It began with darkness. An inky, almost solid black wall. A darkness that you could almost grab, hold in your hand and have it flow out like warm sand. It was the kind of darkness where you can’t even see your own fingers and when you close your eyes it’s almost brighter behind your lids. He didn’t know where he was, the darkness was so disorienting. If he was up or down, against a wall or floating in space, he didn’t know. Panic started to set in; the dark was almost suffocating. He could feel his breath quickening, chest heaving in and out with no reward. Was there even air in this empty void? The darkness and emptiness seemed to last for eternity, with him just floating there. Eventually he wondered if he was dead. Was this what death felt like? He closed his eyes for some form of relief. None. Just the more of the same darkness.
After a time he felt a strange feeling stirring in his chest. Open your eyes. He did. No difference. Just more of the ever unyielding black. Wait, what was that? He strained his unused eyes. There! A small pinprick of light far in the distance. Now I know I’m dead, he thought, it’s the light at the end of the tunnel everyone tells you about. The light grew bigger and bigger, drawing nearer and nearer. He realized that it wasn’t the light at the end of a tunnel. It couldn’t be, for it had stopped growing and was floating closer to him. He realized with a start that it was a glowing ball. That’s strange, he thought, reaching out to it, afraid that it would leave him trapped alone again in the inky black.
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As his fingertips brushed the surface of the glowing orb he felt a sharp shock run through his body. Images appeared in his head. A girl with fiery red hair and golden eyes, flames engulfing her. He called out to her but she didn't seem to hear him. He had to save her or she was going to be burned alive! He tried to get her attention by waving his arms around but her unfocused eyes seemed to be looking right through him; it was as if he wasn’t even there. After a moment he realized that the flames weren’t burning her, in fact they seemed to be protecting her from something. Just as he noticed this, the girl’s fire dimmed. He shivered. Shadows seemed to surround the girl, obscuring her light and putting out her flames. No! He thought, I can’t go back into the darkness. He started running towards her, but it was as if he was wading through molasses. He didn’t know why he was supposed to help this girl, but he somehow sensed that if the shadows blotted her out, something terrible would happen.
The shadows kept advancing and he stopped, knowing it was hopeless, and he watched as the shadows almost completely enveloped her. Then the strangest thing happened… their eyes locked. She saw him. And the last thing he saw before the shadows took her, returning him to the empty void, was her look of utter terror.