I opened my eyes, and the world was dark. Not the dark like a thief utilizes under the cover of night; It had a more insidious nature. There were no stars in the sky, no moonglow, and a frigid chill was in the air. It was as if I’d been reborn blind, and the pitch-blackness was a symptom of my lost vision.

“Hello,” I called out.

No one answered. Or maybe no one was there. Both were uncomfortable thoughts for a blinded man.

“Hello,” I called out once more. No one answered. I wanted to yell for help, shout my family's names—anything I could do to know I wasn’t alone in the dark, but instinct dissuaded me. Staying silent in the dark was as ingrained in human nature as drinking water. And who was I to go against the laws of nature?

“Okay. Okay. It's fine. I’m fine. What was the word? [Platform!]”

The seafoam-green platform appeared in a flash of light, hovering above the ground just as it had when I was in limbo with Not-PJ. I flinched when I saw it. I don’t think I honestly expected the magic platform to appear like it had before. If anything, I thought Not-PJ had sent me to live in darkness for eternity as some act of cosmic punishment. I was grateful that was not the case.

I approached the platform and gave it a feel. It felt the same as it had before. The only difference was the tiny neon glow emitting from the platform's edge, which was a Godsend. With It, I could see a bit of the surrounding area: stone floor tile, stone floor tile, and more stone floor tile. And as underwhelming as the tiles were, they let me know I wasn’t flying blind.

“Is anyone out there,” I called out.

Again, I received no answer, but I was reluctant to make my voice any louder. I took a few steps into the darkness and stopped when I saw the platform didn’t follow.

“Well, that’s just great,” I whispered. “[Platform.]”

The platform disappeared and reappeared right next to me in an instant. I took a few more steps into the dark, whispered platform again and got similar results, so I followed that pattern. Take a few steps. [Platform!] Take a few steps. [Platform!] It was tedious work, but with it, I slowly made my way forward.

I only stopped when I came upon what I thought was a wall. Upon closer inspection, I discovered it was a single building among an outcrop of buildings.

The buildings, made from the same beige stone as the floor tiles, were of similar size—taller than my eyes could reach in the dark—and had door-shaped carvings with word-like markings. Strangely, though, there was no actual entryway. I went from building to building, and they all had the same fake door with markings I couldn’t read. It was as if the door-shaped carvings were purely an aesthetic choice on the homeowner's part instead of functioning as an actual door. But, on the plus side, doors and buildings usually meant people. After wandering alone in the dark, I could use people.

As I explored—what I had taken to calling the labyrinth—further, it became apparent to me I was lost. I’m not even sure it’s possible to get lost when you have no destination, but I felt lost. Every building looked the same; the streets followed no pattern. It was like I was really in a labyrinth.

“[Platform],” I whispered for the umpteenth time. The word was getting old, and I think it gave me the beginnings of a headache–the throbbing kind.

I paused my exploration to rest and reached inside my coat to pull out the pocket watch Not-Pj had given me. The pocket watch had read half-past twelve the last time I checked it, and since then, I’d been fighting the urge to check it every five seconds. I flipped open the clock cover. It read five minutes till one. My sense of time was all off. If I were a betting man, and often I was if the lunch table odds were right, I would’ve bet it was well past one.

I sighed and went to put the pocket watch away, but I was stopped dead in my tracks when I heard the sound of footsteps. The sound wasn’t a heavy thud like the thick boots I was wearing. It was more like the pitter-patter of bare feet hitting tile.

“[Platform],” I said, and the platform reappeared in a better spot for me to see more of the area. The placement wasn’t that much better, but it was better. And better was good. Better meant I might have time to react to the person running in the middle of the dark.

I placed my back to the closest building and listened intently. It was decision time. Call out to the runner and maybe run the risk of harm, or stay quiet and miss out on the possibility of getting some help. I ultimately decided to keep quiet. Not because I was scared. It was just someone or something running in the dark. Why would I be scared? I was staying quiet because the pitter-patter of one set of feet had started to sound like a group of footsteps. There was a buzzing sound, too. It was kind of like the flight of a hundred bees but much more dull and rhythmic, not the sound a human made.

I took off in a slow trot, running in the opposite direction. New platforms flashed in and out of existence. Whatever was coming, I didn’t plan on being there to see it. Well, that was the plan, but as I rounded a corner on a row of buildings, I tripped over something and fell, allowing whatever was behind me to gain ground.

My pocketwatch, which I had stupidly forgotten to put away before running, was dropped from my hand. “Fuck,” I screamed. My knee had slammed into the stone floor. The pain jolted my system, but I didn’t have time to waste. I scrambled to my feet and started frantically searching for my pocket watch. I didn’t want to leave it.

Fortunately, the search didn’t take long. Unfortunately, the search led me to a pool of blood and the lower half of the dead body. The scene was gruesome. “What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck!” I snatched my pocket watch out of the blood and took off running. There was no time to think about what I’d just seen. Anything that could rip a person in half was not something I wanted to come face to face with.

As I ran, my mind went to the magic words Not-Pj had told me about [Blast], [Shield], and [Ethereal]. He said they were hard to use, but I'd always been a fast learner. Whatever was chasing me didn’t seem to be giving up any time soon, so magic was likely my best bet. Based on the words alone, Blast sounded like the best option.

“I can do magic. I have to use magic.” I spun around and put my wrist together like a Kamehameha and shouted, “Blast!” But nothing Blast-like happened. I had shouted like a fool for nothing and given my pursuers time to catch up. “I’m an idiot. Of course, it doesn’t work like that. Maybe…Blast! Blast! Blast!” I tried saying the word in different ways. Still, nothing appeared.

I turned to run away again, giving up on the magic but paused when I realized the world around me had returned to silence. I couldn’t hear footsteps or the buzz of wings anymore. All I could hear was the sound of my breathing. All I could see was the singular platform in the center of my field of vision.

“Hello…”

Platform shattered in an instant, plunging me into darkness, and it, whatever it was, tackled me to the ground. The monster was big, much bigger than a person, and it weighed about three elephants–or maybe a little less. It was hard to tell with the pain so present. And Its skin was like sandpaper, rough and coarse, prickly enough to pierce my skin.

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“[Blast],” I shouted, and a bright streak of crimson red shot from my pinned-down hand. It hit my attacker dead on, just as I planned (not really). The monster cried out in a series of bug-like clicking sounds that sounded like bones cracking and fell to the side next to me.

I wasn’t going to wait to see If it were truly dead, so I pushed myself to stand–grimacing in pain as I did so–and ran away. It was a difficult escape. The effects of the blast had left a slight burning sensation on my skin, like a fire might, and my head was dizzy. It was pure luck that I didn't run straight into a building.

As I ran the sounds of my pursuer echoed behind me. It wasn’t dead; my heart sank. I wasn't in the condition to outrun anything much less an enraged monster. With no other option, I turned to face the oncoming monster. If I was going to die, taking the monster out was better than going out without a fight.

I stood tall with my hands outstretched, ready to yell blast at a moment’s notice. The monster wouldn’t know what hit him or her or it.

Seconds ticked by, my mind was clear and my breaths were steady. Only my heart wavered a bit which was to be expected. There can’t be courage without a little cowardice to go along with it.

I glanced up at the sky. I was searching for stars I knew weren’t there. If only there could be light, I thought aimlessly, when an idea came to me. A rather obvious idea at that. I rushed over to the closest wall and whispered, “[Platform].”

The bright green platform appeared right next to the wall waist level to me. In a rush, I climbed on top of it and shouted in glee when I realized it held my weight. I’d gotten so used to using it as a light source I’d forgotten it could hold my weight. If I used a Platform like a staircase I could climb to the top of the building.

“Now to the next…” I balanced myself on one foot and put my second out in front of me as if an imaginary staircase was in front of me. “[Platform].”

The second after I said the word the first platform disappeared and the new one appeared right where my foot was waiting for it. I nearly fell over when the switch happened. It was like, for a split second, the ground beneath had collapsed, and I was in weightless freefall, only to find solid ground a moment later.

I put my hands on the wall to balance myself. The feeling of falling had made me nauseous. I took a deep breath and looked up. I couldn’t see the top of the building in the darkness. There was no telling how high I would need to climb.

“Platfo–,” I started to say, but was cut short by the platform I was standing on falling out beneath me. I managed to control the shortfall and landed right on my feet.

“[Blast]! [Blast]! [Blast],” I shouted in quick succession. The crimson red bolts streaked through the air, going until they hit something that turned out to be nothing opposing buildings. The monster clicked in response, and I felt the wind whistle next to my ear as something slammed into the wall next to me. My heart shuddered. The monster had returned fire. “[Platform]!”

I magicked the platform to appear right next to the building and hopped right on. “[Blast]! [Blast]! [Blast]!” The Blasts missed, but I didn't mind. It wasn’t like I could see where I was aiming. All I was hoping for was to keep the monster from getting ahold of me or firing back at me with whatever it threw before. “[Platform]! [Blast]! [Platform]! [Blast]!”

I hopped from platform to platform with the expertise of a baby gymnast, but it worked like a charm. I gradually got higher and higher as time went on. And the monster refused to attack me because of the Blasts I kept ringing out. It was like I was a wizard gymnast, minus the nice set of tights. The monster was my overeager coach who might or might not lead me to an early death, and the blasts were my baton.

When I was so high that the platform’s light couldn’t reach the ground, the monster went silent. It was like before when the monster first attacked me. I prepared to yell Platform just in case the one beneath me shattered, but suddenly, out of the darkness, a scaly hand with six long fingers grabbed my ankle and yanked me off the platform.

It happened so fast. My chest hit the platform's edge, taking the wind out of me. And my ankle twisted awkwardly. My only saving grace was that I didn’t fall. As I was sliding off the edge of the platform, I managed to grab the side, hanging on only by the strength of my fingers.

“Ahhh! Get off!” Below me, the monster was there. It was holding onto my ankle and swaying back and forth, trying to get me to let go of the platform. The weight of the two of us was making my fingers slip.

I kicked down at the monster with my free leg. It dodged and snapped back at me with the sharp mandibles on the sides of its snouted face, nearly skewering my leg. “Let me fucking Go…ahhhh, [Blast]!”

I shouted the magic word in desperation as I felt my fingers slipping, expecting to send us both falling, but contrary to my expectations, the bolt of light appeared in front of me and streaked down at the monster, hitting it right in the face.

The move caught us both off guard. When the blast hit the monster, it released my leg, and I fell into the abyss. I barely managed to keep from falling along with him. I had been expecting the spell to shoot out of my hand as it had before.

The monster hit the ground with a large crack and let out one long clicking sound before it went completely silent again. It didn’t make any noise after that.

“[Platform].” The platform I was hanging on disappeared and reappeared right below my feet, and I collapsed into a ball on it. My ankle was in so much pain. I wanted nothing more than to rest, but I knew I wouldn’t be safe there.

I got myself up to standing and slowly made my way up to the roof–which turned out to be as perfectly flat as the ground–where I collapsed into a heap. As I lay there injured, listening to my heartbeat and grateful to be alive, I couldn't help but break out into laughter. It was ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. I’d been with my family for our end-of-the-world extravaganza one minute, and the next I was being chased by giant lizard-bugs. The end of the world wasn’t supposed to be like that.

“Um, excuse me,” A voice called out from the darkness. I cut my laugh short, and the platform hovering next to me blinked out of existence and appeared out in front of me. I didn't see anyone close. The word Blast was on the tip of my tongue.

“Who’s there?”

It took a brief moment for the reply, but the voice responded, “Shane Mosely.”

Shane Mosely–or at least the voice of him–had a deep southern drawl that reached baritone levels. It reminded me of the older men who frequented my local YMCA, touting their weathered canes and smoking the cheapest cigarettes you could buy. But, more importantly, Shane Mosely wasn’t a monster, and I wasn’t alone.

“Hi, Mr. Mosely. I can’t see you. Where are you?”

My nerves hadn’t quite settled, and the Platform’s light wasn’t strong enough to illuminate the whole roof, only the little corner I huddled in. I wasn’t able to see any hint of Mr. Moseley. And it made sense. Based on how many times I looped around the building, the roof was at least as big as a court.

“I’m in the corner opposite of you. I don’t have no light on me, though. The things down there are attracted to the light I think….I heard you shoutin’ down there. Saw your light flashing too. They were attracted to you, I think. You ain’t bring ‘em with you, did you?”

His words didn’t sound accusatory, mostly worried. “No sir, I don't think I brought them with me. Actually,” I chuckled. “I think I got the one chasing me. It was a big lizard-bug-looking thing. Never seen anything like it before.”

“Yeah. Yeah, they sounded bad from up here….I ain’t get your name.”

“Bartleby Baldwin.”

“Who won the world series in 1995, Bartleby Baldwin?” His voice was layered with suspicion.

“I don’t know. I’m not much of a baseball fan,” I replied.

“You're not from America?”

“I didn’t say that. I just said I’m not much of a baseball fan.”

“Tssk, Society failing the youth.”

“I guess so. You…uhh, mind coming over here where I can see you. I’m a little hurt, and I could use some help.”

Mr. Mosely went quiet for another moment, and then replied, “Let’s wait a few minutes. The things down there could still be around, and I don't wanna use my light. I think we need to be real careful.”

“Sure, whatever you say, Mr. Mosley.” I was too tired to disagree. If he wanted to wait, we could wait. He didn’t sound like too bad of a guy. I kept Blast primed just in case though. Nothing and no one was sneaking up on me again.