The world was shaking. Why was the world shaking, tremors rocked her to her core and she knew that this was because of… because of what? She was in an infinite sea of inky blackness speckled with glimmering figments of light that evaded her touch just as impossibly as the name of this place. There was no down, no up and no direction to either side, the woman wasn’t even sure what she was standing on, if the pressure she felt on her feet even meant she was standing on something. She began reaching for more things, parts of her memories, locations, people, faces, names, anything! It all eluded her, even her own name, face and personality were forgotten to her. There was someone standing in front of her, had there always been someone standing in front of her? They stood there like a gaping wound in reality, existing not as a creature filling space as most things did, but in an absence of that space, a hole in reality itself, a hole in nothingness that led to more nothing. She could just barely make out its face because of its eyes, they stared out from within fracture that was its body illuminating the face of the hole. It was a normal face, the woman knew this, she had seen this person hundreds of times and yet she knew instinctively that she had never met this person, the face distorted every time she understood she had never seen it before, each as recognisable and elusive as the last. The woman spoke, desperately casting her voice into the void
“Hello?” she yelled into the infinite darkness and felt the word be swallowed up greedily as if she had thrown food into an animal den. She cautiously continued to stare at the figure, eyes never moving from it, desperately hoping for an answer while begging any deity that existed for whatever it was to not be conscious. She felt her stomach fall, as soon as the words had left her mouth the figure responded
Stolen story; please report.
“Hello” it responded in a cacophonous coir of voices. The woman could feel herself shaking like the limbs of the elderly as they were lost to time
“where” she stuttered before gathering the courage to properly speak “where am I”
The vacancy’s features distorted, what once was a nebulous, yet recognisable face now writhed and twisted as a noise emanated from the being that sounded like the dying breaths of an entire galaxy released in sputtering bursts.
“You are home, in your mind”
The woman was confused. How could she be at home in her mind when someone. No. something was in here with her
“if I am in my mind” queried the woman, motivated by some bravery dredged up from deep within herself fused with the irritation she felt at the answer that left her with more questions “then what are you doing here” the things laughter echoed through the pitch black space once again putting her nerves on end
“now you’re asking the real questions!” it applauded as the darkness around it grew even darker until cracks started appearing in the space around it
“try asking quicker next time”
As the world crumbled away the woman was left with the image of the jeering, distorted face of the invader.