Were you holding your breath?
.....
I am..
Take three
Shadows.
I am lost within a sea of darkness.
My eyes are open, yet I see nothing at all.
My whole world is constructed of nothing. I sort of just float here, lost within meaningless thoughts. Thoughts that go nowhere. Meaningless pictures and flashes that do nothing but confuse me further.
Faces. Names. Lost memories pummel me from all directions. For each, I get but a fraction of a second of recognition. A fraction of a second of vague remembrance, and it's all gone once again.
Feet touch the ground. Like a droplet hitting a body of water, color ripples outwards through the ground beneath me. Bare feet stationed about ankle deep in the cold, wet grass. Watch as more of the ground in front of me is unveiled. Trees appearing in the distance. The sky around me still black. Lightning flashes. Thunder booming. It's right on top of me. Rain drips color down the sky, but it's not blue, no it isn't. Instead it's a dark red with clouds of black and fire rains down upon us. The green grass and pretty trees are set ablaze around me as the sky bleeds napalm.
Large mechanical birds cut through the skies, a tremendously loud rumbling and whirring coming from within them. Suddenly large eyes grow appear on everything. The trees, the sky, the grass. The fire. The machines. They all stare at me through mechanic eyes and they can see me, they can see everything I do and there's someone's laughter echoing through my brain, deep laughter that doesn't die down. It just gets louder. It just gets faster.
The machines swoop down from the sky and land all around me. The mechanical grinding noise gets even louder before they start sucking in the ground behind me and all of the noise fades out. Muffled vibrations. I'm swept from my feet and sucked into the machine. Consumed by it.
-
Bright lights beating down on me from florescent bulbs.
A sharp pain in my forehead.
Everything's too bright. I can't keep my eyes open.
The light manages to penetrate even my eyelids. I hold a hand out in front of my face.
Open my eyes again to light peeking around a five fingered silhouette, casting an irregular shadow over my face.
I sit up.
Dizzy.
A bit disorientated.
Sitting on a metal table. The walls of this place are grimy and dark, making it a bit hard to see in here, despite the bright overhead lights.
Eyes scan the place. Gurneys lined up and stained with blood fill the room. At the end sits a row of eight or so gigantic glass tubes, all of which contain identical black hedgehogs. Submerged in green liquid.
Bubbles rising around them. All of their eyes closes. All of them are unmoving. All of them are exactly the same.
I back away.
It's hard to think in here.
Feels like I'm not getting enough air.
Hyperventilating.
Couldn't tell you what's wrong with me.
I need to get out of here.
-
Some hallway.
They all look the same.
This aimless wandering triggers questions of which I cannot seem to find the answers for.
Where is this?
What is my purpose?
It feels like I require some sort of directives that either haven't been given, or I've missed out on them.
The hallway comes to an end and I am faced with these large double doors.
-
Upon entrance, I hear voices.
"We've been able to locate the master emerald by excavating the area. It shouldn't be long before it arrives, doctor."
"Excellent. Go over to storage facility C and acquire those items we discussed earlier."
"Right away, sir."
The sound of footsteps against the metal floor echoes through the room, until it's cut off by the closing of a door.
A million monitors surround me, all watching different things. The hallways I was just lost in. The Some screens show forests, canyons. What looks like some construction sites. People digging something up in some canyon.
Turn my head to catch a village. Mobian species mingling amongst themselves. Look over to catch a young fox picking up a flower and sniffing it. Eyes wander to catch a blue hedgehog leaning in for a kiss with an attractive squirrel. She pushes him away and starts to cry. Look over to see a half breed coyote/dog with a blue jacket touching himself to some a picture of the squirrel in some dimly lit room.
"Impressive, isn't it?" a familiar voice asks.
What is it?
"It's my world, son. It's our world."
God?
In the center of the room sits a large mechanic chair. It spins around to reveal him, smiling at me.
"The one and only."
There are so many questions I need to ask you, but I'm currently at a loss for words.
"That's alright, Shadow. There will be plenty of time for questions later."
Shadow?
"Yes, my boy. You're special. You aren't like all of the others."
The others?
He just smiles and looks down at me. He chuckles to himself.
"You have much to learn, Shadow. I have high hopes for you."
He stands up, dusting himself off. He removes this object from a holster at his side and flips it around in his hand. He holds out the handle in my direction. Being much taller than I, he leans down to get the object within reach.
"Go on" he says. "Take it."
I reach out and fingers grasp around the object and something collapses underneath my finger and the gun goes off with a loud bang as lead tears through god's throat. Droplets splashing across my face as the force of the bullet forces him onto his back in a pool of his own blood.
And God starts to gurgle and twitch uncontrollably.
Dad?
No response.
He stops moving and everything goes silent.
What have I done?
-
God's gone. I don't exactly know what happened, but I couldn't stick around. The world is going to collapse at any minute. I don't know how long it is going to take.
Wandered around the maze of hallways until I finally found a door that lead to the outside. It's pretty outside.
Seem to be in a city of some sorts. Searching the horizon, I notice some mountains off in the distance. East. Looks like I'm going east.
-
Standing on the top of the short mountain facing the great forest. The mechanical city sleeping behind me.
The sun's going down to the east.
Behind me the sky is blue. Before me the sky is red. As if aflame.
It's pretty. I don't want to be here to see it fall apart.
-
Lean forward. Gravity takes its toll.
Head first, I fall.
Face hits the rocky surface and I can feel the skin tearing away as I skid a few inches before my legs catch up with me and the momentum sends me tumbling down the rocky mountain.
-
static
-
"I don't like the look of this."
"It'll be okay!"
"Tails, no!"
"He could need our help!"
Thudding....
"Mister?"
Hnnn...
"Are you okay, mister?"
My eyes open to reveal a blurry orange and white figure. A curious young fox looking down upon me with a backdrop of blue, cloudless sky. I know not what to say. I know not what to do.
Other figures catching up, silhouettes behind him. All seem to just be staring at me.
"What's wrong with his face?"
"Are you okay mister"
I know not what I am.
God is dead, I whisper to him.
And he says;
"What?"
Nothing, I tell him. Nothing at all.