Bright, too bright
He could...move his body.
"Where the hell am I?"
In front of him or behind him? He could see all, feel all, but he couldn't touch it. His mind was rapidly deteriorating until...it stopped. He could focus on one thing, his brain no longer experiencing the sensory overload of whatever the hell this place is.
It was an infinite area; clouds stretched infinitely in all directions, with different colored doors hovering above them. Before long, he realized that he, too, was floating. His arms were dangling idly by his side.
In his relatively short 16 years of life, he had seen a lot of strange things, especially when he was under the influence of drugs, but this definitely took the cake. It felt so real...
He floated forward, gliding through the endless expanse, glancing towards the doors. Something about them told him not to open them...as if he would be upsetting something if he did.
"Where am I and... why can I feel my body?" Staring down at his hands, he'd slowly clasp them. 'I can't be under the influence again...I quit after mom....'
Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes as he grabbed his light brown hair in a tight hold.
"They're dead. They're dead. They'redead!" He let out a blood-curdling scream, only for it to come back distorted as he fell to his knees on an invisible surface. 'It's all my fault! If I didn't...If I...'
His eyes would snap up, bells ringing in the background, but he paid them no mind. His screams of despair played back, echoing through the clouds, rattling the hovering doors as if the dimension itself rejected his grief. That same pain entered his mind, tearing it apart, but it was somehow...different.
He was everything and he was nothing, the eyes of a great being lay steady upon him.... Judging... waiting for him to do something. Anything. It was curious, but it was quickly growing bored.
His body moved on its own, his consciousness put in the back seat. Flying forward at speeds his brain couldn't register, he'd cross the infinite distance in the blink of an eye. Suddenly, he'd snap to a complete halt, doubled over as his head rattled alongside with that same pain, only more subdued.
In front of him was a large white door, much larger than the others. The top couldn't be seen as it pierced through this strange dimension's atmosphere, its shiny texture catching and reflecting the sun's rays.
Still groveling, the young man finally pushed himself upright after a few grueling moments. "W-what the hell just happened?" His voice called out, hoping for a response, but...nothing. At least nothing he could hear.
Staring at the large door for a few moments, it may have caught the sun's rays, but instead of reflecting them, it showed nothing at all. An empty world where his image should be.
He'd begin to back away, only for the pain to come back 10 fold. "FINE FINE, I'll open the damn door." It dissipated, reduced to a faint hum at the back of his head.
Approaching the door, he'd place his skinny hand on it, and it'd instantly swing wide open, its hinges making no sound as if it weren't there in the first place.
Inside was not what he expected.
No blinding light, no heavenly choir, no hellfire. Just… silence.
The room stretched endlessly, yet unlike the cloudy void behind him, this space had walls. They pulsed faintly, like the inside of a giant living organism. The color shifted from sterile white to a dull, fleshy pink, shadows crawling across the surface as if something beneath was moving.
He hesitated at the threshold.
"Do I… go in?" His voice sounded smaller here, as though swallowed the moment it left his lips.
Before he could decide, the same force that had carried him across the void tugged again, shoving him over the threshold. His body stumbled forward, arms flailing uselessly, and the instant his foot hit the floor, the door slammed shut behind him.
He spun around.
Gone. The door was gone. Only the endless pulsating walls remained.
His breath quickened. "No. No, no, no, no, no-"
The faint hum in his head grew louder, pressing against his skull like invisible hands. Words began to form in it, not in any language he knew, but he understood all the same.
"Walk."
The sound wasn't sound at all. It was thought. Someone or something was in his head.
His knees shook. His hands curled into fists. "I-I'm not your puppet!"
But his feet moved anyway, dragging him deeper into the living corridor.
His feet skidded against the wet floor, making a disgusting squelching sound before he stopped, bumping into a sturdy frame.
Landing on his ass, he'd slowly look up, his hands resting on living ground.
His breath hitched.
The "frame" wasn't a wall. It was… a leg.
A massive one, thick as a tree trunk, pale and veined, its surface twitching with something crawling just beneath the skin. His eyes followed it upward, his neck craning further and further back until,
"Oh, hell no…"
The figure towered over him, humanoid in shape but grotesquely stretched, its arms brushing against the pulsing walls as though it were part of them. Its head was shrouded in shadow, but he felt its gaze pierce straight through him, colder than any drug trip hallucination he'd ever had.
The hum in his head sharpened, a jagged blade against his thoughts.
"Stand."
His body lurched upright before he could resist. Every muscle locked into place like a marionette tugged on strings.
"You are late, Arin."
The young boy's eyes turned into saucers, his pupils trembling in fear. "H-how do you know my name? What the hell even are you?"
It chuckled, its breath causing strong winds that the now-named Arin struggled against. And for the first time...it spoke to him not through his mind but through the physical world.
"I am The Titan of [REDACTED]"
Staring up at the towering being, Arin's scared eyes would take on a confused glint. "W-what did you say?"
"Ah, it's been so long since I've interacted with a mortal that I forgot about that annoying caveat." Muttering to themselves absentmindedly, Arin would look up at the Titan with a fearful gaze.
Did you bring me here? Is this even real? Oh God, what if this is just some lucid nightmare and I'm still sleeping in a hospital bed, paralyzed?"
The Titan's shadowed head tilted ever so slightly. "Quiet, will you?"
Arin flinched, his voice cracking as he tried to recover. "…So, you're the Titan of…uhh…static? Did you just…censor yourself?" He forced a shaky laugh, though his knees still trembled.
A low rumble echoed through the chamber, not quite a laugh, not quite a growl. "Not me. The rules. Tiresome, meddling things."
Sighing, the giant continued, "Very well then, you may refer to me as The Architect. I wish to welcome you to the corridor of dreams."
Staring at the godly being towering above him, a shaky chuckle would come from the young boy. "S-so is that what that cloudy place was?"
"Smarter than your memories gave you credit for… Yes, the Corridor holds the dreams of every creature that has lived, lives now, or ever will live across the multiverse. This place, however-" the Titan's shadow leaned closer, a low hum rattling the walls "is my dream."
Looking around, the brown-haired boy ran his mouth before he could stop himself. "Pretty shitty dream." Instantly, he'd clasp his right hand on his mouth, slightly moving back.
The great titan let out a small laugh that shook the living space, his breath once again pushing Arin back. "I guess you're right, but alas, it's where I call home...Let's talk about why I brought a mortal like you here...especially someone like you."
Arin's heart thundered in his chest, his breath shallow and rapid. Every instinct screamed for him to flee, yet his feet remained rooted, or rather, stayed on their own, betraying him.
The walls pulsed with a rhythm that seemed almost alive, as if the Corridor itself was observing him, waiting to judge.
"Why me?" he whispered, voice trembling. "Why bring me here?"
The Titan's shadowed face tilted slightly, the faintest hint of amusement, or was it hunger in its unreadable expression? "Because," it rumbled, "you are an anomaly. A fragile, broken, unpredictable anomaly. And anomalies... are interesting."
Arin swallowed, his Adam's apple catching painfully. "I-I'm not interesting! I'm… I'm nothing!"
"You lie," The Architect said, voice echoing in every corner of the endless room. The words didn't merely pass through the air; they pressed against his skull, vibrating in harmony with the hum behind his eyes.
"Even the smallest spark can burn the multiverse. Even nothing…" The Titan's massive finger, long, pale, and veined like a river of ice, hovered in the space between them, "even nothing has potential."
Those words struck a chord with Arin as his knees wobbled as he stepped back. "Potential for… what? Pain?!" He yelled, his teeth gritting, the memories of his entire life playing back...How much of a failure he was...how much of a failure he still is.
The Titan chuckled, or maybe it was the walls themselves that laughed. "Yes, that too. But also… growth. Change. Power. Things your fragile mortal mind can scarcely comprehend."
A shiver ran down his spine, but he forced himself to speak. "So… you're testing me?"
The Titan leaned closer, its shadow swallowing even more of the room, its eyes or the void where eyes should have been, boring into him. "Test? Perhaps. But tests are for mortals. You… you are more a subject of observation. A puzzle. A story waiting to unfold."
Arin's chest tightened. "A… story?"
"Yes." The Architect's voice deepened, reverberating through every fiber of Arin's being. "And every story has consequences. Every choice, a weight. Every step, a ripple."
He swallowed hard, gaze flicking to the pulsing walls. "Then… what do you want from me?"
For a moment, there was only the hum. Then, the Titan's voice softened, almost imperceptibly. "To see if you can endure. To see if the spark inside you burns… or fizzles into nothing." Then its tone became mocking, "And of course mostly for my and their entertainment."
Arin's fists would clench as he'd draw blood, the ground seeming to absorb the viscous liquid into itself. "So that's what this is about, huh? The entertainment of you and whoever the hell you're talking about."
"You think you can scare me?" he whispered, voice shaking but firm. "You think I'll just…"
The Titan's laugh cut him off, echoing through every corridor, every heartbeat, every thought. "No, Arin. I do not think. I know. And soon… You will, too."
"I'm going to offer you a deal...It's not like you can refuse it anyway. I'll give you a new life in a new world, no less real than your last one. And in exchange...you simply get to prove your worth."
Staring up at the titan, gone was the fear that was in his eyes just a few moments ago. All that remained was determination...and Hate.
"Fine... send me to this new world. I'll come back here and make you pay for playing with my life."
The Titan remained silent for a few moments, shadows flickering across the pulsing walls. Then, a voice cut through the quiet, smooth yet terrifying:
"That's the first time in my immortal life that a mortal has ever so blatantly disrespected me."
A grin spread in the shadow of the living corridor, wide enough to feel like it scraped the edges of reality itself.
Arin swallowed, but his gaze remained firm.
"Your insolence is… entertaining. Your defiance is… curious."
He leaned closer, the shadows of his face twisting unnaturally. "Your memories truly do not give you enough credit. You're capable of far more than you or anyone else could imagine."
A pause. The corridor itself seemed to hold its breath.
"Alright then," the Titan continued, voice like thunder in a distant cave. "Before I send you off, I will give you a gift… or a curse. It really depends on which way you look at it."
Arin's heart thumped against his ribs, his adrenaline wearing off and his fear returning, but his eyes still held that same determination. "W-what… what is it?"
The Architect's fingers brushed the air before him, each touch distorting reality like ripples on a pond. "I will grant you the ability to transcend limits, to write your destiny…to forge a power that could make even some of the other titans jealous, but remember, such power comes at a steep price. The knowledge of things someone like you shouldn't know."
The hum in Arin's head grew deafening, then sharpened into a point. Colors unseen by mortal eyes burned across the infinite walls, converging on him, sinking into his skin, his bones, his very soul.
"Remember this, mortal," the Titan said, voice low and final. "You are a spark in an infinite void. Some will fear you. Some will follow. Some will try to destroy you. But none… none… will ever control you...well, aside from maybe him."
Then, without warning, the corridor shattered into a prism of light, twisting and bending until Arin felt himself falling not downward, but outward, hurtling through a tunnel of shifting colors and screaming winds.
The air tore at him, the very fabric of reality bending around him.
And just as suddenly as it began, it ended. He had disappeared from the corridor of dreams.
"So long, child of man, may we meet again once you've endured through it all."