What is this?
Where am I?
Questions spun inside, round and fast, never stopping long enough to catch a reply. Out loud, his words felt tight, thin almost, gone before they had time to land.
Fingers of darkness pressed against his eyes. Nothing showed up at all. A void, deep and total, spread wide in all directions, never stopping.
Still aware, though. That much came clear to him. Thoughts running, even if slow. Mind ticking, somehow. Just nothing fit - the world around or the reason behind it.
Darkness came after the edge gave way. Splitting stone echoed under his boots. Above, Andrew shouted, raw and sharp. Then silence took over.
His feet found nothing beneath. Walls - gone too. Not a breeze stirred, nor warmth or cold touched his skin. Gravity let go completely. Floating came next, deep inside black water. Sea without top and without bottom.
Darkness filled everything. Quiet sat without movement.
"Hello?" The words burst sharper now, cutting through the quiet black. "Is there anyone here?"
Nothing came back.
"Hello? Is there anyone here?"
Nothing came back - just like all the other times he'd spoken into the quiet. Empty. Still. Unmoved by his voice or its absence.
Breathing deep, he gave it another shot. Still going. Voice cutting through blackness since moving beat standing still, though silence answered every time.
Just then, as he prepared to shout again, a sound reached his ears.
A noise. Tiny, sharp, then gone. Light filled it without warning.
Ding.
Right then, his gaze snapped in that direction.
A glow appeared. Tiny, far off - much like one of those lights in the sky when the air is sharp and the world feels quiet. It remained fixed in the blackness, unmoving, just present.
A moment passed before a new noise broke through.
Ding.
Far off to the left, another glow showed up. Just as small. Just as sharp. Bright like a star.
A second one came next. Following it, a third appeared. One more showed up afterward.
The sound returned again, gentle pulses arriving one after another, each followed by a flicker. Around him, small glows sparked into being - slow at first, then quicker, racing outward in all directions till shadows had nowhere left to hide.
Every shade of star now hung in the air near him. Hues like ocean depths, sunlight on metal, fresh leaves, blood, and brilliance sharp as ice.
Countless points formed a ring around his form, tight enough that he seemed planted in the heart of some vast breathing thing.
A breath held, just for a moment.
"Wow."
A sound came out, not meant to be spoken. Nothing like this had crossed his eyes until now. Not even dreamed of. At the borders, hues ran together, changed when he tilted his head - light acting as if swimming beneath a surface.
Stars wrapped around him, slow and deep. Water held light like glass. Each sparkle drifted close, then slipped away. The dark hummed without sound. Space folded into breath. Cold glowed against his skin.
'It feels like I'm bathing in a sea of stars.'
The thought crossed his mind.
Then the stars started to shift. When that happened, everything changed.
Only a few did. The rest stayed put. These moved out of place, inching closer over time, drawn as if guided by quiet intent. Once settled, they froze in place.
Ethan stared at what they had formed.
Over there, his gaze slid along the form, following every edge. Then came a pause - each curve took its turn beneath his stare.
"Save," he said quietly.
He read it again to make sure.
"Save?"
Again he said the word, voice breaking the quiet. It sat there, hanging, as his eyes traced each letter slowly - waiting for a shift. Maybe meaning would change if he stared just right.
"Save wha - "
The darkness disappeared.
Faster than breath. The void vanished, swapped clean for endless sky and wind biting at his skin. Out here now. Floating through black air, far above earth, where tiny lights stitched streets into the shape of a sleeping town beneath.
And he was falling.
Head first.
The earth rushed toward him. Structures swelled in size, looming closer. Wind ripped at his hearing, sharp and loud, while his gut floated far behind, lost somewhere above. Thoughts slammed into each other, never finishing, one crashing right after another.
He started screaming.
A noise tore loose before he could think, jagged and unbroken, yanked upward from some hidden place because of the rush, the drop, and earth rushing near whether he willed it or not.
Am I going to die?
Through everything, just one idea stuck. Plain. Heavy. Huge. After making it past the edge, he'd still dropped from above - late, into streets, under blackness.
Down here, the earth pressed near. Way too near.
Darkness behind his eyelids, he raised both arms high, palms pressed flat against the base of his skull. Tension seized each limb at once. Waiting - though knowing escape wasn't possible. The impact would come regardless.
He waited.
Nothing hit.
For a second he was certain he was dead. The crash must have been instant, leaving thought behind.
Out of nowhere, a sound reached his ears.
A cry ripped through the air. Not his own. Another's voice, near, raw - a noise born from hurt taking place at that very moment. Beneath it, nearly swallowed, rose the thin wail of an infant. Piercing, close and unignorable.
A sound came next. Not just any sound - this one belonged to a woman, her tone sharp, out of air, stuck on those same few words, cycling without pause.
"It's a boy. It's a boy. It's a boy."