It felt like I only blinked—one second being overwhelmed by tiredness, fear, and that green mist; the next second I opened my eyes. But instead of being on a cobblestone road in Eldor next to Maya and Rowan, I stood in a vast expanse of a black sea.
I stood on top of the water, not even sinking an inch, as if the water had not yet recognized my presence. The water was void of light, a black abyss so dark that all I could see when I looked down was my own reflection, distorted and wavering on the obsidian surface. When I lifted my head up and looked around, I saw a bright, shining, perfectly white sky with a pitch-black sun looming overhead—an impossible contradiction that made my eyes ache as I tried to comprehend it.
There was nothing as far as the eye could see except for the black sea extending to the horizon in every direction, meeting the white sky in a stark, unnatural border. No birds, no clouds, no land—just endless darkness below and blinding whiteness above, with that terrible black sun watching over it all like a void carved into the sky itself.
"Hello?" I screamed out, looking all around, trying to figure out what was going on. My voice didn't echo as it should have in such an open space—instead, it seemed to be swallowed by the emptiness, as though sound itself was being consumed. "Maya! Rowan!" I called their names desperately, spinning in a complete circle, searching for any sign of my companions. But there was nothing—they were gone, and I was utterly alone in this impossible place.
I tried to move, to walk across the surface of the water, and found that I could. Each step made no sound, created no ripple. It was as if I was a ghost passing through a world that couldn't fully perceive me—or perhaps it was the other way around. The more I moved, the more disoriented I became. There were no landmarks, no way to tell if I was making any progress or simply walking in circles.
Before long, I felt it... a dark presence behind me. The sensation crawled up my spine like ice-cold fingers, raising goosebumps across my skin. I turned around in haste, scared of leaving my back exposed to the presence for too long.
When I turned, I saw something slowly rising out of the black sea. It was completely covered in whatever the black substance below my feet was, so I couldn't make out exactly what the thing looked like—just that it appeared human in form. The black-covered figure slowly rose out of the water until its feet lifted above the surface, and it stood there floating slightly above the sea, suspended by some unseen force.
Then, two equally black-covered wings sprouted from its back and spread their wingspan out sharply before relaxing and reeling in ever so slightly. They dripped with whatever the black substance was, each droplet returning to the sea with a sound like a distant heartbeat. The wings were massive, extending at least twenty feet from tip to tip, and seemed to absorb what little light there was around them.
I stared at the creature, at a loss for words. On one hand, I was terrified; the fear within me was completely overwhelming, and I had no chance of quelling it. It resonated from my core, as though the fear wasn't just a reaction but somehow a part of me now. My hands trembled uncontrollably, and I felt my breath coming in short, panicked gasps.
But on the other hand, for some reason, even though this creature was covered head to toe in darkness, I could swear I recognized it. Or to be more descriptive, I felt some horribly weird but strong connection—like I knew who this person was somewhere deep within my mind, but I couldn't put a finger on it. It was familiar in the way forgotten dreams sometimes are, hovering just beyond the reach of conscious memory.
The longer I stared at the winged figure, the stronger this sensation of familiarity grew. It was like looking into a mirror that reflected not my physical appearance, but something deeper—something fundamental to my very being. This recognition terrified me more than the strangeness of the place or the creature's imposing presence.
"Hello? W-where am I? What did you do to me? To my friends?" My screams fell on deaf ears, and the figure gave no response. The silence was deafening, pressing in on me from all sides. I tried again, my voice cracking with desperation. "Please, I need to know what happened to Maya and Rowan! Are they okay? Are they here too?"
Instead of answering, the figure slowly raised its hand and pointed directly at me, a deliberate gesture that sent a fresh wave of dread through my body. Its arm was unnaturally long, the fingers tapering to points that seemed more like claws than human digits. Though I couldn't see its face beneath the black substance that covered it, I could feel its gaze boring into me, studying me, measuring me.
"W-what do you want from me?" I yelled again, but to no avail. The figure remained motionless, its finger still aimed at my heart, as though marking me for something I couldn't comprehend. I took an involuntary step backward, but the creature's presence seemed to fill the entire horizon now, inescapable and overwhelming.
Then suddenly, just like before when I felt the presence of the creature before it appeared, I felt another entity. But this time, I looked down as the presence I felt was coming from directly under me. The black sea beneath my feet began to ripple, disturbing my reflection and replacing it with something else—something that was rising toward the surface with terrifying intent.