CHAPTER 29: BLACKOUT (1)

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Do you even listen to what I say? Maybe it’s pointless to expect a voice in my head to give me a response to anything that I say. A voice that only seems to arrive when I’m at a low point in my life.

That’s when I heard a voice loud and clear, a woman’s voice. "Stupid! Are you happy now!" She shouts with anger in her voice.

I wasn’t all alone in here after all. The voice I always here in my head isn’t there all of a sudden so maybe she decided to show herself.

I turn my head slightly to see someone else floating in the distance ahead of me. She resembled Seraphine quite a bit, except her hair was a lot shorter and I could just barely see the dragon eyes she has.

"You’re the one I hear in my head huh?" I question while staring at her.

"Obviously! Why did you have to go and blackout." She responds with a bit of an annoyed tone.

That anger turned into more of an annoyed or irritated kind of tone. I didn’t really understand why she was so upset about it since I couldn’t control what happened.

All of it happened at once.

"What did you expect?" I ask with a bit of confusion in my voice.

"You to handle this a bit better." She responds.

I didn’t feel like I was floating anymore and quickly fell to my feet as I stood there looking at her. A ground had formed below us now which was a lot different from what I was used to here.

It was still as dark as ever but at least I wasn’t forced to float in this damn place any longer.

"I’m not used to having any power, I didn’t expect it to wipe me out like that." I say while taking a few steps towards her.

I don’t know who she is or why she decided to show herself to me... I was kind of rude now that I think about it but I got annoyed.

Someone always spouting some sort of negative bullshit gets old after awhile and I didn’t want to hear it. I’ve heard it enough from everyone else around me since the collapse started.

I didn’t need to hear it from a voice in my head too.

"I’m sorry, I just get frustrated easily sometimes." She says with an apologetic tone.

I’ve met a lot of pretty women lately, it’s kind of random to think about now but I guess it can’t be helped when staring at her. Ghost is pretty for a cyborg, Lilly is pretty for whatever kind of monster she is, and that woman behind the counter is as well.

Now the woman I’ve been hearing in my head appears before me and is quite the beauty as well. Definitely not gifted in the chest as much as the other girl was but...

I smack myself as I shift my focus back to what really matters.

Loneliness could do that to a man I guess so it makes a lot of sense that I would be thinking that way.

"I can read your thoughts pervert. I’ve been in your head, so I know how you are." She says while rolling her eyes.

"I’m sorry. I think I’ve just genuinely been alone for quite some time so I don’t really have the best control over those thoughts." I reply while feeling the hotness in my cheeks.

Am I blushing right now? I didn’t really expect to have this kind of reaction when I didn’t even have this happen with Ghost or Lilly. So what is the difference here?

"It’s fine. We need to focus on waking back up though." She says while crossing her arms, clearly annoyed still.

"Valid point. Do you have a name I can call you at least so I don’t just call you girl or something?" I ask while taking on my usual calm demeanor.

She didn’t say anything for a few moments as I stood there waiting for her to respond. I must’ve caught her off guard with such a question since she hasn’t really talked with me much.

Usually our conversations are pretty one sided I believe, maybe that will change.

"Rika." She answers.

Rika huh, that’s kind of a suiting name. I’m still baffled by her resemblance to Seraphine but maybe there’s a good reason for it. I doubt it’ll be something that I’m told about anytime soon but it’ll be good to keep in mind.

"Okay Rika, let’s find a way to wake up." I say while looking around.

There wasn’t a speck of light anywhere within the abyss so it wasn’t really easy to locate a way to get out of here. I never really had to find a way out before since I would usually just wake up.

A floor never used to exist within here either before so this is also quite new for me to be experiencing.

"Just follow me for now, I’ll try to trace my steps back to the place I was at." Rika instructs while beginning to walk.

I didn’t have a reason not to follow her so I began to do so while observing everything around us. Trying to see if anything stood out but it was complete darkness for the most part.

I’m lucky that I can see her or else I would be completely lost on where to go in this place. Everything is incredibly dark, it almost feels like you’re in space here.

I’ll never understand what the purpose of this place is but sometimes I like to think that it’s the space between life and death. A place that everyone can see at any point in time.

"Do you know much about the abyss?" I ask with a bit of curiosity.

"Not much. This place is a mystery to everyone, I don’t think anyone really has an answer for it." Rika answers.