It was all black. Dark with no light. Completely empty. But black. A pure black with no light left. And suddently, a flash of light.

Change

He was standing among a valley. Red stones at both sides, and a crimsom river going down trough it. But that was not its natural color. Thousands, maybe millions of corpses everywhere. In the walls of the valley, hunged in trees, a sword or a spear stuck on their abdomen, an arrow on their necks or knees, burned down or chrushed by proyectiles... The river of blood was dragging some corpses along the way, making a horrible scene. 

He then feeled lots of pain. Everywhere. He looked down and saw a destroyed metal armor, as full in blood as the valley itself. It was full of cuts, chrused on various sites burned in some parts, arrows stucked everywhere. He was lucky to still live.

He looked forwards. There it was. His sword. Stuck on a... well. It was so destroyed he couldn't recognise what it was. He smiled and tried to walk forwards. He nearly fell because of his injuries and the corpses. He tried again. He slowly moved towards the sword. He was stepping on blood, flesh, bones, intestines... But he reached his sword. He tried to take it back... and it broke. All the fragments fled everywhere. And there was a flash.

Change

He was now sitting in the dark. There was a constant whisper of water flowing. He was in a boat. In the darkness he couldn't see how big it was, but he thought it was just enough space for the driver, some bags and him. He looked upwards. The stars were dancing in the sky, while the moon was nearly invisible. There where little clouds, dancing in the sky. 

Suddently, the stars disapeared. He was shoked, until he realized they had just entered a tunel. They continued in total darkness for some minutes. Then they stopped. The boatman said: "Here", so he got the bag and disembarked. The boat continued, and he stood there not knowing what to do untill the whisper of the boat floating in the water disappeared in the distance.

He looked arround. Altough he was in a tunnel, he could at least see shapes with the little light that came from some holes. He lighted a torch up, and saw an archway in the wall. He walked through, and saw some stairs going upwards in a spiral. He started climbing them, for a long time. He saw some doors, though all of them were closed. He reached the top, the stairs stopped. There was a door. He tried opening it up... and it was opened. A flash of light came trough that door.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Change

He stood on a rooftop. He was alone on the rooftop, on a wooden platform. He looked arround and saw a giant castle being eaten by an even bigger fire. This view made him trip over and fall rolling. He landed in some barrels that were left there and crushed them. 

He slowly stood up. He could now hear the screams of the people that were trying to escape the fire. Carts, horses and people were cramped up in a race to escape the city. The children's cries, the horses snorting and, in general, a caos of sounds filled his ears. But, as this sounds were disapearing, the black clouds were getting closer. He looked in the nearest street... and there was the fire. It jumped at him like an animal, causing a flash of red light to consume him.

Change

He was now up in the sky. When he first looked down he nearly fainted. He was so up in the skies the atmosphere started to dissapear and the space could be seen in its natural colour. He was standing in a very strange sort of cloud, grey and semitransparent, but solid. He took his sight out from the ground and looked forwards. There was a path. And a building at the end of the path. He followed it.

He arrived at a building that looked like a small tower. It was made the same material as the path was and it had some whiter color. There was a door. He tried to open it, but it was closed. He shouted. He doubted someone was there, but he didn't lose anything to try. There was no response. He inspected the tower. He saw a window. He thought he could enter through there and started to climb.

He reached the window and jumped inside. There were some stairs, so he followed them. He then arrived at the top of the tower. It had a semi-spherical ceiling with colums arround it. It also had a big window. But the most impresive thing was in the middle of the room. Floating over a pedestal was the most beautiful cristal in the world. It was a octahedron but it had lots of more figures inside, like a spider's web or a brain. The rotation of this tower arround the planet made the sun enter the window and reflect into the crystal, creating a beautiful light flash all over the room.

Change

He was now running. The sound of collapsing stones behind him. Footsteps in front of him. He continued running, as he didn't want to know what was that loud sound behind him. The he looked forwards. A pit. He stumbled and jumped. It was a long jump. He wasn't going to make it. Someone lend him a hand, but he couldn't reach it. He tried to grab it desperately. 

*****

In this moments is when survival comes to play. Our more natural instinc, the fear of death, comes to make the body and mind reach points they couldn't otherwise reach. Somehow, this instintc was also developed to AIs. In his despair he activated one of his natural aspects and reach the hand. Not enough to grab it, but it released a spark.

A spark that somehow made him go back.

*****

He couldn't see anything. Everything was black again.

But he could hear.

And there were voices talking.

"Sir, he is doing ok."

"Which are we on?"

"The fire, though you know there is latency and it arrives some minutes late."

"Yeah, yeah... Well, prepare the last one and then proceed exiting. Lets hope that nothing happens again."

"Yes sir"

*****

And he woke up. Sweating and 5 cm avove the bed.