Chapter 1: Where am I now?
"What is the meaning of all this?". Alister asked as he stared up at the ceiling of his room. He hadn't quite figured it out yet as he stared at the back of his hand and lost himself to the thoughts. He hadn't figured himself out yet as he slowly sat up and looked around the darkroom with a deep sigh. With that, he pushed his messy dirty blonde hair out of his face and stood up, groaning as he stretched and placed his palms flat on the ceiling before walking over to flick on the light switch.
As light blasted across the room to illuminate the small room he grumbled to himself and walked over to his desk to sit at his computer. This had been his routine for a while now, wake up, wonder why he was here, boot up his computer, and waste away his days. Not even like he had much to look up or look at anyway. He wasted his time watching dumb videos or playing games like most kids just graduating high school. He of course had university opportunities and offers, but he had no motivation to do anything with them. Instead, he was stuck in this existential loop of waking up every day.
He just wanted to know what his meaning and purpose was, he had always done well, sports, grades, social life, he had been successful in nearly everything he'd picked up, besides romance. Love had always seemed like a novel concept to him through school and despite what he thought had been interest in him by his classmates he had mostly ignored it all. He had honestly just wanted to get through school and that was that. Now that he had done it, what now.
He glanced down at the bottom right of his computer monitor and realized he had been staring at it for nearly an hour, it was now almost 10 am. With that, he groaned and stood up as he dragged himself downstairs to look for some food. As usual, his parents were gone, probably off at work or something on a Thursday morning. He didn't really care either as he trudged over and leaned down to open the fridge as he glanced around inside. And with a defeated groan slowly stood as he realized there was, of course, nothing to eat which caused him to slam the door with a flick of his wrist.
He would have to go and get something to eat, he thought as he glanced down at what he was wearing and groaned again at the thought of changing. " What a pain." He said out loud into the empty house as he trudged back up the stairs, and walking back into his room dragged himself into a simple sleeveless black vest and some black jeans before he decided that that was good enough.
With that, he picked up his wallet and hooked his house and assorted keys to his belt loop, and took off down the stairs, and opened the front door. The bright sun hitting his skin and eyes caused him to wince slightly as he began to walk. He lived just north of downtown Columbia, so it was rather hectic with cars going here or there across the front of his house before he took a left down the sidewalk and began to walk towards town. It was a rather small town, housing just over 100 thousand people, and it wasn't all that great at attracting tourists,
wasn't great at anything actually. For as long as he had been alive or had always been like this, just a collection of people who all seemed to be spinning their wheels and wasting their existences, but that wasn't his mission right now as he walked down towards the corner store on the inside edge of the sidewalk to avoid most of the idiot drivers.
After walking about two miles he finally arrives at the gas station, corner panty hybrid, and walked inside, it looked like a miniature grocery store and even had a bar where you could order basic food if you so wanted to, but he didn't care about that. He simply walked down the isles and picked up a few snack foods and then walked over to the coolers to pick up an energy drink. After milling about a bit he decided that was probably all he needed as he walked up to the counter to pay. As the cashier was ringing his items up he heard the sound of tires squealing against the pavement and the sound of an engine revving up as he glanced over his shoulder to get a look he felt the blood from his face drain as he saw an SUV hurtling towards the doors, the only detail he could make out was the woman crying in the driving seat before the world shattered into chose around him.
As it crashed through the doors Alister naturally shoot his arm out and shoved the cashier away as glass, metal, and random goods flew forward, nicking his skin and colliding with his body as the world seemed to almost crawl to a stop. He was suddenly hyper-aware of everything the aches from many years of abusing his body, the tingle of air in the cuts left by flying debris, the warm welling of blood, and the most obvious object the multi-ton vehicle hurtling at him as it slowly filling his vision. 'I can't die here' was the loudest thought in his mind as time mercilessly marched on and his death inched closer, his mind flooded full of a jumbled mess of thoughts and his muscles began to tense as he tried to get his body to move faster to no avail 'this is it isn't it, I'm going to die'. His mind screamed and tried to yank his body into motion before the grille of the SUV collided with the fragile flesh of his body.
The impact instantly broke several bones and jammed several objects into his body as he was flung through the counter and into the cigarette case behind it as his mind was still racing to figure out what to do. Not that it was helping much all he could feel now was pain, an overwhelming, all-encompassing pain as he crashed into the plastic and metal case with a loud crash and then the floor. He could feel something jammed through his stomach and that his limbs were no longer responding as he laid limply, his vision was now mostly filled by the floor and debris fling into the store as he saw a small red pool begin to creep into his vision 'they should clean that up, looks like shit' he thought. But he was still trying to figure out why he couldn't move, his whole body felt like it was on fire, but his thoughts were strangely clear as red filled the rest of his vision like a veil being draped over his eyes. 'oh well I'm so tired, why am I on the floor, it feels oddly comfortable' He was so tired suddenly, he felt like it might be a good idea to sleep.
All he could hear was muffled yelling and the idling of an engine as he internally groaned and felt his eyes begin to close as he only simply wanted to rest. He could feel someone put their hands on his shoulders and shake him, he wished they wouldn't, it hurt you know, but he no longer had the energy to tell them that as he slowly felt his mind slip off into unconscious, it was an odd, almost physical feeling of it leaving his body as he felt all the tension and pain leave his body.
Alister suddenly felt like he was submerged in water, no that wasn't quite right, it was something thicker, colder, and pressing, almost like swimming through a world of slime as he slowly seemed to regain his sense of self. He didn't remember much other than the SUV and the lain afterwords. As he mulled over the last few things he could remember he decided that figuring out what was happening now was more important than what had happened. So he attempted to move his arms.
'strange, it almost feels like I don't have arms'. He said as he felt like his brain was working but his body didn't work, as he tried nothing seemed to work, he couldn't actually feel anything either. 'Weird it's like I'm just floating here' he sighed and decided to finally try and open his eyes, though his brain definitely registered his eyelids moving nothing changed. It was still pitch black, it was certainly weird, but he didn't even know how to react. Should he freak out? Should he try and scream? Would it do anything? These questions raced through his head as he detected the fact that he was moving he guessed, it felt like whatever he was submerged in was sliding past him slowly. But he still had so many questions.
So he just floated, there wasn't anything else he could do, so he accepted his fate and felt like he moved along for what seemed like ages, he didn't know how long he had been out or how long he had been floating. It could have been minutes, hours, it dragged into what eventually felt like days. It was starting to drive him mad, he wasn't able to do anything or see anything but was simply trapped with his thoughts, it was unnerving.
He didn't know when bit he had eventually started counting, and counting, and counting. He would count to several hundred thousand and then misstep and start over, the process repeating again and again. He no longer knew what was happening other than the slow march of his counting.
After repeating this cycle for what felt like hundreds if not thousands of times an oddly foreign thought suddenly broke the monotone 'I hate this it was jarring, angry intrusion to his slow trudge before it set his mind ablaze and he began to scream and attempt to thrash out. He had been floating for so long he was nothing but rage, he wanted out. He didn't care if that meant being erased or being ejected out into something, he wanted out. So he thrashed, he yelled, he cursed, and he lamented till he felt like he ran out of energy and simply hung there.
It was pointless, there was nothing here, he didn't even know if he was here, it was a seemingly endless void. He wasn't even sure he had a body after all so he didn't care anymore. For the first time in his life, he simply bowed his head and whispered out a short prayer to make it all stop.
As he finished suddenly what felt like molten metal began to pour over his mind making him wail and scream even more as he thrashed more. He didn't know what was happening but it was even worse than….than…what? The blank he was pulling was giving him pause even through the pain, he felt like he'd forgot something, and now that he thought about it he'd forgotten nearly everything. 'what was my name?' He asked himself even as he felt like this mockery of consciousness was being torn apart by pain. 'Alister' the thought ran through his head like a bullet and the pain suddenly stopped as the world suddenly flooded with vibrant green light.
The sudden flash of light would have been blinding and shocking if he remembered what those things where as he attempted to reach out and grab the first speck of anything he had seen in so long. It was cold, but he didn't care as he willed himself forwards and into it, as his mind raced and lost itself in excitement before suddenly it collapsed into a figure. It was a tall walk looking humanoid as it swiveled its large ears and slowly floated over to him. The figure was rather tall, covered in fur, and with the shocking aspect of two bright green orbs buried where its eyes should be as it took an interest in Alister.
"Now what do we have here." It asked as the figure seemed to reach out and touch him. It was indescribably cold, it felt like someone was running ice along the inside of his skull as it cocked its head almost comically. "Well now, can you speak, can you do anything, it's rather rude to ignore me you know." It said as Alister tried his best to form words or even thoughts, it had been so long since he had tried to move his mouth, did he even have a mouth? It didn't matter as he put all of his energy into one thought 'I AM ALISTER'. he attempted to yell as the figure cocked its head the other way and then laughed heartily. "Well you don't say, that's my name as well." It said as it slowly removed its hands from him.
"Do you remember anything else?" The figure asked as it crossed its arms and stood there seeming to wait for an answer before a blister mustered up the energy and thought 'no not really'. This caused the figure to shrug and reach out to grab Alister, which for some reason put fear into him he hadn't ever felt as it felt himself compress and saw the fingers close around him like a cage as he shivered. "Well, then how about you get out of here, for now, your not ready for this area, I'll give you blessing and send you on your way." He said as he began to chant in a strange cacophony of sounds and wound up like he was about to pitch a baseball and let loose.
Alister would be screaming if he could, he saw the figure rapidly fly away from him as he felt himself hurtling forwards before he was suddenly ejected out of the darkness. The world was bright, and full of color, though that was about all he could pick up at his speed as he continued to hurtle forwards and tumbling head over heels. He could see a mountain in the distance, then the ground, then the sky, then the mountain again, which he panicked when he realized where he was heading as he whipped his arms up in front of his face to protect himself. Then the thought hit him 'wait I have a body again!'. was the last thought that went through his mind as the mountain suddenly swelled in his vision and he slammed into it with a force normally reserved for meteors as the landscape exploded around him and he felt himself come to a stop.
'Well, that was great, I got here just to end up killing myself against a mountain' he thought as he sighed, then he realized something, he wasn't dead, a's he was buried face down in the dirt as he then yanked his head up and gasped for air and he placed his hand on his chest. Breathing felt weird, having arms felt weird, he couldn't remember anything but his name and he guessed how to talk? He hadn't tried yet. He looked over his body, it seemed rather familiar, like it was supposed to be like this, but he still felt weird. Especially the weird dark purple markings looking as if they had been branded into his pale skin.
He didn't know where or when he was as he looked around at the crater he had made upon impact as he slowly stood. After which he immediately fell back over, he felt incredibly light, but it felt foreign to him after all that time floating. "Maybe I should practice some," he said out loud as the sound of his voice shocked him somewhat.
The fact he was finally in a world that he could see and feel was amazing to him, and he laid on the ground and simply smelled and tasted the air and looked at the surrounding area, the feeling of having a body. The weight of himself pressing on the ground and the cool breeze across his back, it was even snowing which was a nice added sense of the snowflakes piling up on his back. He had forgotten what feeling was like and he was enjoying every minute of it before he slowly attempted to stand again. He slowly climbed to his feet, wobbled a bit from being unsteady, and began to walk, he didn't know where he was, so that might be a first good thing to look into.
He would stumble and clamber his way out of the crater, slipping and displacing the snow as pulled himself up over the edge and slowly stood at the edge. He was out in the middle of what looked like a forest as he then began to slowly make his way through the trees up the mountain. He continued on his path as he leaned on trees and small boulders as he grunted and did his best to keep himself upright. The trip was slow and painfully clumsy as he made his way up further and further, his mind racing to try and remember anything other than counting and his name, he had been someone once he was sure. This body seemed familiar yet strange after however long he had been in that place, that endless void. And before he knew it he had broken through the growth onto the edge of a cliff as he gazed out over the sweeping landscape.
The world seemed to be laid out beneath him as he took a deep inhale of the air and carefully braced himself against a tree. He couldn't believe the sight, a mountain range coated in trees and now laid spawned out at his feet, the peace only broken by a small wisp of smoke extending up from near the foot of the mountain he was standing on. He thought that maybe that would be a good place to start as he then wondered how he was going to get down there, his free hand coming up to scratch the back of his head.
No ideas came to mind except to climb back down and around somehow in this wild landscape as he slowly turned around. He was greeted by the sight of a person standing there wrapped in layers of clothing with a bow pointed at him as they slowly stammered out "Who are you! And why are you naked!" The obviously female tone rang out as Alister looked down at himself and realized he was indeed nude. "Well, I don't really know where I am," he said as he scratched his chin, "I was hoping someone could answer that for me."
-----------end chapter 1-------------
