I took a long, uneasy pause before speaking. "Hey... can I ask you something?"
The laughter that had been echoing in the darkness slowly faded, replaced by a low hum that vibrated through my thoughts.
"Sure," the voice finally said, smooth now, though a faint trace of amusement still lingered behind each word.
"What comes next?" I asked quietly the question digging through my brain the moment i woke up. "Am I just... going to be like this forever? Floating around in nothing?"
For a while, there was only silence. Then, the voice replied, almost curious, "Do you even understand where you are right now, Delian?"
"I mean... yeah," I said uncertainly. "You said it yourself, right? The Void. The place where lost souls wander. This isn't heaven, that's for sure. And it doesn't look like hell either."
A low, throaty chuckle rippled through the blackness. "You're right, but not entirely."
I frowned in my mind "Then what does that mean?"
"The Void," the voice said, "isn't a place."
My confusion deepened. "Not a place? You're saying I'm... nowhere?"
"Not quite," the voice whispered, closer now so close it felt like it was speaking inside his skull. "You should've noticed by now, Delian. This place the cold, the silence, the emptiness none of it is real. It's you."
"Me?"
"Yes," the voice said, almost tenderly. "This void is your soul... your mind. The hollowness you've carried all your life, made manifest. Every ounce of despair, every moment of exhaustion... this is your truth."
I could not anything my thoughts stuttered.I wanted to deny it, but... it made sense. The silence, the stillness, the weight pressing against nothing it felt like me.
The voice chuckled again, a sound like broken glass being ground together."Dark and empty," it murmured. "Just as you are."
I let out a strained laugh. "That's... hard to believe," I muttered. "And I'm not sure if I should be offended or concerned that you think I'm this empty inside."
Still, deep down, I knew the creepy bastard was telling the truth.
I hesitated before speaking again. "So, if this place is supposed to be the manifestation of my soul and mind... then why did you call yourself its owner?"
The voice responded with a sound that might've been laughter or a thousand distorted echoes all trying to imitate laughter.
"Because," it said between its warped chuckles, "long before you foolish creatures came to be, I created this place."
Its laughter grew louder, spreading through the darkness like ripples in tar. It rolled and twisted, distorting until it didn't even sound amused anymore. It sounded mad.
I swallowed hard. "Created it?" I whispered. "So what does that make you... a god, too?"
The laughter stopped.
The silence that followed was so thick, so absolute, that it pressed against me like a living thing. I could almost feel the void waiting, holding its breath.
Then Tap.Tap.Tap.
Footsteps.
Far away at first, but growing closer. Slow. Measured. The sound of heels striking wet stone echoed across the emptiness, rhythmic yet... wrong.Each step made my nonexistent skin crawl.
I couldn't move. Couldn't even turn toward the sound. But I knew something was coming.
"Delian..."
The voice called out again, but this time it wasn't the same. It was deeper. Rougher. Countless tones layered over one another, all murmuring my name at once, like a crowd whispering through clenched teeth.
"Delian," it said again, the sound swelling, the chant twisting into something like a moan.
And that's when it hit me. It was a multitude of voices even this time .A chorus of despair. And all of them were saying my name.
The footsteps grew louder. Each echo drilled deeper into my skull—tap… tap… tap…like nails against glass.
Then, suddenly, a sharp screeching sound split through the air. It wasn't just in my ears it was inside my head, tearing through my thoughts.
"Wha-...what the hell is that?" I tried to move, but I couldn't. My limbs refused to respond. Panic clawed at me, and I wanted to shout, to do something, but my mouth wouldn't move either.
The screeching kept growing louder, unbearable now, until I thought my head might split open. Then the most damning thing happened.
My body moved.
Not by my own will. Not by any strength I had left.Something, someone was pulling me up.
Cold water streamed down my skin as my body lifted from the surface. I could feel it—each droplet sliding down my arms, my chest, my face but I couldn't even shiver.
"What the, what's happening?!" I screamed inside my mind, but no words came out.
My body kept rising, slow and deliberate, until I was facing the direction of those oncoming footsteps. The sound was clearer now heels striking the wet floor with a rhythm that felt almost… mocking.
Every sense screamed wrong.
The screeching in my head grew louder, the dripping water echoed, and those footsteps those damned footsteps kept coming closer and closer until it all blended into one chaotic storm of noise.
I wanted to look away. I wanted to close my eyes. But I couldn't. Whatever was walking toward me wanted me to see it. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't resist.
My eyes strained toward the sound of those footsteps echoing through the dark. I couldn't see anything at first just the endless black stretching in every direction.
But then… something moved.
At first, it was just a shape a faint distortion, like the air itself was rippling. I tried squinting, trying to focus. And that's when I saw it. A silhouette.
Something darker than the darkness around it.
That shouldn't have been possible. This place was pitch black an endless void. Yet there it was, a figure so black it stood out against the black. My mind couldn't even make sense of it.
The footsteps grew louder, each one sending a shiver down my nonexistent spine. and then it came closer.
An imposing shape, draped in a shadow deeper than any I'd ever seen. It walked with purpose not floating, not gliding, but walking, step by deliberate step, as if mocking the concept of ground beneath it.
I couldn't look away. I didn't dare to.
The closer it came, the more wrong it looked. From a distance, it was almost human… almost. But as it neared, that illusion broke apart.
Its outline flickered and bled into itself, constantly shifting like it couldn't decide what it wanted to be. The edges of its form twisted and writhed, a living shadow struggling to keep the shape of a man.
When it finally stopped in front of me, I realized what true terror was.
It was like staring at a dark human silhouette, but the longer I looked, the less human it became. Its body was chaotic lines of shape breaking and reforming, pieces of blackness peeling off and reattaching, as if existence itself couldn't contain it.
As my eyes locked onto the thing in the dark, I realized it wasn't just moving.It was... glitching.
Its outline kept breaking apart, like an old TV when the signal cuts out for a split second, the image tears, jumps, and then tries to stitch itself back together.
That's what this thing was doing.
Its shape flickered and warped in and out of itself. Every few seconds, its body stuttered like reality couldn't decide if it should be there or not. One moment it was solid, the next it was unraveling into static noise, threads of shadow fizzing into the air before snapping back.
It looked human only in the vaguest sense, as if someone had drawn a man's shape but couldn't keep their hand steady. A half-formed reflection—constantly breaking, constantly reforming.
And even though it was silent, every flicker made a faint, grating sound—like a distant channel changing on its own.
It was horrifying.
Even its presence felt wrong, heavy, and suffocating. I didn't know what it was but I knew one thing for sure. This thing standing before me wasn't a man. and whatever it was… it was looking right at me.
Silence. Even the screeching in my head the endless, unbearable static just... stopped. It was just me and it.
It didn't move. Didn't breathe. But I could feel its attention like a weight pressing down on me, forcing me still. Its head if you could even call it that was tilted slightly downward, staring at me. The distortion around its form was worse now, flickering faster, like reality was fighting to keep it whole.
Then, for a moment a split second, the distortion swallowed it completely. I blinked if blinking was something I could still do and when it cleared...
I saw it.
That smile.
Wide. Too wide. Rows of perfect, porcelain teeth stretching across a face that shouldn't exist, gleaming even in this pitch-black nothing.
It wasn't a human smile. It was something pretending to be one.
The thing didn't move. Just kept grinning, the edges of its mouth twitching like it was learning how to smile for the first time. The sound came next faint, wet, like flesh stretching too far.
I wanted to look away, to shut my eyes, to do something, but I couldn't. The only thing that moved was that mouth twitching, trembling, widening until it looked like it could swallow me whole.
Then it leaned closer.
My mind screamed, Oh fuck no, and if I'd had pants on, I'm pretty sure they'd be ruined right now.Too bad I wasn't wearing any.