Chapter Text
The strange sensation of joining flooded my senses as my mind slowly woke up. My eyelids felt heavy, like someone fused them together. Fighting fear, I pried my eyes open, bracing my body tight against whatever awaited me. I might as well have kept them closed. An endless expanse of blackness stretched out in every direction I looked. The cool, heavy air seemed to settle on my skin. Empty space yawned under my feet but I wasn’t floating—more like suspended in the void.
Nothing moved, no currents disturbed the dead, empty air.
I strained my eyes to see anything, waited for them to adjust to the tiniest scintilla of light. Everything remained hidden in the impenetrable gloom. An unsettling thought needled at my mind. Slowly, I raised my hands up in front of my face, feeling a strange resistance in the air as I moved. Closer and closer, until I could feel the heat of my palms on my cheeks, feel the brush of my fingertips against my eyelashes. Still, I couldn’t see the outline of my own hands. Had I gone blind? What the hell was this place?
My breaths came in short, panicked sobs of air that felt too thick in my lungs. Then, something else occurred to me, something that made my last bit of courage shrivel in my heart. My chest rose and fell, and I could feel my vocal chords vibrating in my throat, but I couldn’t hear myself breathing.
Oh, my God! Help!
My throat rasped with the strain of my scream, but my ears did not respond.
Hello? Please, someone! Anyone! Help me! It’s so dark! IT’S SO DARK!
Tears streamed down my cheeks as searing pain like dirty claws shredded the flesh inside my throat. I knew I was shrieking, but not a whisper came out of my mouth or entered my ears. Despairing, I buried my head in my hands, my shoulders bobbing with silent sobs, my cries for help devolving into babbling pleas.
What happened next is something I can’t fully explain. Some strange instinct took over me. I raised my head, tears drying into salt tracks on my cheeks. Guided by a new insight, I moved my arms as if I intended to swim in the shadows. To my surprise, I managed to propel my body a little. It felt so strange, like moving through water without getting wet. Stronger and faster went my arms, my legs kicking against the thick darkness. Sweat sheeted from my skin despite the chilled air and my muscles screamed in protest, but I knew I had to keep moving if I was to escape.
After what might have been hours—or maybe it was only a few minutes—my fingers scraped along something. I cried out in surprise. After so long in this nothing, touch was a horror to my frazzled mind. Certain that whatever I touched knew I was there, I shrank away and pulled my knees to my chest, trying to make myself unnoticeable. Many moments passed before I got up the nerve to touch it again. Pressing my palms against it, I spent a few moments trying to “see” through touch. It was vast and smooth, the texture of toughened leather and by putting pressure on it, I felt it yield a little. When I let go, it pushed back at me, retaining its tension like an enormous balloon. I pushed at it again, harder this time. My fingers clawed at the wall, scrabbling for a grip. It pushed me back, and somehow I felt like it mocked me. My muscles ached, my heart a jackhammer in my chest. Despair began to creep back into my bones, stealing my strength. Dark air clung to my body, closing around me like a chrysalis.
I balled up my fists, anger rising in my gut. No. I would not be beaten. Renewed in my struggle, I began kicking, punching, gouging at the barrier, each blow chasing away more of the fear, feeding my rage and sharpening my will. On and on I fought, until at last a tiny hole, a star in the vast expanse, opened in the blackness. The light that came through it was dim, but to my night-blinded eyes it was a burning brand. Frightened by the profound change, I turned away, feeling the pressure coming back at me. The edges of the hole closed a little and I panicked, diving back into it eagerly. Thrusting my hands through the hole, stretching and straining the darkness open to more of the sallow light. The air on the other side was lighter and a little warmer. I laughed and cried as the hole opened wider, rejoicing at hearing the distant echo of my voice as it passed the barrier and left the void. Light beamed into my eyes, blinding and brilliant, beatuifuleven as it stung them and sent fresh tears pouring down.
As my foot made its way through the hole, gravity kicked in. I tumbled to the ground, squeezing my eyes shut and bracing for impact. Thankfully, I didn’t have far to go, landing in a heap on a carpeted floor. A few dizzy moments passed as my body grew accustomed to the soft flow of the air, still cool but worlds better than before. Great sobs of laughter erupted from my lips as I curled up into a ball on the floor, curling my fingers in the carpet. Vertigo spun my mind in loops, it felt like someone poured acid down my throat, and my entire body throbbed with all kinds of pain. In spite of it all, I felt reborn—weakened by my effort, but stronger than I ever thought I could be.
Struggling to my feet, I opened my eyes, shielding them with my hand to ward off the glare. As my vision cleared, my laughter dried up in my throat and my stomach twisted at the sight before me.
I was in my apartment again. At least, it looked like my apartment. The furniture was all familiar, all the trinkets and décor looked the same as when I left it. Candles still burned on the table, pooling wax onto a pile of my notes. No remnant of the hole I crawled through remained. But the color was all wrong. No, there was no color at all. Black and gray, like an old photograph. Even things that should have been white were murky and dim. The candles disturbed me the most—the flickering flames were solid black, casting soft gray shadows instead of warm, golden light. Stranger still, murky shadows fluttered in the corners of the room, undulating like the unnatural flames of the candles. I rubbed my eyes, trying to make sense of this crazy mess.
Slow, deliberate clapping split the silence, the echoes snapping my spine into a solid column. “You’re more stubborn than I thought. Congratulations.”
That voice…so familiar it only took a second to recognize it. Baritone, singer-smooth, with that strange undercurrent of dark laughter swirling beneath it: a predator lurking in the depths of a calm lake. Its echoes filled the room, ebbing and flowing around me as I stood petrified with fear. Shivering, I turned around, expecting to be overtaken by shadows again. The murky shapes remained where they were, shifting in the corners. No one else was there, but I felt my nerves tingling, my senses sharpened by my stay in the void. “Where are you?” I demanded, my voice raw and aching, coming out a jagged whisper.
My answer came in a shadow streaking from behind my left shoulder, sending me diving to the floor. It slipped into the dark carpet, leaving a stain of inky black. Dozens of shadows followed suit, whirling through the air over my head, each one making the puddle of blackness wider. I scooted backwards away from it, fearing to tumble inside into a worse hell than before. When the last of the shadows joined the puddle, the oily mass rose up like a serpent, slowly forming a tall nimbus of roiling shade. Laughter rumbled within it, savage, malicious and deep. It grew louder and louder as I drew my knees under me and watched helplessly as a wide, white grin split the black, too wide to be human. Slapping my palms over my ears didn’t help, the laughter cut through my flesh and buried itself in my mind, filled my body. I felt the temptation to join in with the cackles, to simply dissolve into peals of mindless laughter but managed to restrain myself. This was madness and I would not give in!
“Boo…”
The ghostly whisper softened the wild noise in my head. Confused, I looked up. A ripple went through the dark shape and slowly it began melting away from the top down, rolling away to pool silkily on the floor like a cast off cloak. In its place stood a man dressed in black, tendrils of smoky dark wafting about him. He raised his head and his eyes met mine, a wave of shock slamming into me as surely as a kick in the gut. I knew him. Even in the gray wash of dim light and deceptively soft shadow, how could I not know him? My lips shivered, forming a name that I couldn’t bring myself to say out loud.
Markiplier?
