Falling.
Not your ordinary kind of falling — not the kind that feels like flight or freedom.
This was the kind of falling skydivers feared in their nightmares.
The kind that made your body feel like it was being peeled apart by the wind.
Percy was descending — not through clouds, but through something darker.
The air was sharp, slicing against his skin like invisible blades.
And beneath the pain, a deeper ache pulsed in his chest.
'Why…? Why does nothing good ever come out of my life?'
'Why am I the only one who has to die like this? This isn't fair.'
His heart throbbed with each thought, and his vision began to blur.
Tears formed, but they didn't fall — they hovered, suspended in the pressure.
He tried to examine the world he was falling into.
The first thing he saw was the sun — black, eclipsed, looming like a god's eye.
The sky was grey, smeared like ash across a canvas.
He turned his head downward, but the air was too strong.
It wrapped around him, suffocating, drowning him in its weight.
It was like being dropped into the middle of the ocean without knowing how to swim.
The pressure was unbearable.
He tried to gasp, but the air refused to enter his lungs.
Panic bloomed.
The air here was nothing like Earth's — no gentle breeze, no warmth.
It was hostile.
It pressed against him like a hand trying to crush his soul.
As he neared the ground, time slowed.
Percy's thoughts turned inward.
Certis.
How could someone so evil be granted the Chosen route?
Chosen — something meant for the kind-hearted, the brilliant, the rare.
And yet Certis, selfish and cruel, was given the best path.
Bestowed a Spiritual Aspect at awakening — something unheard of.
Only Reapers received their Aspects that early.
Was Certis going to become a Reaper?
Percy's heart sank.
He closed his eyes.
Life flashed before him — but it was dim.
No joy.
No warmth.
Only the orphanage.
Only pain.
Only the feeling of being forgotten.
'No one would care if I died.'
'No one would cry.'
'No one would even notice.'
Percy thought wind gushing around him.
And yet… he grinned.
A soft, broken smile.
For the first time in ages, he felt peace.
He drifted, believing he had died.
But then —
A memory appeared in his essence.
A quiet morning.
The sun's halo glow reflecting off the window, casting light onto her skin.
Ariel.
Her soft smile sent flutters through his chest.
Her eyes — elusive, intoxicating, beautiful.
"Let's meet again, okay Rain?"
Her words echoed.
They shook something deep inside him.
Someone wants to see me again.
Someone would be happy if I came back.
He thought of her — the short time they spent together.
And in a moment that felt eternal, like the world was holding its breath, Percy plunged out of the shallow water.
His hand reached for something that wasn't there.
His eyes widened.
"I… survived?" These words escaped Percys lips as he gently lifted his other hand.
The black water in his hand was warm.
A gentle warmth — like his mother's first touch.
A touch that still lingered on his cheek.
He bathed in its elegance.
Then he saw them.
Corpses.
Black. Burnt. Hollow-eyed.
They stood tall, terrifying.
All reaching toward the sun — as if trying to grab it.
Percy felt dread crawl over him.
He curled into a ball in the shallow ocean.
"I survived… and ended up in hell."
He wanted to cry.
But no tears came.
Then —
A white, iridescent chain appeared on his chest.
It stretched infinitely, glowing softly.
He touched it.
It didn't burn.
It was warm.
Gentle.
Like it was greeting him.
"So I'm really going to die like this, huh?"
"Forever bound to this white, looming, iridescent chain." Percy said with a somber expression.
The chain sparkled — naturally, beautifully.
The world has shifted into an unsettling impending darkness.
The black sun lit it faintly, but it was setting.
Percy sat in a ball, resting.
For what seemed like hours passed.
The sun finally set.
Darkness swallowed everything.
The scenery vanished.
But the chain glowed — the only light in the sea.
Percy looked down.
His chain.
His never-ending chain.
It led somewhere.
He stood.
His legs ached.
Each step cracked — bones moving like old cogs.
He walked slowly, following the chain.
For what felt like eternity.
He thought about his life.
His regrets.
'If only I had spoken more.'
'If only I had tried to make friends.'
'If only I wasn't so weak.'
'If only I had stood up for myself. '
'If only I hadn't lost my light.'
'If only I had told Mom to stay.'
All of these regrets lingered in his mind as the sun took it's first breath upon this world once more.
The corpses moved again — hunched, then reaching.
Percy flinched by their sudden movement.
He kept walking.
More memories surfaced.
His family.
He had sealed them away — locked them in a box deep inside his heart.
He didn't know how to deal with the pain.
So he erased it.
Erased them.
This place forced him to remember.
Forced him to reflect.
Percy realized something.
That he was a terrible person.
He wasn't a terrible person to others.
But he was a terrible person to himself.
Days passed.
The black sun greeted this dark world once more making the world bathe in a bit of light.
But as all good things come to an end it fell.
Over.
And over.
And over.
Percy had lost count of the time he's spent here.
Seeing no end in sight to this cycle.
Percy stopped following the chain.
Although he hesitated.
He drank the black sea.
It tasted like moss.
Salty — not ocean salty, but seaweed salty.
He drank until life returned to his parched throat.
He looked around once again.
Nothing had changed.
Corpses.
The eclipse-like sun.
The chain.
He walked to the right of the chain.
For three days and three nights.
Each step plunged him deeper into the box he had sealed.
He didn't want to recover those memories.
He lacked the conviction to face reality.
That was the truth.
He was weak.
And the Wisp pitied him.
It watched his sad journey through the Land of the Forgotten.
Then —
After countless steps, Percy saw something.
Small.
He stared at the small object narrowing his eyes as he looked closer to make out the shape of it.
A single thought crossed his mind while examing the object.
'An island?'
"An island!" He screamed out hopping with joy his chain dangling beneath him.
He laughed — wildly like a maniac.
He began laughing as he sprinted towards it like a mad man.
Fate hadn't abandoned him.
Not yet.