As he opened his sleepy eyes, he saw nothing. Or it would be more accurate to say that he only saw one thing. Pitch darkness. An absolute void of black, as if his eyes weren’t even open. Even in complete darkness, he felt his eyes burning.

His hand twitched as feelings slowly got back into his arms, and he started tapping around on the hard stone floor, searching for anything yet finding nothing beside something that felt like pebbles. Leaving them there and moving his arm forward, a sharp pain assaulted his brain as his shoulder moved, a low groan escaping his mouth.

„W-Wha...?" His hazy mind was all over the place, not even finding the words he was searching for. His hands traveled down to his legs to find them paralyzed, not moving for even an inch. Maybe, just like his arms, it will slowly get its ability to move back. When he concentrated, he did feel his thumbs moving, even if only faintly.

Who knows how much time passed like this in the darkness. When he tried to think, the pain in his body made sure to get him distracted, so for a while now he was just focusing on getting his legs back. His thighs tensed as he dragged his feet closer and closer to himself. With a sudden push, he used the wall as a pillar to lean on and tried to stand up.

„Uh, argh..."

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Yet with the same energy with which he pushed himself up, he fell back to the cold floor on his side. The fall made his whole body twitch numerous times as the pain became unbearable. But this didn’t stop him from trying again. And again. And again.

While his body refused to do anything and gave signals not to do what he does, he didn’t care. As if on instinct, he stood up again until he finally didn’t fall back down. With the struggle he went through, he achieved what he wanted to do. His legs were awake, and he was standing. It only made him able to stand, nothing more.

„Where..." He tapped against the wall and dragged his aching body forward. But where, actually? It was a space of darkness, a void of nothing. But does it even matter where he is going? Was the thought of going somewhere else not enough?

His mind was racing, coming up with newer thoughts by the second, each ending short before an answer as it became blurry and mushy, without anything to make of them. He knew he was somewhere, but anything else was hard to grasp.

As he continued forward, his mind remembered something. Voices. Was it his?

„...hah~..." He opened his mouth to talk, yet nothing came out—just a breath. Maybe because his throat was killing him, or maybe for another reason, but no voice came out of his mouth.

A big headache rushed through his mind, but he didn’t stop thinking. Voices. Voices. So many familiar voices.

Yet only after minutes of thinking did he stop in his tracks as the realization hit him. A question more important than anything else.

„Who... am I?"