Kai’s eyes snapped open, a blinding white light greeting him as his unfocused gaze adjusted to the new surroundings. His long hair fluttered in the empty space, observing the unfamiliar environment. Everywhere he looked was white, bright, nauseating white.
The ground beneath his feet mirrored the rest of the world, his eyes losing focus as he gazed into the blank abyss. It feels like I’m flying but at the same time… not. His eyes suddenly widened as a grim thought appeared in his mind.
“No way, am I dead again?” he asked out loud and waited for an answer, but the only thing he heard was the echo of his voice bouncing back to him. I guess not, where am I then?
He slowly moved forward, his light footsteps echoed in the white void, and he did his best not to fall while holding back the urge to vomit.
He halted his footsteps and shut his eyes as he took a deep breath. It’s too difficult to move around, I can feel last night’s food trying to leave my body…
He steadied his breathing as he contemplated the situation, his chest heaving rhythmically as he inhaled and exhaled rapidly. I’m not dead, the proof is that no Gods showed up yet. I still have my five senses so this can’t be an illusion, what is happening then?
His eyes opened once again, and a dark object appeared far into the distance. Is that a person? He rushed towards its location as cold sweat dripped down his forehead, his heart fluttering with the anticipation of meeting someone in this empty space.
The dark object quickly transformed into a silhouette as Kai dashed toward it, eventually taking the form of a man in his mid-thirties with brown, short hair, and fish eyes decorated by thick dark circles. His dead expression was further complimented by a poorly-shaven beard and dry lips that could make a corpse blush.
He wore a simple white lab coat that, unlike his appearance, was kept perfectly clean. He held a cup of coffee and seemed to be staring into nothing, not even turning his head as Kai stopped next to him.
“Hello…” Kai called out to him, but the man’s head didn’t move an inch, seemingly ignoring his presence. Moving in front of him, he once again tried to start a conversation but the man continued to stare into the abyss, acting like Kai wasn’t even there.
“Ah! Damnit! I thought I finally had some sort of clue about how to get out of here!”
He yelled while kicking the air, when a chair materialized in front of him, followed by a desk, on top of which stood a computer, a night lamp, and a few hundred documents scattered about.
Walls appeared around him and the man, then a couch and a coffee table, a chandelier that hung from a newly created ceiling, and another hundred documents.
The man moved, passing through Kai as he made his way to the office chair, a fatigued expression manifested on his face as he inhaled deeply. The sound of frustrated typing resounded in the empty room, along with furious mouse clicks and light sighs every so often.
Kai's expression turned to shock as his mind was overloaded by the cacophony of sounds, and numerous locations appeared out of thin air before him: Schools and farms, labs, zoos, houses, front yards and backyards, parking lots, parks, town squares, and churches. Hundreds of environments from different places and different eras.
Along with them, people appeared as well. Men, women, children, old and young, from the Victorian era and the modern era, as well as the medieval era and everything in between. Swordsmen and doctors, scientists and beggars, thousands of faces in different scenarios.
Kai walked aimlessly, observing the huge assortment of people and locations, and he came to a few conclusions as he stopped in front of a few of them. These people seem familiar and at the same time, not…
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He walked in and out of the locations, the people inside never acknowledging his presence or the presence of other places. It seems like they live in a bubble, I can’t interact with them, them with me, or them with others…
Walking from place to place, he found himself in a small space, occupied by a large, modern house and a front yard, in which a small child played with a ball. His mother sat on the veranda, phone to her ear and smoking a cigarette while writing down something.
Kai smiled faintly as he watched the scene, a feeling of longing growing in his heart. He seems happy… he thought as he turned around, leaving the small child’s small bubble.
The sound of screeching tires rang in his ears as his head snapped toward the child, his eyes widening as a morbid thud echoed in his mind. The small boy’s body flew through the air, his skull smashing against the asphalt, creating a trail of blood before everything came to a stop.
No! Why!? His eyes were fixated on the gory sight, his heart in turmoil as his mind was flooded with questions. He felt his stomach drop and quickly looked around, witnessing hundreds of people dying in a matter of seconds.
He felt his stomach churn, and a hot burning liquid climbed up his throat as an acidic taste flooded his tongue. He clenched his gut, pushing it back down, his pupils constricted as he helplessly watched hundreds of people die.
His footsteps matched the beat of his heart as he rushed back to the scientist, looking at all of the bubbles he passed by, and all of the different people inside. Whether they were happy or angry, smiling or crying, playing or sitting, all of them died, and time seemed to have stopped moments after they perished.
Arriving in front of the small office, Kai let out a sigh of relief as he saw the scientist’s lonely figure still typing on his computer and writing down some information on a piece of paper.
He put down his pen right after he finished, rubbing his eyes as he let out a tired sigh “What a frustrating project…” he thought aloud while getting up, laying on the couch behind him.
Checking his wristwatch, he closed his eyes as he murmured “I can sleep for thirty minutes before the next meeting…”
Kai watched him close his eyes, and an ominous feeling instantly swept over him. No way…
He walked next to the man and noticed that he wasn’t breathing anymore, his hand stopping mid-air as it fell. He’s dead as well… Grabbing the man’s hand he his pulse, but the pressure he applied didn’t even wrinkle the man’s skin. He really is dead… but… his eyes drifted over to the scientist’s face, he seems relieved.
So his name was Rodney… He read the name tag sewn to his coat, and his hand froze in mid-air as he let go of it.
He walked over to the desk and read the document Rodney had written before his death, his pupils constricted after he finished reading its contents.
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He was a scientist researching black holes… but what for? Could it be a military weapon?
The sound of flipping pages resounded in the room for a few minutes, Kai’s expression turned from shock to horror after he finished reading through a dozen reports, each with a different number of casualties. So many people died and the experiment still failed?
Kai ignored the rest of the documents, too afraid to keep reading, and instead turned his attention to Rodney’s lifeless body. He approached the couch and stared at the man, disgust written all over his face. How could he write such things? Is it true that statistics are easier to bear?
His hands clenched into a fist, and a scraping sound echoed in the room as his teeth ground against each other. He stared at the scientist’s body, which was as cold as his heart.
He yelled as his fist ran through Rodney’s body, completely shattering upon impact. The world around him shuddered as the sound of broken glass rang in his ears, the office, along with countless other locations disintegrated before his eyes, the corpses fading into the void along with them.
Countless pieces of light bombarded his body as they disappeared, and a disembodied voice echoed in his mind. So much work to do but… it feels so peaceful. I’ll lie down for a bit more…
Then it was silent, the white void faded as darkness took its place, the quiet abyss whispering in Kai’s head as he lost consciousness.