Chapter 2: Fragments of the Past

?? ??, year ????

I was freezing my butt off. I knew dead bodies tended to get cold due to not having any blood circulation, but this… I’ve “burned” my finger once before with liquid nitrogen, but now I felt like my blood was injected with something that was the same temperature of that burning liquid. It was chilling me to the core, making me unable to use any of my other senses. I don’t even believe I could think at all, like my thoughts were frozen over.

In this state, time passed ever so slowly. Or did it? I couldn’t really tell. All I knew was this icy hell I was experiencing.

Over time, something changed. I had gotten somewhat used to this chilling torture, and was trying hard to move, think, or do anything apart from just existing. I wasn’t even sure if I DID exist, as my consciousness was completely white, and I couldn’t feel anything apart from coldness.

At one point, I had started sensing black dots around me. I kept trying to move or make contact with them. I was pretty sure I was moving, but only a small bit at a time. I felt like a few years went by before I got near one. Though my sense of time is not the greatest right now.

Upon finally touching the black dot, I could feel something warming my consciousness attacking the coldness. Because of the receding cold, I was able to move a little faster and use my head a bit. I had fragmented memories of a childhood, which I assumed was mine. There was no happiness in these memories, only gloomy, dark, depressing memories.

After digesting the memories, I looked for another dot. It didn't take as long to get to it, and like before, I touched the blackness, swallowing a few more depressing memory fragments. I kept going, one after the other, each time was the same. Touch it, get warmer, digest memories, look for the next. It was like I had a bottomless pit in me somewhere, greedily swallowing the memories to immediately look for more. I couldn't think about anything else. At one point I saw a few other colors of dots, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get close to them. So I settled for just the black ones.

My fragmented memories became whole again, and they were all negative. A bunch were about being beat up and bullied in school, and a lot were about jobs with low salaries that work you to death. There was also one where a friend I just made three days prior had died in a car accident. In short, nothing about them were good ones.

In front of me now, was the last black dot that I could sense. This one was slightly different though, as it had a small silver stripe in the middle, splitting the blackness in half. It also seemed to have its own intelligence, actively heading to me once I finished absorbing the other black dots. Upon making contact with me, all of my senses returned to me at once. The white of my consciousness turned to black as the last memory of my death exploded in my mind. I could feel the pain, suffering, and anger of what took place. I recalled the vow I made as I left under their sneers. They WILL regret it.

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Slowly, my eyes opened.

May 5th, 2045 8:01 PM

“Good evening everyone and thanks for tuning in to Nightly News at 8! My name is Sarah Bentley and I’ll be filling you all in on a peculiar incident that occurred earlier this evening around 5:40 pm. We had received a few anonymous tips about a small explosion in Redcliffe Cemetery directly behind me.” A brunette reporter was reporting into the TV camera while another camera panned over some wreckage of a few tombstones and dirt.

“We arrived on scene about 20 minutes after getting the reports, just as the police were taping off the area. After talking to one of the police officers in charge, we were told that nothing major had occurred. One graverobber had accidentally blown themself up from an equipment misfire. We were not given the name of the victim, however, we are told that there may be more partners of the robber still on the loose.

“Interestingly, this is actually the site where exactly 10 years ago, the creator of the ex-number one VR game Battalion, held his funeral and was buried. When Mr. Alexander had passed away, many gamers were saddened, and when Limitless took over the game, many gamers decided to quit, as they basically ruined the game for the more thrifty gamers.

“We do not know at this time if these incidents are related, but we will keep everyone posted as soon as we get more information. With that, let’s go over to Barry as he has more information about the series of assaults that have been occurring recently.” Sarah finished up the speech and the camera switched off.

She let out a long exhale before looking at a policeman who was watching her report and said “Is that good enough?”

“Yes, thank you for your cooperation in this.” The law enforcer replied. “You should understand what would happen if this actually gets out to the public.”

“Yes, I know,” Sarah replied, staring at the debris, with her emotions fluctuating. She knew they weren’t taking her seriously.

In actuality, there was no such thing as a graverobber here. Instead, Sarah was originally off work, heading towards Alexander’s tomb here, and suddenly, she heard a loud grinding noise from the direction she was heading in.. As she looked up, she almost had a heart attack when she saw the “dead” body walking out of the tomb.

She immediately hid behind the nearest tree and called the police, who came over in 5 minutes. Originally they did not believe her, and even now, they still have some doubts. How could a man who has been dead for 10 years, locked in a tomb with no food or drink, push aside the stone door and walk out? Impossible! Upon entering the tomb, however, they did not find any body. Although it seemed far-fetched, she was the only clue they had. The security cameras were broken, and they had not been fixed for some time now. So with no real evidence, they could only assume some sick bastard was collecting dead bodies for whatever reason. Or believe the story about a dead person walking out of his final resting place. The former was a lot more believable than the latter.

So the police blasted the door themselves, before making up the story of how a robber had tried to get into Alexander’s tomb, but ended up buried under the rubble on a misfire. And there might’ve been a partner with them to cut the cameras or keep a lookout, who fled as soon as things went south. They told Sarah to tell that story, as the other could cause panic among the people. Although she complied, throughout the entire ordeal, she had a sinking feeling that something terrible was about to happen.