The Enigmatic Space was a graveyard of light, a silent dimension where the sky and the floor were indistinguishable layers of shattered diamonds.
Tiny, shimmering fragments of glass drifted like frozen dust in the air, reflecting nothing but the void.
At the center of this fractured world sat a puppet in a black cloth. It silhouette was sharp against the glinting floor,
but its features... There were none.
It had no face. it was faceless—a smooth, featureless mask of porcelain where a human countenance should have been.
No matter how long one looked, it could not be associated with a living being.
It sat there like a marionette with no strings, discarded in a place where time had simply stagnated.
Days... years... eons... it was impossible to tell.
Suddenly, a phantom light returned, illuminating the desolation with a sickly, greyish hue.
Everything, from the jagged shards to the figure on the floor, was drained of color. Yet, for the first time, the puppet resembled almost human.
It long, grey hair was a shade darker than the rest of the void, spilling over its shoulders like a funeral shroud.
Tick!
The figure jolted as if an electric current had snapped through it. After a few more violent shocks, the puppet came alive.
The first thing it noticed was the broken shards floating before it blank face.
It tilted its head, a jerky, unnatural motion, and raised a hand toward the glass.
Its fingers hovered, trembling with a primal, aimless curiosity, before finally making contact.
The surface was smooth, a cruel lie compared to its sharp appearance. Upon its touch, the shard bled a deep, visceral red.
""... he... se... $%^&""*
A thousand overlapping voices rushed into it non-existent ears. They weren't words; they were screams wrapped in static, the sound of a mind being torn apart.
Startled, It recoiled, crawling backward with a sickening fluidity until it collided with another shard.
""... #$%^... le... $%^&""*
The voices exploded again, this time accompanied by a blinding, acidic yellow.
It spine arched at an impossible angle, It body racking with a phantom seizure.
"Ah... arghh!... rhh..."
An incomprehensible, wet sound bubbled out from beneath the porcelain.
It startled once again, Its hands flying to its throat, clawing at the smooth, unbreakable surface where a mouth should have been.
It was looking for something— a way to breathe, something that was supposed to be there.
But there was no opening. There was only the cold, seamless mask.
Something eerie and suffocating hammered inside its chest, a rhythmic, thumping terror.
It did not understand the concept of "fear," but it felt the sensation of its soul being flayed alive.
"Ragh... agh..."
Trembling so violently that the glass beneath it began to vibrate, It pulled its legs tight against its chest and buried its featureless face in its knees.
It tried to disappear into itself, to become a small, forgotten point in the grey.
Shiii!
The red and yellow shards dimmed, their stolen colors fading back into the gloom.
The voices retreated into the static, and the Enigmatic Space was shrouded in that suffocating grey once more.
It remained curled in a ball, a silent, faceless monument, too afaird to even look up.
*****
[... KAI!...]
Gasp!
"Haaa!"
I snapped upward, my lungs burning as if I'd been inhaling ash. My chest heaved, a ragged, desperate sound that tore through the heavy, humid air.
My entire frame was vibrating with a tremor so violent my teeth rattled in my skull.
[Kai! Kai, listen to me! Focus on the sound of my voice!]
Gisella's scream echoed in the back of my mind, but it felt miles away, muffled by a thick layer of static.
My vision was a blurred, sickening smear of grey and crimson.
My hand felt heavy, locked in a rigid, crushing grip around something warm. Too warm.
As the fog finally peeled back, the sensation hit me first.
I wasn't in my bed.
My heart stopped.
I was standing in the center of the hall, my arm extended. My fingers were buried deep into the throat of a man whose face was twisted into a silent mask of agony;
His eyes had rolled back, showing nothing but the milky, vacant whites. There was no pulse. No life. Just the cooling, damp skin of a corpse.
First emotion I precieved was fear.
"WHAT!!"
With a strangled yelp, I recoiled, shoving the body away. It hit the stone floor with a heavy, hollow thud that echoed through the vast space.
I stumbled back, my boots slipping on the floor. My gaze swept the shadows of the hall, and my stomach turned.
Three more men lay scattered across hall, draped over the stone like discarded rags. They weren't just dead; they looked hollowed.
Second thing I felt was panic.
"No... no... no..." I whimpered, the words catching in my dry throat. "What was that? The puppet... What?...How?..."
The image of the porcelain doll flashed behind my eyelids, the way it had reached for the shards, the way the voices had screamed in that grey void.
Third emotion I felt was anger.
"I lost control again," I hissed, "I did it again."
[Kai! Are you there-]
I couldn't hear her. The panic was a rising tide, drowning my logic. Every time I blinked, I saw that suffocating, grey graveyard of glass.
'The Colorless,'
My mind screamed.
'Activate the Colorless. Kill the emotion. Stop the shaking.'
I reached for that familiar, neutral void. I tried to drain the "color" from my mind, to turn my world into the cold, logical grey.
But as I reached for the emptiness, the image of the Enigmatic Space surged forward to meet me. The grey I sought was the same grey that had birthed that horror.
I flinched away, my will fracturing. "I can't... if I go there..."
I was terrified that if I didn't do something right now, I would become like it.
[Kai, STOP!]
Gisella's voice suddenly surged, wrapping around my mind like a warm, forceful hand.
[Breathe. Just breathe.]
I gripped my knees, my knuckles white and bloodless. I forced a breath in. Then out. Slowly, the image of the faceless puppet receded.
"I'm... I'm here," I whispered, my voice cracked and raw. "I'm back. I'm okay."
[...Good! just relax.]
Click!
Suddenly,
something moved.