapping against my sides – one, two, four, five, three, two – as if the pattern will keep me safe. The noises I can take. The pictures I can revel in. But the blackness is to be feared. It is an instinctual reaction, born of nightmares and daydreams and the worst that my psyche can throw at me. Blackness, darkness, nothingness.
I don't know how long I stare, transfixed, at the nothingness beyond my prison walls. It could be minutes, but it could be days. Every time I try to look away, my eyes dart back instantly. Has the blackness moved? Has it started to seep through the cracks? Is it coming? The years of silence and aloneness are a breeding ground of paranoia and mental illness.
I know that the blackness is tipping me towards the insane side, but I can't help myself. I fear the blackness more than anything in my entire memory. I know, deep down, that when the sturdy wall of my prison collapses, I will be no more. My world will end.
The room shivers and I scream in blind terror, my eyes staring at the crack that has widened infinitesimally. Sudden images of monsters and creatures fill my mind as I wonder what's beyond the blackness. What's causing the shaking? Who's attacking my prison? I can't breathe for a few moments, my vision clouding and my ears ringing painfully.
Another shake, another scream, and I drop to the floor, curling up into a tight ball, my gaze unable to be wrenched away from the blackness. A third shiver in as many minutes has the blackness beginning to ooze into the room, breaking off into tiny bubbles of nothing that float towards the ceiling.
I can't breathe. I can't even scream.
My prison gives one final shiver and the wall cracks open entirely, the blackness flooding in and sweeping me up in a tidal wave of nothingness. My eyes go wide in terror for a split second, then all goes black.
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