A bitter cold reigned in the abyss, a coldness that had been gnawing at her senses for so long that by now, she had forgotten all other sensations.

Her skin was covered in a fine powder of frost that trembled with each heartbeat. But these were so rare that it felt like the slightest pulsation could disrupt the order of the entire universe. Her porcelain-like body was light as a feather. She floated at the whim of an arbitrary gravity, as if submerged at the bottom of a silent ocean. She looked so fragile that the simple return of heaviness risked breaking her into thousands of pieces. A gust of wind, a gentle breath, or even the hint of a whisper had the potential to disperse her across the four corners of space. Her ghostly face displayed the sort of serenity that could only be found under the deepest of sleeps. Or in death. The smallest disruption would be enough to shatter the thin barrier that separated existence from nothingness. A balance that waited patiently to be finally broken.

Silence was the first thing to disappear. There was something like a rustle, similar to the sound that the wings of a butterfly might produce. It was so light and so distant.

Was it real? Definitely.

As the echo of that particular butterfly disappeared, others emerged in the distance. They were everywhere. A veritable chant of whispers. She felt something akin to a tingle on her scalp. One of these hypothetical insects was fluttering a few centimeters from her head. She wasn’t able to see them, but she could hear them. Still lost in the blackness of the universe, the butterfly’s wings and those of her companions produced such a beautiful melody.

Their music transformed into a gentle and warm caress. The frost that covered her body fell away little by little. First from the hollow of her chest and afterwards from her torso. Then the coldness abandoned her belly, her thighs, and her arms. Her legs were freed before the last crystal of ice melted on her nose.

A vital energy flooded her mortal shell. Existence chased death away. Chaos rebelled against emptiness.

She was able to open her eyes. The casket was no longer there. She saw it disappear into the thin air that surrounded her. A robe made of stars appeared in the darkness. A mantle that glided with her in the nothingness before it too disappeared along with the melody of the butterflies.

The young woman with the pearly skin remained motionless. Every one of her heartbeats resonated in the shadows like an invitation. Until they found their echo.

Then the black abysses transformed into a geyser of light that had been buried into obscurity for far too long. Screaming with rage, it unleashed a furious stream that dispersed into a shower of stars.

Thousands of colors now floated around the young woman. Before her now-opened eyes, a field of sparks and shapes danced like a swarm of flamboyant butterflies. They were back. And so many of them. She wanted to touch one.

Was that possible?

Her hand moved in response to her thoughts. Her fingers wrapped clumsily around one of these twinkling reflections. But it was already gone. Like the others, it congregated with its closest companions to create a luminous multicolor complex.

Curiosity pushed the young woman to go explore this cluster. With a movement of her legs, she floated around three pearls of sapphires that could easily fit in the palm of her hands. Except that this time around, she did not dare touch these fireflies of nothingness that trembled when she approached.

Forming the three vertices of an isosceles triangle, the three spheres emitted a crackling chant. They alternated their positions in turn, flitting with grace around her fingers before vanishing a bit farther out.

The lights disappeared into the depths of an immense mass of matter that now loomed over her head. It was a perfectly rectangular block, each side a pale rose color that shone as if made of marble. The mass was at least ten times the size of the young woman. Its surface was smooth, but, in some places, small imperfections appeared as if agitated by movement.

She pushed herself backwards to contemplate this new discovery. After a brief visual inspection, she went to press her right hand gently on one of the faces of the whale.

A frightening electrical shock thrust the curious woman hundreds of meters into the void. A scream escaped from her throat and got lost in the crackle.

A vortex of images and sounds invaded her mind. There were thousands of them and they bounced around in her head, intertwining and clashing against each other. The sound of applause and a large dark man with a proud look and purple eyes. An animal with red fur licked its paw. The image of another individual with ebony skin, laughing at the top of his lungs. His smile revealed a row of dazzlingly white teeth.

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Then a scream came. Her scream. It was punctuated by a terrible feeling of pain in her stomach. Her guts were on fire.

When she opened her eyes again, there was nothing left of her hand but a bloodied stub. The bone had blackened and her flesh had melted away. Any blood that had yet to dry formed bleak drops that vanished in this atmosphere of unpredictable gravity. But she didn’t feel any pain.

Now scared, two modest kicks pushed her slightly farther away from this bellicose creature. She skirted beside two small golden pebbles the size of marbles. She held her breath and pushed them away with her good hand.

Nothing happened this time and the two crystals joined their sister entities in converging towards the floating block. Like bees, they swarmed into this unusual hive, increasing its girth with every passing second.

Although the vast majority remained within this rose-pink swarm, some were expelled without mercy.

One of these entities, a small cube welded to a sphere of the same blue color, almost grazed her wound. She was surprised to observe that a thin white filament was escaping from her bone and swelling before her eyes. This filament finally separated into three and then five individual strings. In the blink of an eye, the wound had transformed into a new and immaculate limb.

But, before she had a chance to touch it with her unharmed hand, a violet particle that was trying to join the rose-pink compound bumped into her shoulder. It rolled onto her skin without causing any damage, until it finally reached her neck, from where, with renewed vigor, it flew in the direction of its fellow creatures.

Hundreds of these particles now gravitated around the block. The humming they produced became more violent. Other shapes appeared in the horizon, ever more massive. New hives emerged behind clouds of light.

One of these clouds brushed against her. And she came to realize that this complicated carousel was attracted by a force that she was unable to see. And it was this primary gravitational force that pulled towards itself both the rose-pink block and the young woman. She was now a prisoner of this deathly trap. For the first time since her awakening, a sense of panic pervaded her heart.

The rose-colored mass showed her the way, circumventing the celestial bodies that she encountered in her orbit, until it rammed violently against a huge yellow sphere that expelled a multitude of luminous rays in her direction. Once the fog had dissipated, she was able to behold what the chaos had ultimately engendered.

It was an immense compound of a pseudo-anarchic cubic form; its surface a patchwork of colorful entities that covered the entire known color spectrum. The celestial body captured with rapidity hundreds of hives until it attained the size of a moon. An imperfect satellite dotted with cracks, some of which reached its very center.

Thousands of other clusters gravitated around her, in the plane that defined the body’s equator. They clashed against each other in an eternal battle. They had not been able to be absorbed, so they kept destroying and remodeling themselves ad infinitum. She floated among them, engrossed in this celestial ball.

This merry-go-around produced a chant that resembled the melody of butterfly wings. This time, she was certain that she was dealing with a sort of language. Millions of murmurs overlapped around her. The compounds breathed, whispered, and discussed between them. Or at least, they were in dialogue with this curious gargantuan moon dressed in its multicolor robe.

Tired of dodging the asteroids and their satellites of light, the young woman decided to carve herself a path to join this rainbow. A storm of lightning dancing on the surface of this strange planet had attracted her attention.

During her journey, she bypassed the biggest blocks skillfully while supporting herself on smaller, solitary clumps. Gentle discharges tingled her fingers repeatedly.

The result was always the same. From every cluster, she could perceive bits of voices, blurry images, and foggy sentiments. Nothing had any meaning unless she brushed the bigger clusters. With these, the shock was stronger and the visions, and thus the sensations, much clearer. The experience remained as mysterious as uncomfortable and so she preferred avoiding them.

As her journey had finally brought her as close to the immense compound as the belt permitted, a type of void stretched now between the two of them and she decided to climb it over. But this unwelcoming space continued to push her back. A fierce battle thus began. After a dozen attempts, she admitted defeat as this lawless gravity sent her slamming against one of the sides of a small yellow cosmic body one last time.

Violent storms continued to rattle this belligerent satellite incessantly. Thunder rumbled, and the body unleashed a discharge of lightning from its perfectly smooth surface. An audible hum ricocheted between the different elements of the belt. The asteroids pushed back the lightning that originated from the lunar body.

But the route embarked by this satellite was not random. Deviating suddenly from its trajectory, it crushed into the young woman’s chest and thousands of sharp needles perforated her inside. She felt her heart and her brain melt away, her mind crack.

The pain dissipated as quickly as it had appeared. Slowly, her shell swam in the direction of the celestial body. The hum had completely disappeared, transforming into a distinct muttering. She could hear a voice coming from the amber-colored celestial body that she had just left behind. A voice that was deep and cavernous and not without a hint of happiness. It was almost like the entity was smiling at her. The voice hummed her name: “Suzanne.” And, midway from this imperfect moon, the yellow sphere enfolded her.