All he could see was a black semi-solid humanoid shape, a creature without a face, resembling only the outline of the captain, with two white glowing patches in the place where eyes would’ve been. It was like mist and shadow had intermingled and formed a sentient mass,

  ‘Nope,’ was the thought that lingered in his mind.

  The creature didn't seem to cast any shadows, in fact, it seemed to be a shadow, it crept closer and its misty legs merged with Christofer's shadow. The world around him seemed to instantly start to blur before a large mouth split open its head, vertically.

  The crackling flames shot up particles of ash into the air. In the same instant, howls of agony echoed in the forest. Startled crows rose up on all sides into the night sky scattering leaves and feathers as they took flight. After registering its initial resemblance to a human, Christofer flinched as the surreal jaws shook and the creature began to change.

  Semi-solid black hairs sprouted like a wave from its neck down into a wispy mane as its neck elongated slightly. Hunched over, its head tilted downwards as drool from its vertical mouth danced down its shark-like teeth. Its black, shadowy torso flexed outward as its broad shoulders and thick chest demonstrated its powerful build as the form of its limbs became long and slender. Black spikes began protruding along its spine as claws punched its way out from its hands and feet. Because of the tendril-like body structure, their arms appeared to be almost tentacle-like as the black semi-solid material it was made of left a slight trail of black smoke from the slightest movement.

  It bellowed with a deep primal roar.

  Christofer stumbled backward, grabbed a stick from the ground, and started swinging. It flew in the air unhindered through the creature as if he had tried to kill a cloud.

  The monster chomped in the air in response. He dodged but could feel the power of the beast’s jaws, the force like a shockwave. In a fit of desperation, he attacked with his mug instead. The mug hit the beast, the fog that made up the creature hardened and the mug impacted. He could tell it had a clear effect. The monster in front of him was giving him goosebumps.

  'Yep, I'm going to die' was the lingering thought as the monster threw itself towards him and sank its teeth into his left shoulder.

  Things seemed to slow down. His whole body felt drowsy. It was like it was submerged in warm water. It was as if time slowed down. His body trembled with adrenaline and fear, as bubbles of emotions detached themselves and instincts took over. Christofer felt a powerful ringing sound in his ears. His face distorted as the volume increased in pitch exponentially. A headache started beating with a pulse and he closed his eyes. Just as he felt that the ringing sound was reaching its peak, it stopped and an eerie silence took over.

  * * *

  The environment had shifted when he opened his eyes. He was surrounded by water and bubbles, he could make out shadows shifting about in the water below and could see evening light refracted from the surface above. His hands were so small. He moved his fingers.

  ‘Yup, these are my hands alright, weird’ he thought to himself.

  The sound of rough waves could be heard. Sounds from above the surface were muffled and dull, indistinct, and distorted. He started to kick while moving his hands around, looking desperately for something to hold on to. His heart was beating fast in his chest while the water was stinging his eyes. Noises bubbled from below. A loud noise that paralyzed his hearing. The sound grew bigger until it reached its peak. Then it became completely quiet once again.

  He could feel a pull from below. Christofer felt a tug as a hand pulled him down through the darkness. He could feel himself being pulled through a translucent barrier of water. He coughed as he got out of the water, feeling a spinning sensation as the world flipped around. A gust of wind came from the ocean, the cool breeze prickled his skin.

  Christofer felt another strange sensation, like a pressure change in a room. He blinked, his heart raced, then a sudden blast of lightning hit his shoulder so hard, he could feel his now teenage body scream in terror, expecting damage. His body cringed in terror as the bullies broke their fists on his shoulder. Christofer realized that he was falling through the memories of his past. The bully angrily snarled in an inaudible dialogue and stared into Christofer’s eyes threateningly followed by the people behind him laughing. The leader of the group then retreated outside, grabbing his fist with his other hand with a pained expression on his face.

  ‘Mother and father said not to attack them, to leave them alone and they will get tired. I will trust their words’. Christofer heard the thoughts of his younger self.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “That’s a terrible idea, past me. Murder the shit out of them, right now.”

  A while later, Christofer looked outside. He recognized this to be the school he used to go to growing up. An old design: red walls, dark roofs, sterile walls and bitter teachers. The average school. The air felt strange, dry, loaded with static electricity. He ran down the halls toward an old classroom, passed a student he didn’t recognize, thrust open the door in front of him and burst in. Following the memory in the past, twenty some kids stared at him like he didn’t belong as he sat down at his desk. A cold chilling gaze.

  "We can't do this if infinity goes on forever, so we're going to round it off to a thousand."

  That's when Christofer remembered that he stopped paying attention to his teacher.

  “Ah, there you are. You’re late,” the old lady said, pausing the explanation and scribbling down something in a notebook before once again putting it down and resuming her explanation of the math problem before concluding the lesson with a comment.

  "Children, your performance was miserable. Your parents will all receive phone calls instructing them to love you less now."

  Now, Christofer remembered this memory vividly, the old lady knew that he was bullied, but she didn’t care. She didn’t consider dealing with it part of her job description. It was a slow and steady accumulation, a creeping normality of apathy. Learning felt unimportant, everything he knew about art he learned in math class.

  “Nope,” he said loudly and jumped out the window.

  Landing in front of the bushes out front. He shifted forward slightly in response to the pressure of his hand upon landing. Like a kaleidoscope, memories of his past flowed in front of him. He could feel his heart harden with each memory of the many years of bullying. He remembered this sensation vividly, the feeling of nothingness.

  "Hello darkness, my old friend,” Christofer said, with mixed emotions and a pained grin on his face.

  Memories of complete and total loneliness were commonplace throughout these years. As bullying of Christofer physically was not possible, he was given comments that said he was not good enough to be able to enter the group. With time, he accepted his position. He became apathetic to his own state of being. Emotions were locked down, and anger was repressed. He felt nothing. Memories of time he spent alone were commonplace and they all flickered in front of him upon thinking about it.

  Suddenly; sickeningly; he realized that none of the people outside were moving. Not moving, not breathing, not blinking. Not shifting around like a normal standing person. Just there, and completely still. He walked up to a woman, he felt for a pulse, and there was none, but her skin felt normally warm. All across the outside were students, completely motionless, some frozen in mid-step. While he didn’t have a memory of looking outside in the previous memory, it was strange.

  He had to find out how far this effect spread.

  ’It couldn’t be the entire school, could it?’ he thought to himself and ran into the direction of the school psychologist.

  He had seen the interior from the outside, but as far as he could remember, he had never gone inside.

  ‘There must have been places where I never went before.’ he thought to himself as he walked past the frozen receptionist and her workstation.

  He continued down a corridor and opened a door. There was a pitch black void inside. He then repeated the experiment by opening another door inside where he had never been, which showed him an identical result. He took a deep breath and carefully placed his foot amidst the darkness, the world twisted and a familiar red shine from the far end of the room greeted him. The shine was from his clock. 15:53 was what was shown. A humming came from the right side. Two sturdy dark wooden tables stood in the room. On one of them was the source of the humming, a black computer chassis with a blue light shining, indicating it was on.

  “Huh, look at that, back in my room,” Christofer exclaimed loudly and sat up in his bed, “Now, I know where I am, the next question is when I am.”

  His gaze moved down his arms, wounds and scars littered his large hands. Before, his hands had been small, but now, they had grown to the size that he was used to, meaning that his current memory was closer to the present.

  Christofer turned around in his bed. A black viscous liquid flowed over the floor, obscuring the texture of the wood to an extent that it felt like his comfy bed was floating in the void. As he shifted his weight, the movement sent a wave that splashed against the orange wall. The liquid left a dark hue covering the wall.

  “Wait, this isn’t water, is it oil?” he furrowed his brows and grabbed a toothbrush and flicked it towards the liquid.

  It landed with a thud, followed by gas shooting up, which hardened in midair and rained down like sand, only to sink in the liquid, generating small ripples. Christofer looked up from the floor and looked at the blue strip that flowed across the wall. Normally, this strip was adorned with very poorly made flowers. But this time, a chain of blood rolled across the tapestry, a mixture of red and brown. He leaned forward at the edge of the bed and touched the wall, following the chain with his hand to a place where a lock was painted around a design of a black hand. As his hand met the painted one on the wall, a rumble echoed out of it. Before he could react he felt his hand sink in, his imprint scorched into the wall.

  Christofer heard a chant of something in a language he didn't understand. His left shoulder started to itch and in the depths of his mind, he felt something stir. He heard sounds of bubbling and cracks winding their way in all directions.