My body shook with such a queer sensation that at first I assumed that I was dreaming, or that what I was feeling couldn’t be necessarily real - however then as my consciousness continued to be instilled further back into my mind, I recognized it as an intense trembling that did not cease no matter how I attempted to control it.
I then began to actually attempt to move the rest of my body, however it seemed that no matter how hard I tried, I was almost glued to the ground. Wait. A solid ground - nearly feeling like hard packed dirt. My vision was blurred and incoherent, so I couldn’t make out my surroundings in a more orderly fashion - however it was obvious that my limbs and torso were spread out upon some sort of platform.
I had heard of this before, in a psychology class - some sort of dream that left somebody unable to move in a dire situation. I didn’t seem to be in danger, however and that was the most puzzling thing. My still figuratively hazy brain was slowly piecing together the events of the Brotoski party, however these images of exquisite halls was still vague, and the chronological order of these situations were somewhat skewed.
And then, any idea of being in a ‘dream’ like state was completely and utterly dispelled, in the most ungracious way possible.
A searing pain struck across the frontal lobe of my cranium, before proliferating like an infection to the outer reaches of my head. I screamed out in pain, and to my surprise, the noise it generated broke the thick silence.
“Relax. The discomfort is only temporary.” The same, ghastly voice from the night of the party sounded straight into my ear lobe. My shrieks were silenced at once, however the ‘discomfort’ remained. Feeling slowly creeped upon my stagnant limbs, as I began to force myself to stand up.
My legs and arms throbbed, the aching concise yet brief. Soon, after standing upright for several minutes, the pain within my limbs did cease - however the headache continued at a ruthless rate.
As my head swung around like an axis, blurs of a landscape were detected by my eyes, however I could not completely decipher where I was - I had stood up extremely quickly, and this overly hasty action had rocked my already incongruous brain so much that I nearly fainted.
The drawn, abstract form of light expanded within my disjointed vision, as my feet attempted to find a steady balance. After several moments of playing this odd balancing act, I managed to stand with a semblance of dignity and wait for my vision to normalize.
Among all of this, the seemingly arbitrary, incessant pain within my forehead continued.
"My head…” I groaned frustratedly, as my perception was finally repaired to a semi - normal manner.
"Oh, right. Sorry, we don’t get new people here often - well, we just haven’t taken them in a while, I presume. It’ll make sense in time.” The voice said, which I in a way hoped was in response to my grievance.
I turned around slowly, before looking up to the black and white form - wisps of red emanating from below it’s head. Though I was still significantly shaken from the mere sight of it, I was less shocked than my first encounter, and so I managed to develop the courage to speak.
“Who - no, what are you?” I asked, trembling slightly as I stared into the cold, dead eyes of the demonic creature.
“Who I am is unimportant, you see. I know who you are anyways, so I would see introductions to be rather inconsequential anyways. Call me Rai, by the way, for lack of a better term.” The source of the voice replied.
I managed to show a puzzled look towards ‘Rai’.
“Oh, don’t believe me? You’re Maurice Shaw. Born to Mitchell Shaw and Heidi Shaw, lived in a comfortable upper middle class home for your childhood - currently attending Petalburg University. You took a job at a Poke’ Mart downtown, and you keep your Pokemon in your dormitory. You own a Growlithe and an Ariados, for elaboration on that aspect.” Rai finished, continuing to hover unconcernedly.
I gazed around my surroundings, finally able to take in the area that I had been seemingly sent to with no context or warning.
The first thing I noticed was the undeniably gloomy sky, infinitely clouded with a tinge of light gray, projecting a depressing sort of light upon the rest of the landscape. I stood on a long strip of purple - grayish rock, some dying trees and plants sticking up out of the stone like a sore thumb. Looking out from the detached, floating area that I had alighted on, there were other islands made of rock with the similar lavender composure of the first I described. Some even had houses on them, I saw, though they were extremely dilapidated and decidedly drab in exterior.
And below my newly ghastly, otherworldly milieu was a terribly solid, jet black abyss. Fighting to stow my fear, I averted my survey back towards Rai, as I decided I would refer to whatever it was to that for sake of convenience.
"Okay, so you know who I am then. But, where are we?” I asked shakily, as unpleasant thoughts proliferated through my mind.
One word constantly flashed uncomfortably across my judgement.
Afterlife
“You’re not dead.” Rai remarked, continuing to stare at my now powerless shape.
“How did you…” I began, surprised by this statement - even if it may have just been a coincidence in our uneasy conversation.
“As long as you harbor fear, my friend, I can see whatever you think. It’s quite a beneficial ability, really, but to elaborate on that point - you’re not dead, and neither is your friend. Your bodies are still in your dimension, however your conscience is with me. I know you’re human, and this is very difficult to understand, but just listen to me the best you can. To conclude, you’re not dead, but in an alternate state of living. Could we please begin moving, as well? I’m becoming dreadfully bored, and there is work to be done.” Rai explained.
I took a moment to fully absorb the information I had just been addressed with, before finally clearing my throat and staring back into the icy, unfeeling eyes that stabbed through my very persona. As I contemplated all that had been said, Rai began gliding slowly down the strip of otherworldly stone, and I followed nearly instinctively - compelled to stave off the concept being alone in such an unknown area.
We walked for a long amount of time, immeasurable due to the constantly stagnant nature of the sky and lacking of any indication that anything was really altering from the current state of it in any way. Finally, I produced the courage to inquire towards the creature who simply stared in front of itself without any inflection of emotion.
“Where - am I, well, where are we going?” I asked, diverting my gaze quickly down to my feet.
Silence.
"Are you going to answer me or just stay quiet?” I said in succession to my previous comment, slightly more brazenly than before. The form of Rai seemed to tense up slightly in acknowledgement, which I interpreted to be considering a rebuttal.
“Yes, I will answer you, however only if I consider your question to be worthy of my speech. I owe you nothing, so keep trying.” It replied, before creating a chilling sound which extracted any bravery that may have been previously spontaneously incited in me. The sound was a deep, grunt of contentment, possibly in appreciation of some sort of humor found in the sentence. I once again felt small, insignificant in front of Rai.
Another deep silence swept over both of us, and our travel once again was frustratingly fruitless in its results, which turned out to be absolutely nothing. Strangely, I noted, my legs were not become exerted or tired like they would be normally. We had to have been walking for at least an hour and a half by this point, I reasoned.
“Your anxiety persists. Calm down, I’m not going to hurt you.” Rai remarked, still not looking down to me at all, just continuing to look forwards.
“I’m going to - ask… another question. Is, that, well, okay?” I stammered, seeking approval for any verbal inquest due to the apprehensive natures of the replies I received.
“Yes. I’m assuming you’re going to ask why we’re walking here?” It replied curtly, as Rai slightly increased in speed. I also began to adopt a somewhat more swift pace to keep up with them.
“Well, yeah. I am. Are you able to ans - answer my question?” I continued with an inconsistent pattern of speech, my anxiety in the presence of this entity persisting even as I felt my nervousness slowly ebb away - it certainly wasn’t going to hurt me, I figured, though I did reason that it wouldn’t necessarily be the smartest idea to anger it.
Rai tilted its head in apparent contemplation, craning it back and forth, left to right - this struck me as extremely odd, however, as Rai did not appear to bear a neck or even a vertebrate. Glancing forwards, the landscape still frustratingly did not change, along with the unearthly islands that hovered around it.
“Well, we don’t need a reason to be walking, well, in my case moving, do we? I don’t have to explain my motives to you. Everything we do he has a purpose, I assure you.” Rai replied vaguely, stopping his head tilting maneuvers and once again relaxing into a neutral position.
And then it clicked, as the latent information gathering inside of my brain finally charged through the thick haze of the blazing pain in my cranium.
————————————————————————————————————
Everything was as black as oblivion. Was it oblivion? I couldn’t tell. It was all dark, terribly dark. It was cold. I wanted to go home, to feel warmth, to feel -
My vision twisted into focus, as the first conscious thing I noticed was that my cranium teemed with a dull pain that seemed to compress my brain into little more than baby food. The world spun as I attempted to more coherently regain my senses, a low groan emanating from my throat. A prickling burning sensation ran down both of my legs, diffusing down into my feet and then disappearing completely. I had to be dreaming, this wasn’t real - did I black out or something back at the party?
Panic
I sharply inhaled, and I felt something hit the back of my throat - dirt. A dank, earthly smell proliferated into my lungs as I wildly sputtered and gasped for air. In the frenzy that had supplanted a common neutrality in my brain, I stood blindly and waved my head around. Quickly deciding that this mess of an action would do me no good, I stopped. The world continued to spin on its lamentable axis, before suddenly ceasing.
The ground beneath my shoes was soft, punctuated by small disturbance in the land scape. I looked down. Blades of grass had grown all out of the area, well kept and cut to absolute perfection. I looked forwards, as a sprawling mansion laid before me. It did not look magnificent, however it looked - it looked -
Utterly hellish.
The windows were dirtied and unclear, the doors hanging slightly ajar with rust ridden handles. The roof had large gaps of missing shingles, as an electrical lantern hanging from the patio flickered forebodingly. A small Mothim floated near it, however swiftly fled away when it noticed I was observing it. The walls were dilapidated, and I could smell a hint of decay even from my spot standing in the back lawn.
It didn’t take long for the puzzle pieces of my reserved mind to snap unexpectedly together in a jolting maneuver, as I realized that I was standing in the backyard of the Brotoski house. This wasn’t right. I looked to the sky, my breathing pattern unnaturally spiking with every changed glance. A thick coat of dark orange and red was inflected upon the sky, almost as if a vial of blood had been smeared sloppily across the cosmos.
I desperately looked down, tearing my eyes away from the sight. Fear now struck through my stomach, adrenaline surging through my body relentlessly. My feet began to run across the lawn, acting now upon an instinct of survival and less upon actual plans or expressive mental processes.
My shoe caught on something, as I fell forwards straight onto my face. The impact rocked my head like a cradle, as I rolled over to face towards the sky. The color was changing, now morphing into an amalgamation of uncanny dark purple and black, vague constellations flashing across the area.
I slowly sat up, as I almost already knew what I had tripped on.
It was myself.
Dominik Sardello laid face down on the ground, and I slowly crawled over to the form. My mind shrieked to stop, to halt in my actions - however my body continued. I reached out to grab the hair, before pulling up the cranium of the human shape to better see the face -
The normal layer of skin was completely removed, crimson flesh and veins only revealed. The teeth and mouth were out of proportion nearly completely, and I could swear that a tooth was even lodged sideways in the lip, causing for a small trickle of blood to run down what used to be my chin. My right eye hung loosely out of its socket, as I could see the edges of bone creeping in from my jaw line. I recoiled backwards violently.
A cackle echoed all around me, the sound thunderous in magnitude.
“Dominik Sardello! I knew you weren’t the most courageous, but this, but this…” A male, high pitched voice yelled out, their sentence was temporarily stopped however as hysterical laughter overtook the order of their nearly maniacal words.
“Is hilarious.”
The ground below my legs disappeared, as I was once again plunged into the void.
I then began to actually attempt to move the rest of my body, however it seemed that no matter how hard I tried, I was almost glued to the ground. Wait. A solid ground - nearly feeling like hard packed dirt. My vision was blurred and incoherent, so I couldn’t make out my surroundings in a more orderly fashion - however it was obvious that my limbs and torso were spread out upon some sort of platform.
I had heard of this before, in a psychology class - some sort of dream that left somebody unable to move in a dire situation. I didn’t seem to be in danger, however and that was the most puzzling thing. My still figuratively hazy brain was slowly piecing together the events of the Brotoski party, however these images of exquisite halls was still vague, and the chronological order of these situations were somewhat skewed.
And then, any idea of being in a ‘dream’ like state was completely and utterly dispelled, in the most ungracious way possible.
A searing pain struck across the frontal lobe of my cranium, before proliferating like an infection to the outer reaches of my head. I screamed out in pain, and to my surprise, the noise it generated broke the thick silence.
“Relax. The discomfort is only temporary.” The same, ghastly voice from the night of the party sounded straight into my ear lobe. My shrieks were silenced at once, however the ‘discomfort’ remained. Feeling slowly creeped upon my stagnant limbs, as I began to force myself to stand up.
My legs and arms throbbed, the aching concise yet brief. Soon, after standing upright for several minutes, the pain within my limbs did cease - however the headache continued at a ruthless rate.
As my head swung around like an axis, blurs of a landscape were detected by my eyes, however I could not completely decipher where I was - I had stood up extremely quickly, and this overly hasty action had rocked my already incongruous brain so much that I nearly fainted.
The drawn, abstract form of light expanded within my disjointed vision, as my feet attempted to find a steady balance. After several moments of playing this odd balancing act, I managed to stand with a semblance of dignity and wait for my vision to normalize.
Among all of this, the seemingly arbitrary, incessant pain within my forehead continued.
"My head…” I groaned frustratedly, as my perception was finally repaired to a semi - normal manner.
"Oh, right. Sorry, we don’t get new people here often - well, we just haven’t taken them in a while, I presume. It’ll make sense in time.” The voice said, which I in a way hoped was in response to my grievance.
I turned around slowly, before looking up to the black and white form - wisps of red emanating from below it’s head. Though I was still significantly shaken from the mere sight of it, I was less shocked than my first encounter, and so I managed to develop the courage to speak.
“Who - no, what are you?” I asked, trembling slightly as I stared into the cold, dead eyes of the demonic creature.
“Who I am is unimportant, you see. I know who you are anyways, so I would see introductions to be rather inconsequential anyways. Call me Rai, by the way, for lack of a better term.” The source of the voice replied.
I managed to show a puzzled look towards ‘Rai’.
“Oh, don’t believe me? You’re Maurice Shaw. Born to Mitchell Shaw and Heidi Shaw, lived in a comfortable upper middle class home for your childhood - currently attending Petalburg University. You took a job at a Poke’ Mart downtown, and you keep your Pokemon in your dormitory. You own a Growlithe and an Ariados, for elaboration on that aspect.” Rai finished, continuing to hover unconcernedly.
I gazed around my surroundings, finally able to take in the area that I had been seemingly sent to with no context or warning.
The first thing I noticed was the undeniably gloomy sky, infinitely clouded with a tinge of light gray, projecting a depressing sort of light upon the rest of the landscape. I stood on a long strip of purple - grayish rock, some dying trees and plants sticking up out of the stone like a sore thumb. Looking out from the detached, floating area that I had alighted on, there were other islands made of rock with the similar lavender composure of the first I described. Some even had houses on them, I saw, though they were extremely dilapidated and decidedly drab in exterior.
And below my newly ghastly, otherworldly milieu was a terribly solid, jet black abyss. Fighting to stow my fear, I averted my survey back towards Rai, as I decided I would refer to whatever it was to that for sake of convenience.
"Okay, so you know who I am then. But, where are we?” I asked shakily, as unpleasant thoughts proliferated through my mind.
One word constantly flashed uncomfortably across my judgement.
Afterlife
“You’re not dead.” Rai remarked, continuing to stare at my now powerless shape.
“How did you…” I began, surprised by this statement - even if it may have just been a coincidence in our uneasy conversation.
“As long as you harbor fear, my friend, I can see whatever you think. It’s quite a beneficial ability, really, but to elaborate on that point - you’re not dead, and neither is your friend. Your bodies are still in your dimension, however your conscience is with me. I know you’re human, and this is very difficult to understand, but just listen to me the best you can. To conclude, you’re not dead, but in an alternate state of living. Could we please begin moving, as well? I’m becoming dreadfully bored, and there is work to be done.” Rai explained.
I took a moment to fully absorb the information I had just been addressed with, before finally clearing my throat and staring back into the icy, unfeeling eyes that stabbed through my very persona. As I contemplated all that had been said, Rai began gliding slowly down the strip of otherworldly stone, and I followed nearly instinctively - compelled to stave off the concept being alone in such an unknown area.
We walked for a long amount of time, immeasurable due to the constantly stagnant nature of the sky and lacking of any indication that anything was really altering from the current state of it in any way. Finally, I produced the courage to inquire towards the creature who simply stared in front of itself without any inflection of emotion.
“Where - am I, well, where are we going?” I asked, diverting my gaze quickly down to my feet.
Silence.
"Are you going to answer me or just stay quiet?” I said in succession to my previous comment, slightly more brazenly than before. The form of Rai seemed to tense up slightly in acknowledgement, which I interpreted to be considering a rebuttal.
“Yes, I will answer you, however only if I consider your question to be worthy of my speech. I owe you nothing, so keep trying.” It replied, before creating a chilling sound which extracted any bravery that may have been previously spontaneously incited in me. The sound was a deep, grunt of contentment, possibly in appreciation of some sort of humor found in the sentence. I once again felt small, insignificant in front of Rai.
Another deep silence swept over both of us, and our travel once again was frustratingly fruitless in its results, which turned out to be absolutely nothing. Strangely, I noted, my legs were not become exerted or tired like they would be normally. We had to have been walking for at least an hour and a half by this point, I reasoned.
“Your anxiety persists. Calm down, I’m not going to hurt you.” Rai remarked, still not looking down to me at all, just continuing to look forwards.
“I’m going to - ask… another question. Is, that, well, okay?” I stammered, seeking approval for any verbal inquest due to the apprehensive natures of the replies I received.
“Yes. I’m assuming you’re going to ask why we’re walking here?” It replied curtly, as Rai slightly increased in speed. I also began to adopt a somewhat more swift pace to keep up with them.
“Well, yeah. I am. Are you able to ans - answer my question?” I continued with an inconsistent pattern of speech, my anxiety in the presence of this entity persisting even as I felt my nervousness slowly ebb away - it certainly wasn’t going to hurt me, I figured, though I did reason that it wouldn’t necessarily be the smartest idea to anger it.
Rai tilted its head in apparent contemplation, craning it back and forth, left to right - this struck me as extremely odd, however, as Rai did not appear to bear a neck or even a vertebrate. Glancing forwards, the landscape still frustratingly did not change, along with the unearthly islands that hovered around it.
“Well, we don’t need a reason to be walking, well, in my case moving, do we? I don’t have to explain my motives to you. Everything we do he has a purpose, I assure you.” Rai replied vaguely, stopping his head tilting maneuvers and once again relaxing into a neutral position.
And then it clicked, as the latent information gathering inside of my brain finally charged through the thick haze of the blazing pain in my cranium.
————————————————————————————————————
Everything was as black as oblivion. Was it oblivion? I couldn’t tell. It was all dark, terribly dark. It was cold. I wanted to go home, to feel warmth, to feel -
My vision twisted into focus, as the first conscious thing I noticed was that my cranium teemed with a dull pain that seemed to compress my brain into little more than baby food. The world spun as I attempted to more coherently regain my senses, a low groan emanating from my throat. A prickling burning sensation ran down both of my legs, diffusing down into my feet and then disappearing completely. I had to be dreaming, this wasn’t real - did I black out or something back at the party?
Panic
I sharply inhaled, and I felt something hit the back of my throat - dirt. A dank, earthly smell proliferated into my lungs as I wildly sputtered and gasped for air. In the frenzy that had supplanted a common neutrality in my brain, I stood blindly and waved my head around. Quickly deciding that this mess of an action would do me no good, I stopped. The world continued to spin on its lamentable axis, before suddenly ceasing.
The ground beneath my shoes was soft, punctuated by small disturbance in the land scape. I looked down. Blades of grass had grown all out of the area, well kept and cut to absolute perfection. I looked forwards, as a sprawling mansion laid before me. It did not look magnificent, however it looked - it looked -
Utterly hellish.
The windows were dirtied and unclear, the doors hanging slightly ajar with rust ridden handles. The roof had large gaps of missing shingles, as an electrical lantern hanging from the patio flickered forebodingly. A small Mothim floated near it, however swiftly fled away when it noticed I was observing it. The walls were dilapidated, and I could smell a hint of decay even from my spot standing in the back lawn.
It didn’t take long for the puzzle pieces of my reserved mind to snap unexpectedly together in a jolting maneuver, as I realized that I was standing in the backyard of the Brotoski house. This wasn’t right. I looked to the sky, my breathing pattern unnaturally spiking with every changed glance. A thick coat of dark orange and red was inflected upon the sky, almost as if a vial of blood had been smeared sloppily across the cosmos.
I desperately looked down, tearing my eyes away from the sight. Fear now struck through my stomach, adrenaline surging through my body relentlessly. My feet began to run across the lawn, acting now upon an instinct of survival and less upon actual plans or expressive mental processes.
My shoe caught on something, as I fell forwards straight onto my face. The impact rocked my head like a cradle, as I rolled over to face towards the sky. The color was changing, now morphing into an amalgamation of uncanny dark purple and black, vague constellations flashing across the area.
I slowly sat up, as I almost already knew what I had tripped on.
It was myself.
Dominik Sardello laid face down on the ground, and I slowly crawled over to the form. My mind shrieked to stop, to halt in my actions - however my body continued. I reached out to grab the hair, before pulling up the cranium of the human shape to better see the face -
The normal layer of skin was completely removed, crimson flesh and veins only revealed. The teeth and mouth were out of proportion nearly completely, and I could swear that a tooth was even lodged sideways in the lip, causing for a small trickle of blood to run down what used to be my chin. My right eye hung loosely out of its socket, as I could see the edges of bone creeping in from my jaw line. I recoiled backwards violently.
A cackle echoed all around me, the sound thunderous in magnitude.
“Dominik Sardello! I knew you weren’t the most courageous, but this, but this…” A male, high pitched voice yelled out, their sentence was temporarily stopped however as hysterical laughter overtook the order of their nearly maniacal words.
“Is hilarious.”
The ground below my legs disappeared, as I was once again plunged into the void.