Old Timeless had been born here. In these ruins. Had not been ruins at the exact moment he had been born. Did not change much in the grand scheme of things.
A few hundred years ? Sometimes the undead wondered if that was not the time that elapsed between two blinks. But then again, he would notice if he were that close to hollowing.
He still remembered the first time he had died. Only one thought on his mind as that truck had raced closer and closer.
Will the sun still rise in the morrow ?
It had. At least when he had come to. And then the next morrow too. And then the one after that.
He had died, but the world had gone on as before.
When his new lease on life had expired, still, the Sun had risen in the East and gone down in the West. He had gotten many more lives after that one. Had not changed that. He would die with the darksign, and he would come to life with the darksign. Forever present above his dead heart.
Even as the people around him dwindled and became far and few between, time had marched on. Unperturbed. Unstoppable. Cruel.
Inexorable.
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The first few lives had been difficult to be honest. He had almost gone hollow more than he would care to admit. But invariably, the light of day would shine upon his crumbling mind.
Had not had the same benefit for most of the other undeads he had known, really. Most of them had not lasted that long. A few lifetimes at the very most. There had been that dogged bunch that had clung onto humanity's dying embers like a drowning man to a lifeline. The day that baby's flame had faded... Old timeless did not remember much of the long years since he had woken up with the darksign, but he remembered that day. Hollows everywhere. He had been stupid enough to live with the madmen and not see the writing on the wall.
The hospital wall crumbled under his skeletal hand. A wonder it had even lasted that long.
The wind carried off the dust into the red skies, dragging along the undead's gaze.
Will the sun still rise in the morrow ?
He could see it, plain as day, devouring what was left of Mars. Quite the wonder honestly. Even at the peak of Humanity, pictures of a black hole had been a rare commodity. Almost a perfect reflection of the mark etched on his chest.
So. Would the sun still rise in the morrow ?
Maybe not the next-morrow morrow. But would it still rise when even its existence had come to an end ?
Old Timeless had.
Black hole or not, he would wake up again. This life would end and another would start.
A sharp gleam crossed the undead's dead eyes. This black hole could not come soon enough.
Is this how the world ends ?
Or is this how it starts ?