Am I conscious? Or am I still dreaming? When I open my eyes, there is still darkness. There is always darkness. The pressure again pushes at my eyes and I close them, allowing the heavy weight to close around me. The empty, black space around me doesn't allow me to move. I would so like to move. I want to stand again, instead of remain here, suspended in what feels like gel in the nothingness. I want to go back to a place before this immersive world, before this non existence. To a time where I... What time am I thinking of? There was nothing before this and there is nothing after this, just always sinking, never living, trapped in purgatory forever.

I listen to the silence, feel the almost crushing weight, think of nothing, imagine nothing, believe nothing, feel nothing but emptiness. I drift without purpose with no sense of time and I forget who I am, what I am, where I am. I am nothing. I was never anything. I can never be anything but nothing.

Something changes and I feel it instantly. Something travels through the dark, infinite space, a ripple, a vibration. I feel it against my body, deep in my core and something else follows it. A sound. The sudden activity sends my brain into a frenzy as connections reopen and it begins to work again, sending impulses to my body which begins to twitch. I can feel! Movement! My body moves! I sluggishly move my limbs as the sounds increase, startling my brain. Dark turns to intense light and my world is white and crippled with pain. Pain that feels alien. All sensation feels alien, including movement as I am pulled forward. I have my first sense of orientation, as I fall against a soft surface, a cascade of heavy goo spilling around me, draining away. I gasp as the heavy weight leaves and I feel light, incredibly light, but weak.

I am moved, against my will, and still the light is too bright for me to see. I would much rather lie against this soft surface than be moved. My limbs are grabbed and instinct makes me lash out blindly. I must protect myself! I must flee! But I cannot and sharp pain stabs into a limb and I begin to drift away again. I don't want to return to the void! But this feels different. This sleep comes with dreams.