Nothingness - Ice Cream Truck Starter
Universe: This, my friends, is an Ice Cream Truck. ;)
Rating: PG
Flavor: Sugar Plum #11 (all is calm, all is bright), Dark Chocolate #29 (emptiness)
Toppings/Extras: Gummy Bunnies (prompt: "It has been a long time." source: RL Writer's Group)
Wordcount: 590
Warnings: Strangeness...?
Notes: I started this story with some vague ideas, then got a quarter of the way through and realized that I really didn't need another universe hanging around. But I remembered seeing the Ice Cream Truck, so I finished this part off and now I challenge all of you to decide what happens next. ;)
Nothingness - Saya
I woke the first time to nothingness. Black emptiness stretched out to every side of me. Only the sensation of being surrounded by warmth separated the nothingness of consciousness from the nothingness of unconsciousness. Dimly, I was aware I could not move, but this was no cause for alarm. After an immeasurable amount of time, I tired of my limited existence and fell back into my empty slumber.
The second time I awoke, the warmth was gone. In its place was a cold, unpleasant pressure all down my back. I could also feel gravity tugging down at my limbs and I marveled at it; previously unaware they had been there. Despite my continued inability to move, these things kept me occupied. Busying me until I slipped back into the nothingness almost unknowingly.
The third time I awoke, nothing had changed. This dismayed me, because I had grown accustomed to the wonders of new sensation when I emerged from my slumber. Bored with the cold, I embraced the nothingness willingly.
It was pain that shook me from my slumber the fourth time. Never before had I ever experienced such a thing, yet I knew what it was. It was burning through every inch of my skin. Courses of something sharp and harsh made my limbs tremble and twitch. And then, something amazing happened: I surfaced. It was only for the briefest of moments, but it happened. My world changed from darkness to light in the blink of an eye, of my eyes. I was inundated with light and sound, overwhelming my senses with unmitigated ease.
Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I recognized the sounds as voices, but whose, I may never know. This time, the darkness came at my forcefully, grabbing me and pulling me under. Even though I struggled, I succumbed.
Even encased in darkness and nothingness, I was aware that I slept for a very long time. But something was different about this sleep, it wasn't as empty. The darkness hung like a veil around me, shrouding me in its emptiness, but there was something beyond. I could feel it now; shifting, undulating, changing, rippling, and morphing into many different things.
This motion served as my timer, poking and prodding my sleep in strange, irregular rhythms. I tried to reach out to it, fight my way back to the surface, but I failed. I could feel something pushing me into the darkness. Holding me captive there.
I grew restless and resentful.
But I adapted. Became so accustomed to the pressure I didn't notice when it was gone until I surfaced.
This time, I took it slowly. Allowing myself to adjust first to the sensation of my body, the tingling of awareness, the brainpower it took to force little jerks of movement. It was easier now, because it was quiet.
Not silent, not empty like my darkness, but quiet.
Eventually, I opened my eyes.
The light was blinding at first, as empty as my darkness, but bright. Then shapes began to form, bursting into colors I faintly remembered, though I knew not why. I glanced around the room that held me: devoid of life, sparse, yet not empty.
With great effort, I forced my body into motion. Disjointed commands creating a ripple of jerky movements. I felt exhausted, but I was upright, and it was worth the effort.
Then I heard something that disrupted my quiet: a voice. So familiar to me, yet entirely foreign.
"Welcome to the world my child, it has been a long time."