Sebastian was shaking, the fear that was instilled in him made him believe that he was about to die. He continued walking, fighting his urge to look, even if it felt like forever, eventually things stopped. The silence returned, and the darkness returned.

Should I be happy? Or should I be concerned? At least that feeling was… Something.

While Sebastian was feeling the terror that sound had given him, he at least was feeling something, something external, not just the sound of the interior of his body,

Now he was left once again alone with the only sensation he could perceive being the sound of the blood flowing through his veins.

It was impossible to determine how much time had passed, but, eventually, the feeling he had felt before came back, the same terror, the sensation of being laid bare naked in front of an ancient existence that he couldn’t comprehend. It was not meant to be comprehended. Soon enough, instead of that feeling coming one at a time, several similar feelings started to happen at the same time. He felt like he was being pushed to look in all directions at the same time.

Resisting that feeling was becoming increasingly difficult. In Sebastian's mind, he was surrounded by monsters, each just as dangerous as the last one. His imagination was running wild creating the images of the monsters, but, in the end, the thing was that he couldn’t imagine those things.

Eventually, even his mind started to break under the pressure, it was to the point that he forgot how to walk, and was forced to crawl on the floor to continue.

Drip.

A dripping sound could be heard, Sebastian's first instinct was that it had been sweat, so he tried to clean off his sweat, but there was no sweat, unfortunately, the dripping sound continued. Then he felt it, a drop streaming down his cheek. He touched it trying to clean it, but the faint smell of iron came to his nose, and he turned to check his hand, what he saw surprised him, he saw his hand was completely red… he was bleeding.

He was bleeding from his eyes, but not only from his eyes, from his nose, and from his ears too. The pressure he had been exposed to by those beings had caused physical damage, and then he felt the need to cough, and when he did, he noticed that more blood had come out of his mouth. If things continue like this, he will die.

He had no idea of what to do but continued advancing, and so, he continued crawling, in the darkness, feeling those creatures close by. Sebastian continued crawling, time seemed to have stopped moving, and he felt that he was the only thing moving in the universe. And that feeling persisted for a long time, it was impossible to know for how long he had been crawling, but it couldn’t be a short while.

Eventually, he stopped feeling the presence of one of those monsters, he was feeling the constant presence of the monsters in all directions but once, he started to crawl in that direction. the closer he got, the more he started to feel the presence of the other monsters becoming even stronger, but, he found comfort because there still was not a single presence coming from where he was going. He continued crawling, but with time, as he got closer he realized the presence of the monster grew heavier and stronger. It got to the point that Sebastian was losing the strand of peace he had been following.

No, I can’t lose it

Sebastian started to crawl faster, using every ounce of strength left to move faster, he was moving in total darkness, with the only company he had was the constant sound of his blood dripping on the floor and his desperation.

Faster.

Faster.

I got to move faster.

A creaking sound echoed through the place. In front of Sebastian, a door was being pushed open, and the light started to fill the space. the dark corridor started to show what had been hidden for so long. Behind Sebastian, a trail of blood could be seen, and a long corridor that had several closed doors, each of the doors seemed to be made from dark cold steel, and each door seemed to have been closed to never be open again.

Sebastian didn’t take time to look around, he continued crawling towards that open door, even if it turned out to be much worse, he didn’t have any other options, nor hope for things to get better.

As soon as he crossed the door, he found himself inside a room with the walls, ceiling, and floor covered in something soft that reminded Sebastian of the pillows that he had in his room. Besides, there was the thing that caught his attention the most, a person, sitting in the center of the room, looking at the wall.

“Almost six months, that’s impressive,” The figure said in a strange voice that sounded too mechanical.

“Six months?” Sebastian asked surprised.

“That’s how long you spend in that corridor” The figure answered.

“You mean to tell me that I’ve been missing for six months from home?!” Sebastian suddenly interrupted.

“No,” The figure said. “Where do you think you are?”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Where am I? I’m in a liminality, aren’t I?

No, this much change in everything couldn’t happen in liminality, a building appearing out of nowhere, beings capable of speaking…

“I’m in another dimension?” Sebastian asked with caution.

“Bingo,” The figure said.

The figure then moved strangely, his neck made a loud sound like it was breaking, and its head was left hanging on its back, looking straight at Sebastian, or at least that’s what he thought, because the face of that figure had white hair that covered its eyes, it had a wicked smile that seemed to be almost too perfectly rehearsed.

“Welcome, to the Void,” The figure said. “Where everything that has been forgotten by the world ends up.”

“Never heard of it,” Sebastian said while trying to regain some sort of composure.

“Of course not” The figure answered. “Ironically, The Void itself has been forgotten, well not so much as forgotten but it has been forbidden for the world to remember, those who had encountered The Void are scared into not talking about it and not looking into it, of course, you know humanity, they can’t leave things alone, that has led to some trying to figure out how to access The Void, how to harness its powers, some have succeeded, some have not”

“And who are you then?” Sebastian asked.

“You know that answer,” The Figure said. “You were brought here for a reason, you were even tested on your way here, why do you think all of that happened?”

That’s a good question, out of everyone in the family why would they make me come?

“Are you by chance a conduit test?” Sebastian asked, hopeful that this would solve his issues.

“Not exactly,” The Figure said. “Think about how they have referred to you”

How have they referred to me? Well, they have behaved as if I were a patient in this place.

From the moment Sebastian had placed a foot on this building, the few words he had been told were telling him that the doctor was waiting for him, the doctor as if he was supposed to know the doctor, he had been told to go to ‘his’ room, meaning, he had already been here, even if he was not aware of it.

How can I have been here? I don’t remember ever being here, and when could I have been here, I have never been anywhere my family wouldn’t allow me to be in my eight years of life. Unless….

“Does my soul come from here?” Sebastian asked.

The Figure smiled, and then it inhumanly moved its head, if a normal person moved the head in that way, the neck would have been completely broken.

“Correct,” The Figure said. “Remember when I told you about those who had succeeded in accessing The Void? Well, something happened, they brought you here to try and figure something out, but before that, answer your first question, who am I?” The Figure asked Sebastian.

“By any chance…” Sebastian was nervous to say what had come to his mind.

“Are you me?” Sebastian asked.

The Figure started laughing but its laugh was strange, it reverberated through the room, and it also made the room shake.

“I’m more of an echo,” The Figure said “Your soul is already within you, I’m just a remnant of you, the past you”

“Then, I used to be in a place like this?” Sebastian asked.

“No, this is just a representation made by the ruler of The Void, after this, she will come here to meet you” The past Sebastian said.

“Can you tell me more about me then? Who I used to be, and stuff like that?” Sebastian asked.

“No” The past Sebastian answered. “You’ll need to figure that out on your own, but, ask the doctor, and see what she says”

An earthquake started, and the whole place started to shake.

“Oh, she wants to see you now,” The past Sebastian said. “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine, you survived six months in that torture of a corridor, you’ll survive coming face to face with one of them”

Cracks began to appear on the walls, several voices could be heard screaming in the background.

“Have fun, current self” The past Sebastian said as the ceiling began to collapse.

Sebastian was looking at what was happening perplexed, reality started to bend, where once stood a perfect building, now only the skeleton of the structure remained. A howl was heard, a howl that shut the screams up immediately, and then Sebastian saw it.

A wolf-like entity of surreal beauty, cloaked in layers of fragmented, mirrored scales that ripple and flow like liquid silver, tinged with a faint emerald hue. The shifting greens dance across its form as the light refracted through a crystal, giving it an otherworldly radiance. Strands of glowing, verdant threads weave and unravel across its body, connecting patches of black translucent fur and fragmented mirrors, as though stitching together pieces of broken realities.

Its eyes are mesmerizing voids filled with swirling constellations, where vibrant shades of green shimmer amidst the starlight, traces of black-green mist trail in its wake, Its size is immense, but its presence felt both weightless and grounding, as if it embodied the duality of existence itself.

“Come” The wolf entity spoke, and as it did, a sort of bridge began to build itself in front of Sebastian, being made out of the debris.

Sebastian didn’t linger, during this whole experience, he had never had an option on what to do. So, he just started walking, hoping to figure out what was happening. He had gone through a liminality, he had read a lot during his preparation for this day, in preparation for attuning with a conduit, but, he had never managed to find a single description of someone that had managed to completely go through a liminality, finding out with what exactly that liminality connected.

Sebastian had been taught from a very young age, that liminality was where dimensions, domains, and other supernatural phenomena leaked to the real world, several scholars had proposed the theory that in a liminality there was a way to go to the place that was ‘leaking’ into the world. The problem was that testing that theory was extremely dangerous, it was sending someone on what was, on all accounts, a one-way trip. Coming back was not a guarantee, and, even if people were willing to do it, the government and churches were against such things, at least in the public eye, maybe if Sebastian gained access to some of the classified documents his grandfather has, he would find more information about the subject, but for now, he had a one in a lifetime chance of finding out the answers first hand.