October 26, 2014

Prologue - Welcome to The Alcove

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Prologue
Welcome to The Alcove

It was a normal night; darkness enveloped the sky and waves crashed upon waves beneath the brisk breeze. On that night, only the sound of waves was heard—

No, there was one more sound, a voice.

There was an almost unheard scream, a scream concealed with waves' crashing. It was a desperate cry for help, a soundless plea of a lone boy, lost in cruel waves of a desolate sea. The boy was struggling, trying to find power to fight back the vicious current of salty seawater. Seeing a sliver of hope as his body felt the sea calming down, he tried to push his body forward... and failed.

He felt the calm movement of the sea pushing his body forward before he was hit by a merciless wave and was forced to submit. The cruel, pitiless force of the wave whisked his body away, completely disregarding his entire strength— as if mocking his entirety. Gasping desperately, he ended up being filled with water instead of air. His throat cold, his lungs almost out of air, and a gripping fear suddenly grasped his heart and stopped it for a second.

This fear he had never felt, nor even thought about.

Death.

It was the only thing that he could think about, the paralyzing thought of his own death stopped his mind from thinking. Panic, anxiety, and despair overwhelmed his bleak mind all at once. Dark, thick clouds enshrouded his mind, seawater on his red eyes blurred his vision, and his screaming finally came to an abrupt stop. Water had filled his lungs, stopping his capability to scream, to breathe, and even to stay conscious.

He strived to stay awake, but the pain of taking another breath almost stopped him from trying, he tried to gasp for air but his lungs seemed ready to burst. His body floated in the sea; weak and powerless, his bones crushed slowly with unrelenting, ruthless waves crashing unto him. He was tired.

Can I stop now? I really want to close my eyes. Let me sleep already.

Then another wave crashed him unto a rock. Just like that, his breath stopped. Did he die? Yes, in every definition possible. The strange thing was that he could still think and he could still feel; his heart had stopped beating and his brain had stopped working, yet he still felt the rock crushing his ribcage. He felt his body moving–lifeless like a rag doll– away from the rock and crashed again unto it. He could still feel the freezing numb of his blood, the saltiness of his lips, and he could still think about his death. The dark cloud in his mind had gone, and now, after his heart stopped beating and his brain stopped working his mind was crystal clear at last. Then, in his clarity he noticed.

He did not feel any pain.

I know because I am that boy. Was, at least. I looked into that lifeless pile of flesh, crashing repeatedly onto the same rock that killed him, and I felt nothing. Not even the smallest bit of sadness or regret, unlike what I probably should have felt. When I saw his –my– eyes without any glimmer of light, I only felt something inexplicable, closest only to a feeling of disgust and… loneliness?

I was trying to come in terms with this absurd situation I had found myself in-trying to comprehend anything that had happened to me–when everything around me seemed to be set ablaze by a luminous luster of inexplicable energy. It was calling out to me; once, twice, and as I heard my name sounded -reverberated- thrice, I stopped thinking of my surrounding, and during those mere seconds of a... 'link', everything had changed.

Suddenly clothed in a white robe -supposedly unfitting for a kid like me- I noticed I was no longer a kid. My vision seemed to be twice as tall as it used to be, and I was very sure that I was not on higher ground. I raised my arm to my vision and I noticed that it was far bigger than it used to be. I could not fathom this situation, yet at the same time I felt that I didn’t need to. As I was thinking, a voice was spoken within the silence:

“Welcome to The Alcove”