Drifting, the winds blasted and clashed against his body, shaking his bones and breaking his soul with countless cuts and holes removing everything he thought he once was. Drifting, he felt himself lose to every wave, the darkened mist as harsh as sand wove through him, leaving behind a little less of him with each passing rage. Fragmented, aimless and jostled, tossed about by the happenings of these many unknowable acts, imperceivable moments of chaos guided by the dispassionate hand of fate. Abandoned, left in a bright and shapeless place with only his weightless heart and encumbered mind, he found no peace in this place no matter the stillness, no torrential waves or ceaseless assaults but that of silence.
"Yes, dear brother, I will handle it, your hand may be a bit too... harsh, for him, they are quite delicate."
Echoing words from a formless mouth fed from all directions around him as he spun his head trying to find it, which each turn he heard it yet again from behind him, each word coming from a new unseen mouth. On its final word and his final turn it was there, seated in a mahogany lounging chair, dressed in a brown coat and slacks that very nearly matched the color of the chair. A lighter toned brown vest and a simple black tie, Its hair was combed back with a gelled shine, and Its smile could show all Its perfect white teeth and the pick held between them.
"Do you know where you are right now?"
Its voice again resounded from all about the room with no origin save for everywhere but when he turned to find the voice he found it again, each time in a different suit, a different color or fashion, a different tie or chair but never, NEVER a different smile.
"Do you know why you are here?"
In his frantic scrambles and turns he still heard it, each of its words spoken from a different image but the same mouth. Out of as much curiousity as stubborness he stepped forward, lunging forward to It in one large step to find nothing happened, another step, then another, each keeping him exactly where he was, or It where It was. Tired and fearing for his sanity he finally settled in front of It and Its grey suit.
"Do you know who i am ?"
"What are you? Are you the one whats behind all this?" Samuel spoke in a soft calm tone
Its smile widened just before it reached to withdraw the pick from its mouth to speak again " Thats the funny thing, you all have so many names for me and what i am but none of them ever end up describing me quite well enough. I dont quite care enough about you to be an angel nor a demon, more of an ambivalent gatekeeper. But what i am isnt important right now, its what you can be for me thats the reason you are here." Its sentence punctuated by it pointing the pick at Samuels chest, drawing his eyes downward to see that his body as he had always known it, was gone. In its stead was a loosely shaped mist with a golden hue,swirling and shifting with an unfelt wind. He rose his hands only to find the mist trail with the movement, slowly racing to where he willed it to again take that same loose form of an arm and hand.
"That is the point of your little detour here, that is the culmination of your entire lifetimes worth, everything that matters at least, we simply want to know how someone like you got to this."
"like me? Samuel stuttered out, staring straight into It's unbroken smile confused and distraught
"yes, you are different from the Nulls which you and your friends are so plagued by, they are the opposing force of what we need, of that" Again the being points toward Samuels glowing countenance. before letting out a deep sigh " Imagine everything you can think of, the entire universe, think of that as a swirling pool of multicolored energy swirling around, mixing, sorting and creating new colors. These colors both new and old find their ways down the streams they are meant for and feed into a river, changing again, gaining a new shade until evetually it flows back into that same pool and the cycle begins again. You, your cell mates and innumerable others like you, are the dirt and grime that block the stream, obstructing waste that only serves to hinder lifes progress, and yet, here you are. Time doesnt really bother us, its all in the effort, so you can tell us how this happened or we can just let your room mates keep on going until it happens again, your choice." It ended its description by unfurling Its hands in front of itself in a wide display as if to showcase the dramatic unveiling of this metaphysical insult.
Samuel stood in silence, staring down at his hands for a moment while this new information washed over him, turning it over again and again in his mind, piecing together the eternity of his time spent in that place. A hopeless place of unending torment, but it had to have its purpose or reason, just like this place he was in, just like the thing in front of him. Samuel felt a smile creep up on his face and wondered if he still had a face to smile with or was that a swirling mess of light too?
"Them lives you threw us in, that those creatures dragged us into, they start to blend together ya know? Without knowing you take bits here and there, stealing moments and memories of their lives for your own, one of my lives I remember so well. She was this harsh, cold, unbreakable, brilliant woman, she told me everything through her memories. Bout her life as a child in nigeria, all that struggling and pain, then her years in a school in India grasping at straws for her future. Her life led her to med school in london and a future in america" Samuel could feel his ephemeral chest tighten and struggled to fight back the tears welling up in his non-existant eyes as he remembered the pain from a life that wasnt his through the memories of a borrowed woman in a time he knew nothing of except her pain, her loneliness.
" Her life brought her all across the world, makin it a bit better for the people everywhere she went, leaving herself there with em bit by bit. I couldnt ever hope to understand what she knew, but I felt that pain before , could understand that, she dragged herself by her nails until she finally made it home. She ran herself round the world just to die in her family home, saved hundred of people just to die slowly over 2 weeks in a cot under a crumbling stone roof. Ain't no justice or peace, no higher meaning in that, just her. I dont know and i dont care how this happened or why, but you wont get nothing out of knowing neither, thats for damned sure. Now time ain't mean nothing to me anymore, just effort and i think i done spent enough on you already, maybe ill find her, find my girl, maybe ill just try and leave a little bit of myself everywhere i go and hope they find me." In peace he left as in torment he came, Samuel disappeared into nothingness, content.
"Yes dear brother, i know but it was still solid proof. He was pristine and that means the others can do the same, we finally have a way to be rid of this unsightly blemish. We just might need to alter the playing field a little." It got up from its chair and let Its ceasless smile relax, the color draining from Its face and Its clothes as it walked forward to where Samuel once stood. Its body as pale and empty as the room in which it stood, digging its heel into the ground and grinding what little remained of Samuel into nothing. "Pathetic"