Boredom. A sensation he had always known.
From the day he was born until the day he died, he felt nothing but this: an immense emptiness, as fascinating as it was repulsive.
Neither his first steps, nor his first words, nor the years that followed changed anything.
From childhood to adulthood, from his awakening to his sponsorship, from the fall of his family to that of his nation... Nothing was able to break this monotony.
Until this moment.
As his own blade sank into his heart, he felt neither fear nor regret.
Despite the heart-rending cries echoing around him, no sadness reached him.
The future had been snatched from him, and yet, for the first time in his existence... he no longer felt this emptiness.
In a last effort, he turned his head towards the abomination that had taken his life. She too was a dying carcass, awaiting her last breath.
A smile played across her lips, covered in dried blood. In a barely audible voice, he murmured a simple thank-you.
No recipient.
No reason.
He just wanted to say it, to this world that had welcomed him.
Then his eyelids closed, his body bathed in a pool of scarlet.
The world faded.
The last sensations vanished.
The red behind his eyelids gave way to a deep, unfathomable black.
A laugh escaped his throat. A pure, sincere joy he'd never known before.
Until a voice broke the silence.
"Do you really think death will let you escape me?"
His body froze.
Facing him, facing this.
"Are you taking my appearance again? How petty."
Her voice was hoarse, weak. His eyes darkened, his features tightened. A new emotion took hold of him.
Sorrow.
Apprehension.
"Why?! Why won't you leave me?!" he screamed.
There was no answer.
Around him, little lights appeared, like stars in a night sky.
They gathered, forming constellations, galaxies... a universe.
"What do you want from me?!"
Again the silence.
The universe exploded, shattering into fragments that recomposed themselves into two distinct sets.
"Stop it! Please!"
His voice lost its strength, becoming trembling, pleading. But he didn't even get a look.
The two sets began to gravitate around him.
"I'm begging you, I just want to-"
Her voice broke, fragile, desperate. Like that of a battered child begging for nonexistent mercy.
But again... nothing.
His body began to glow. Her soul, naked, exposed to infinity, shone brighter than all the stars around her.
They plunged into her, absorbing her.
Her figure began to tremble and disintegrate, becoming stardust.
Every fragment of her being was sucked into the glow.
"I just want to rest..."
Those were his last words.
All that remained of him was an immaculately white sphere of light, floating in the darkness.
The being that had been watching him silently dissipated in its turn, its fragments drawn towards the sphere.
"I'm sorry..." he murmured, just before disappearing.
Then the sphere changed.
It deformed, undulated, twisted as if the man inside it were fighting with all his might.
But it wasn't enough.
The waves stabilized. Colors appeared. Patterns. Shapes.
Then... it was no longer a sphere.
It was a fruit.
The fruit fell.
First into the void. Then into a sky.
Until it hit the ground.
And in that instant, he woke up.
No.
I woke up.