Chapter Text
There is a black rectangle in front of you.
Your mind is hazy, so very hazy... Everything outside of that rectangle seems so fuzzy and distant, like you're miles away. But you do not feel comfortable. Oh, no-no. It's the feeling of not being able to move a muscle to save yourself. You can't turn your head, can't move your arms nor legs.
Describing this feeling hooks a term from your memory - sleep paralysis. This feels like sleep paralysis. As you mentally work towards describing the rest of the term to yourself, and not just the general feeling it implies, something appears to be moving out of the corner of your eye.
There's a faint buzzing. Then, before you know it, Eyes appear out of thin air - all kinds of eyeballs, ranging from rather normal(considering the situation) to extremely grotesque. For a moment, it feels like every creature that has ever had the pleasure to exist had one of their sight organs ripped out of them and put in this space, with one intent - to stare at the paralyzed meat bag that is you.
The feeling fades. This definitely isn't it...
Your mind, or rather, gut, presents a compelling theory:
These Eyes are not from different creatures.
They're all the same creature.
In that moment, you know it. And for a moment - that being all you need - the shackles of paralysis are thrown off of you, and you get up; blood rushing to the head, not quite on the same page with the owner of the body yet.
A ripple goes through the foreign Eyes. No, not fear.
Laughter.
Black rectangle, black rectangle. Your mind tries to conjure up something important about that rectangle, now being the only space unoccupied by the Eyes.
Space... Of course! Hole! Exit!
You break into a run. Though it is only a few meters away, it feels like a long time before you ungracefully smash right into the wall, the hole being at some height over the floor. Nevertheless, you climb into it, ready to enter someplace, at least some place rather than HERE.
The Eyes do not appear to be following you beyond the hole. Weird. Still, you continue crawling through the path.
It's pitch black, with unknown dimensions. At some point, it seems like you're never going to get out of here.
Better than Eyes.
You think.
Probably.
...
Time passes.
You finally lie down on the bottom of the hole. It feels metallic. Kind of like a vent.
It hooks another term from your memory. "Red vented."
You giggle.
You just miraculously escaped some eldritch Eye creature through a hole that feels like a vent, and you neither remember nor know anything except sleep paralysis and a fucking Amogus meme. Great.
The predicament weighing down on you makes you want to cry, but you laugh and laugh instead. Until pathetic sobs are sprinkled into your fit of hysterical laughter.
...
You lie on your side, just trying to regain your breath after this nervous breakdown you just had. At least there's nobody else here to experience this humiliating moment, and you take weird, grumpy solace in that. Was there supposed to be anyone else? Certainly not the Eyes.
Your breath slows to a normal rate. It's probably time to continue this weird journey. Surely, more crawling can't hurt at this point.
But now, you notice something new. A light. It definitely wasn't there before. Fueled by a new hope, you crawl faster, your elbows and knees doing the most work. These will definitely hurt later.
The air warms. You breathe in some dust and take a moment to stop and cough some of it out.
Dust, or sand? Even the atmosphere itself tells you of the place you're about to escape into.
The light proves to be from a neat square hole at the top of the vent. Golden sunlight and heat. The vent continues beyond this point, but you're really not interested in pursuing that course of action for now.
Living beings always took solace in the comfort of daylight. This might be your salvation.
You awkwardly crawl out of the vent, coughing from the warm dusty air. ...The first step is...
looking around...
huh?
Wasteland, not one unlike the ones in Fallout. You can see a city in the hazy distance, but looking at it makes your eyes hurt so...
But what you see right in front of you is even more impossible.
It's a guy. A guy in a t-shirt and trousers, looking at you in a show of supreme confusion. An oddly familiar guy.
...
OH!
You slap your own cheek a bit harder than you intended. Wincing, you finally say the first thing you've said in a while:
- Jerma..?