I awoke in a small room. It was dark, very dark, but I could still see just how small the room was even though I saw no light sources. I couldn't stand up, and I couldn't lie down. When I first came to, I was lying in a fetal position. That, and sitting down, were the only positions I could take. Feeling the walls around me, I realized they were very smooth. And cold, incredibly cold. Only I existed in this small room, everything else was of the same smooth material.

I switched to studying myself. I couldn't make out colors in the dark room, but I could still feel things with my hands. I was wearing rugged pants, and nothing else. I also had no hair on my head. My body seemed to be in good condition, nothing hurt.

My mind was filled to the brim with questions.

Where am I?

Who am I?

Why am I?

But I couldn't answer any of them. I remembered nothing, my memories contained nothing useful.

Am I, stuck?

Normally claustrophobia would've set in, but I felt remarkably calm. It was as if I had everything under control, even though I clearly didn't. And so I sat there, alone, with only my thoughts and my empty memories.

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After a couple of hours, I was wondering why I hadn't gotten bored yet.

After a day, my lack of hunger and thirst was the thing that confused me.

After a week, my confusion had only gotten stronger.

Why am I like this?

The questions kept piling up, and I was still unable to answer them. The hours passed as I sat with nothing on my mind, lacking any form of inspiration, seemingly immune to insanity, to the feeling of being alone, to the normal needs for food and water. Until one day things changed.

I was pondering the usual nothing when a small stone appeared in my hand. One second, my hand was simply hanging loosely on my side, the other it was held up in front of me holding a small rock. This gave me even more questions to add to my ever-growing list. The stone was just as smooth as the walls and perfectly spherical, except for some carvings on one side. Bringing it up to my face, I realized I could somehow read it through the darkness.

"Hygjkoltrepnurt"? What does that mean?

Before I could ponder any longer, a small spark appeared in front of me. It wasn't bright enough to light up my small room. But it definitely shocked me. In fact, it shocked me so much that I tried to stand up and hit my head on the very hard ceiling. While I was gently rubbing the now painful spot on the top of my bald head, the spark disappeared. It had lasted only a second.

I said the mystery word again, and the spark appeared once more. This time I got to study it more carefully. The spark was quite bright and pure white in color. It constantly fluctuated in brightness before quickly fading away.

I felt a certain emotion I at first didn't recognize. But eventually, I realized it was something akin to the inspiration I had lacked. I now had something to explore, something to do. And as I continued to study the fascinating spark, I slowly became more energetic, and happy.