sinking down, down

[facultwist]

Death is a drop into a blackness that swallows you. You feel the movement of not air but shadow across your face as you plummet, and there is no bottom. No crash.

If there is another side, you do not reach it.

It is neither the light of heaven or the fires of hell that greets you when you wake. And wake you do, to the buzz and flicker of old fluorescent lights.

You are laid out beside a full-size competitive swimming pool, half-filled with stagnant water. The doors out are blocked off by locked doors covered in caution tape. The locker rooms are long since emptied, paint peeling from the humidity. The only signs of habitation are a few pieces of scattered graffiti.

Welcome to your new home. There's no sunlight, no indication of time passing. Just you and each other and your thoughts. the stagnant water bubbles a little occasionally, but there's nothing in it.

Before long you'll realize that you no longer need to eat or drink. You might notice your hand go through something if you don't focus. You're a ghost now. What's that they say about unfinished business?

Comments

[trustheart]

...I guess I am. Sorry. I just thought I could help, but if you wanna keep it to yourself, that's your business.

[ She hops off the edge of the pool and walks towards Kohaku. ]

We watched the whole trial, by the way. There was something weird when you were executed.

[ergine]

Oh... Yes, I noticed. Though, I suppose you would have some perspective on it that I don't.

[ seeing as she lost consciousness partway through and died ]

[trustheart]

There were shadows behind both you and Anthy the whole time. Shadows like the ones that are now stuck to the backs of everyone upstairs.

[ergine]

Actually, that doesn't surprise me. [ And, indeed, she doesn't look the least bit shocked or disconcerted by this information. ] The last time I had one of those strange dreams, it felt like there was something trying to burrow inside me when I woke up.

[trustheart]

I was dead before those kinds of feelings could start. And for some reason, just floating around for a week without any form. I don’t know why I was different…Can you tell me anything else about how it felt, though?

[ergine]

Hm... I'm afraid there isn't much more to say. It felt just as I said. But, it makes me think... I'm sure that those shadows are "us."

[trustheart]

…What do you mean, “Us?”

[ergine]

Well... I had one of those dreams where I was myself, but a different me. And then, when I woke up, it felt as though something had crawled inside me and latched on. Doesn't it stand to reason that it would be that other me?

[trustheart]

That...makes a lot of sense. But the implications are pretty damn worrying.