The man woke up, his eyes, however, remained closed. He persisted in a kind of suspension, absent from both time and space. From all around him shreds of vague information, stimuli were reaching him. Suddenly, he was overwhelmed by peace. Everything quieted down, and the man, shrouded in impenetrable darkness, began to spread his eyelids fearfully, as if in somnambulic rapture. To his surprise and apprehension, there was a wall in front of his face, or rather, as he realized later, a ceiling. Not to panic unnecessarily, he decided to give himself a moment to adapt with his surroundings, in order to get used to the omnipresent darkness and the situation he was in. Lying on his back, he tried to recall any information in his mind: who is he? where is he? what is his name? He didn't know... He was Tabula Rasa, an unwritten parchment in human skin. 

    However, realizing the frailty of his sense of sight, he decided to explore himself, and his surroundings, through touch. With almost arthritic movements, he gently moved his hands over his body. It was an unexplored, bare land with rugged terrain, marked by a fair number of basins, numerous mudflats and a rocky limestone texture. His face was sunken, rough from stubble and dry, as if shorn by blades of wind. What caught the attention, however, was the peculiar absence of any hair on his head. Perfectly smooth, it seemed to stand out against the neglected, ascetic emaciated figure of a man who could pass for a monk in a period of acedia. 

He carefully lowered his hands from his body and pointed them at the ground. He stated that he would explore the immediate area with the surface of his hands. As he glided across the floor, he encountered clusters of stone constellations, all sorts of stellar debris and rough rock monuments. Suddenly, however, he felt something peculiar under his fingers, different from the rest of the room, as if found here by mistake. These were old rags, in not the worst condition, made of thick fabric the color of faded hemp cords.  With no small amount of difficulty, he managed to pull on his clothes and clothe himself, adding to the feeling, albeit so mundanely infantile, that he had achieved something great. The ground he was on was pleasantly cool, but nevertheless the position in which he was resting, with the additional stones continually being bitten into his body, was beginning to cause frustration and the need to escape.

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    His eyesight, stubbornly wandering so far, finally managed to sharpen enough for him to see the contours and outlines of the room. He was able to judge that he was in a paradoxically wide room, and that the aforementioned ceiling was the height of a hand bent at a slight angle while lying down. So there was no question of trying to get up, even if only on one's knees. Any vertical movement was immediately unsuccessful. Horizontally, on the other hand, he saw nothing particularly interesting. Most of the room was empty, with scratches on the walls and rusty rods or screws in places. Throwing his body weight from one side to the other, he managed to shift from his back to his stomach so that he could crawl more easily. For he spotted a ray of light in the distance, blithely streaming in through a narrow shutter whose iron bars called to mind a prison. The closer he got, the more dust particles began to float lazily in the air, casually informing him of the condition of the building he was in. It had most likely been abandoned for a long time. Had I been in some kind of prison? Survived and abandoned? Have I committed offenses that have been forgiven, or worse, this is my penance? Condemned to solitude, he was unable to ask anyone but himself, but there he searched in vain for answers. He finally reached the shutter and slowly, almost reverently, brought his face closer and turned it toward the sun. The pale face was shaken by a spasm and actual physical pain. He felt, however, that it was necessary for him to endure, that this was a step he had to take in order to move forward.

    Hours passed before he was able to get used to it. His eyes, which went from black to bright and from bright to black, additionally closed, had to endure the deep red. The kaleidoscope of colors and feelings that accompanied him in those first moments was clearly imprinted in his perception. Looking out through the bars, he perceived the ground, the earth and the basic ecosystem. He was somewhere, in the midst of nature, in its bosom. He assessed that the building was surprisingly low and only a few meters from the ground. Ready to leave the cell he was in, full strength, with basic orientation and a heart full of trepidation - he began his journey.