The Nothingness

Joel was on his way home from a hard days work when suddenly, without him ever knowing it, everything changed. He had a simple life, an office job and he was single. He was an orphan and had no family. His parents had both died when he was four. So, if he were to suddenly disappear, no one would care. Well, his boss might rave on about him being late, but he too would
eventually forget Joel. As I was saying, on his way home, Joel's life completely changed forever. As he walked down a crowded street he thought of what he would do on the weekend. His mind was filled with simple every day things. Then suddenly, a piece of paper fluttered down from some window and landed at his feet. Joel stood still. He looked up and was surprised to see that there were no windows or balconies above him. The paper must have been blown by the wind. Joel bent over and picked up the piece of paper.
Upon it the following was scrawled:

1. Is the universe endless?

2. What was before the big bang?

3. What happens if time is stopped?

4. What happens if a man travels back in time and causes himself to
never be born?

5. In the absence of light and darkness what is there?

Joel was astounded by the amount of philosophical questions the tiny paper held. As he held it, he wondered what the answers were. He then chuckled to himself. For no reason he folded the piece of paper and put it in his pocket. His mind full of the unknown, he walked onwards. Already his fate was darkening. It was as if every single future possibility of his was being churned around in a giant barrel, until it stopped and all but two possibilities were removed. Joel turned into an alley that led to his home. As he passed through an old bum stood up and said "Choose wisely." Then he shambled off around the corner. Joel was bewildered, but he simply quickened his pace and walked into a courtyard of sorts where several tiny houses were cramped together. It was a dead end. He must have taken a wrong turn while he thought of the complicated questions that were written upon the piece of paper. One of the remaining fates was to simply turn around and head for home. The other lead to a path of adventure and discovery, and in the end, to a choice, that would in turn have two possible outcomes. Suddenly, one of the two remaining fates disappeared. In that instant, his fate was sealed, and in the middle of the courtyard a crackle of energy appeared. Several more sparks appeared and Joel did not move as the energies intertwined and formed a large oval net of energy. More sparks appeared and soon a portal of dark energy hovered before Joel. He was extremely bewildered. He had read of ball lightning, an extremely rare occurrence of lighting in ball form, yet this portal was something completely different. He had also read of black holes, which consumed even light itself. Yet this could not be. The portal would have devoured everything within seconds of it appearing. Joel was a science-fiction fan, and he owned a large library of books. Several of them held stories of magical portals which led to other worlds. Before he decided whether or not to enter the portal and explore its depth, an odd whirlwind whirled papers and dust about the courtyard. The wind picked up and everything whirled about. He felt a strange tugging and was extremely confused. He then pitched headfirst into the portal as something pushed him in. Everything whirled about and he felt himself lift off the ground. He wondered what would happen next. The old bum who had talked to him before swam into view. "Do not be afraid." He said, then he swirled away. Finally, the world stopped moving and everything settled back into place. And Joel was somewhere completely different. He stood in a field of grass. It was warm. He felt something in his hand and opened it. There, lying in the middle of his palm, was a piece of paper that had not been there before. He opened it and found it was written upon. The note read: You will undertake a journey through the universe and through time itself to discover the secrets of the universe. Keep faith. Joel was not a particularly religious man, yet what he read before him made him wonder. The existence of the gate and the presence of the note made him wonder whether it was god, or some other agency that had some kind of adventure in store for him. Apparently, he would learn secrets of the universe. Suddenly he remembered the piece of paper he had found. Perhaps it wasn't a coincidence. He looked at the list and read:

1. Is the universe endless?

He considered the question once more and he suddenly felt very strange. He seemed to be swelling. He grew larger and larger, till he towered of the field. He continued to expand until he towered over the land. He could see for kilometers in all directions. Everything seemed to be deserted. There was not a soul about. And he kept growing. His supernatural growth seemed
to be accelerating until his head seemed to be in space. Perhaps he was mad. He grew larger, until the earth was a mere speck under his feet. He seemed to be floating. According to astrophysics, he should be suffocating now. He snapped his fingers. The sound echoed. Another impossibility. Sound
did not travel in space. Maybe he was going to find out how big the universe was. He continued to expand, the sun seemingly not harming him. Perhaps god was protecting him from death in order to answer the questions
on the piece of paper. After several moments of growing, he suddenly
stopped. He looked around him. He was in a dark hanging orb. Around the orb, there was a grayness. There was nothing. Suddenly he realized. He had reached the end of the universe. The dark orb was the universe. And around
it, was nothing. Just grayness. It wasn't the nothing in space. This
grayness seemed to be the absolute nothing. And he now knew how big the universe was. It is extremely hard to explain. But I will try nonetheless. Imagine that our solar system is an atom. Now imagine that the universe is the size of sun. The solar system is an atom, and the universe is a sun. Now this is very large. Now imagine ten times that size, and you might come
close to the size of the universe. It was incredibly vast. And it was ringed by some kind of nothing. Joel was pretty sure the grayness would go on forever. He looked at the piece of paper and below the first question was written: The universe has an end, for it is surrounded completely by Nothingness. Joel considered the answer and found it somehow lacking. What
was the Nothingness? He then looked at the second question.

2. What was before the big bang?

Suddenly the air around him rushed and time went backwards.
Millions of years past in a second. They went before the birth of
man and before the time of the dinosaurs. Finally all went dark as
the sun ceased to exist. Time finally went slower, and then
stopped. Joel was within the grayness. Before the big bang was the
Nothingness. Then he saw as the universe was formed, and a huge
dark sphere came into being. It was slowly contracting, until it
could contract no more, then it would explode outwards, creating
the universe. Joel then found himself within the dark sphere.
Suddenly, it seemed as though Joel's ears would burst. An
incredibly loud sound came from all sides and it was a wonder that
he didn't go deaf. It was probably another of God's protection. His
eyes were assaulted. Things moved everywhere. Curious feelings
passed through him and he was rendered incapable of moving. If it
weren't for some divine protection he would have gone mad the
instant he had appeared in this place. Suddenly everything stopped.
All was dark. Joel took out the piece of paper and saw that the
answer to the question stood beside the question: Before the big
bang there was only Nothingness. Then the entire universe was put
into a dark sphere. Everything was jumbled up. There was no time.
Everything happened at once. Then, came the big bang, and there was
time. Everything came to be. The universe expanded. Joel
understood. Before the big bang he had felt every feeling, heard
every sound and seen every movement there had ever been, or that
ever would be. He wondered what had come before the Nothingness.
Then he studied the third question:

3. What happens if time is stopped?

There was a blinding flash and Joel was back on earth. He was back in the busy street that he had been in. Nothing moved. Everything was frozen. Joel waved his hand in front of the face of someone. They didn't react. Time had been frozen. In most books he had read, if time was stopped, all movements
stopped. But Joel found that movement wasn't the only thing that was frozen. All around him, Joel heard sounds. These sounds were constantly the same, unchanging. As Joel moved around he discovered that the sounds grew weaker if he walked away, and that they grew stronger the closer he was to
their origin. Sound waves were trapped in the air and they constantly
played the same note. Of course this meant that the sounds of all the people kept going on and on and he screamed for the sound began to hurt his ears. It was growing more maddening with every second. A constant buzzing. He ripped out the piece of paper and read the answer to the question: If
time is frozen, movement and sound is trapped. He quickly read the next
question so as to escape this noisy place:

4. What happens if a man travels back in time and causes himself to never
be born?

He dreaded what would happen next. Time flowed around him and he suddenly was floating in the wind above the sea. He saw that he was just above some cliffs that plunged down to sharp rocks and water. He remembered the place, for he had grown up here. In the distance a house stood. His house. Joel floated down and landed on grass. Upon the cliff edge stood a woman. His
mother. He approached her and saw that her stomach was bulging. She was
pregnant. With Joel. He stepped behind her. "Mum?" He said and she spun
around and shrieked. She stumbled backwards and toppled off the cliff.
"MUM!" Joel shouted as she flew down into the cold grey water. As she
landed upon the water everything fell apart. Everything swirled for a moment, as it had done within the portal. Then everything was replaced by
grayness. He looked at his piece of paper and read the answer: The man returns to the Nothingness. Joel was stunned. He no longer existed. He was nothing. He had died as a tiny fetus within his mother's belly. And yet he still existed here, in this odd realm. In the Nothingness He read the last
question lest he be trapped in this realm for ever:

5. In the absence of light and darkness what is there?

Nothing happened. Nothing moved. He remained in the same place. Perhaps he
had destroyed the universe after all and now there was no place without
light or darkness. But the paper had said something else. Suddenly he
realized. The realm he was in was a place without a sun. And if the sun wasn't there, there would be darkness. But there was no darkness either. He was in a realm without lightness and darkness. He looked at the paper once more and he read the answer: In the absence of light and darkness, there is
nothing. Joel was rather confused. He had now the answers to several questions about the universe. If he was able to somehow hand the answers back to mankind he would become a great man. If anyone would believe him. If he managed to escape the realm he was in. But there was nothing here. No exit. Suddenly a great voice boomed around Joel. It came, seemingly, from everywhere. "You now hold the answers to the universe. You have done things that no one has ever done before." Joel spun around and shouted into the
Nothingness. "Who are you? And where am I?" The voice chuckled. "I am,
simply. I am the lord of this domain. And this domain is known as the Nothingness. It surrounds the universe. It is endless, and it always has
been. " Joel looked around him and then shouted "Are you God?" The lord chuckled bitterly. "No, I wish I were. I am the lord of Nothingness. But I
do have powers that would seem godlike to you. God appeared out of the Nothingness, as did I a few moments later. He then created the universe,
which he now lives in. I however, stay here." Joel then shouted at the grayness: "Well can you at least show yourself?" The voice sighed and said "Very well." Suddenly a black form flowed into view in front of Joel. It was the old bum who had talked to him before. "You!" Joel shouted. The old bum smiled and said. "Yes, me." He then walked up to Joel and as he did so he changed. He appeared younger and his chin was clean shaven. He wore a long grey robe. His hair turned from grey to black. For the first time Joel noticed the startling green eyes. They bored into his and made him dizzy. "I have been with you for your whole journey, shielding you from harm and transporting you around. I have saved your life countless times." Joel's eyes widened. "Why?" He had always thought that God had protected him on his journey, yet it seemed that this individual had. "I wished to see if mankind was ready for the secrets of the universe. It would seem that they are not." Joel looked confused and asked "Why?" The lord sighed and said "Let us just say that it would do more harm than good if mankind were to find out. It would not help me in any way." Joel then asked "Was everything I saw real?" The lord of Nothingness nodded. "All, except for the birth of
the universe. That was an illusion of what had happened. Even my vast powers are not enough to go back to the beginning." Then Joel asked: "And
what will happen to me?" The lord sighed once more. "Now you come to a crossroads." He waved his hand and a picture of Joel walking down the alley was seen. Suddenly he stopped walking. "I can return you to that fate." The lord said. "If you wish, you will wake up in the morning and know nothing
of your journey." "And what if I do not wish that?" Joel said. The lord then replied "Then you shall reside here and keep me company and you shall
learn all of the secrets of the universe. What you have discovered is merely the beginning. Here, I can give you everything. You can now choose which fate you want." Joel sighed and sat on the white floor. He remembered
that the bum at the beginning of his adventure told him that he would
eventually have to make a choice. The prospect of living here was both attractive, yet troubling. Yet he did not wish to spend eternity in this
realm of nothing. "Here I can learn all I wish, but I will not have any contact with the human race. Perhaps if I return I can change the world for the better until mankind is able to accept the secrets of the universe." The lord raised an eyebrow. "You will not remember anything so the chance
of you changing anything is minute. It is no bigger than anyone else's. Stay here and you will have everything. I will grant you power beyond your dreams. Besides, I could use some company." Joel shook his head. "As long
as that chance is there I must return. It is better this way. I wish to return to my world." The lord sighed once more. "You have chosen badly." A
dark look crossed his face. "You have angered me. But I cannot keep you
here. I shall do as you ask. You will return to your planet and live in ignorant bliss. I shall have to find companions some other way." He waved
his hand and all rippled and bubbled. Blackness enclosed Joel.

Joel opened his eyes. The morning sun shone on his eyes. He pulled the blanket off himself and rubbed his eyes. Joel dressed himself, had a quick bowl of cereal and then set off to work. As he walked down the street he noticed a piece of paper in his pocket. He had no recollection of putting
it there, so he took it out. It read:

If we ever meet again, I hope you will choose more wisely.
Till we meet again,
Cyril, Lord of Nothingness