'Thump... thump...!'
'thump... thump...!'
In the center of total darkness, something pulsed slowly.
It sounded like a heart, but not exactly, at least not yet.
It was more like an invisible presence. Raw, colorless, shapeless, and nameless. And yet it still pulsed mysteriously.
It was a slow, lonely, insistent rhythm, echoing in the darkness for an unknown amount of time, seeming as if it would disappear at any moment. But it stubbornly refused to disappear.
It was weak and seemingly harmless. But it was hungry.
It wasn't a hunger for energy, flesh, or anything else. No, it was an older hunger, a longing for something.
Then, as time passed, slowly, something changed.
Red filaments began to sprout around the pulsating existence like veins, but there was no blood in them.
They appeared at random, like the roots of a tree penetrating the earth. Gradually, the filaments shaped the silhouette of a small body.
First a sketch, then muscles, gradually bones appeared, and then skin.
But still no sign of life. An empty mold generated from the will of the pulsating core.
Where there should have been a heart, there was only an invisible core, veins, and tubes connecting to a nonexistent center. From it, a pulse that did not push blood. But it only existed to briefly feed its own hunger.
Over time, arms, legs, and finally the head. The face was indistinct, the body seemed to lack even a soul.
But if anyone could see, they would perceive the anatomy of something almost human.
And then, finally, the eyes formed.
They were closed, with no sign that they would ever open, but they were ready to see.
More time passed.
…
..
.
Apart from its own pulse, silence was all that existed.
Then, one day, something new suddenly happened.
A sound.
A completely muffled noise, even more distant.
'tum-tum!' 'tum-tum!'
On that day, a pulse, different from its own, emerged. It was different from its own. It was constant and rhythmic, like a drum beating in the distance.
It did not understand what it was, there were no words in its mind or any concept. In fact, there was not even a mind. But that sound pierced through it. It was a new and strange feeling.
But for the first time, it felt something.
After that, other unfamiliar sounds gradually appeared.
Vague, distant, distorted, and unrecognizable voices. Just echoes of something outside its space. Noises sometimes vibrated against the walls of its world. And the pulsing of its core, its existence, gradually reacted.
'Thump… Thump…!'
Gradually it was getting stronger, the pulsing was more present.
Whatever it was, she was slowly becoming aware of it, but it didn't come straight away like a bolt of lightning. No, it was emerging gradually, like a growing breeze.
At first it just was, then she gradually began to realize what it was.
Something like a warm cocoon, a soft, lifeless, motionless body. But a thought, or whatever it was, was emerging.
Without understanding anything, he listened.
Without comprehending anything, he was learning.
The hunger he felt was still there, but at least now there was something more. He was curious, a growing curiosity.
The sound and vibration outside made him want to leave, but he knew he wasn't ready yet. He didn't even know when he would be.
…
..
.
More time passed.
He had no idea what time was, but even so, he could feel the difference between before and now. At first, there was nothing, just darkness and pulsing. But now…
Vibrations constantly crossed the walls of his cocoon. Distorted sounds like whispers from a distant world. Every time they came, his core stirred.
With each noise, his core pulsed stronger and stronger. The hunger, once formless, now seemed to have gained direction, no longer so silent.
He didn't know what words were, or even a voice, but he knew specific sounds that always came from nearby. They came with a specific rhythm, sometimes soft, sometimes trembling. Sometimes they were loud like distant thunder.
Existence recorded countless sounds, gradually realizing something, perhaps someone out there. But still not knowing what someone was or who he was.
In the cocoon, one day, his fingers contracted for the first time. It was more like a spasm, then his lips. And then other parts gradually.
His body seemed to be testing itself. But his eyes were still completely closed.
There was no sign that they would open anytime soon. Behind his eyelids, there was an almost imperceptible glow, but it was a brief sign of activity.
Complete thoughts did not yet exist, only impressions. Heat, pressure, sound, and, above all, hunger. Sometimes he felt something from the outside world touch him. Like a quick movement, a touch, or a squeeze.
The pulsing in his core intensified little by little. With an instinctive and strange feeling. A desire to understand, to get out. He wanted to be born.
And something in his existence told him it would be soon…
…
..
.
Sometimes, the world outside sped up, and the heat he felt increased. Some sounds became shrill, some movements more abrupt.
At those moments, the core in his chest reacted, invisible but hungry, and above all, alive.
He didn't know what anxiety was, but his core and his body trembled. He didn't understand what the world outside was, but he wanted it.
Inside his body, countless veins, still empty, vibrated like wires, but without any energy.
The body seemed completely formed, an apparent human, but it was incomplete. Something was missing.
In his veins, blood. In his body, energy. And in his mind, a soul was missing.
He felt incomplete, but he felt that this was only the beginning.
At some point, as if an eternity had passed, he began to hear an even clearer sound.
A sound laden with urgency.
He didn't understand what it was saying, but there was weight to it.
Then, a growing hunger expanded from his core. Something was approaching, the walls around where his world existed seemed to be cracking. Something was about to happen. He didn't know what it was, but his whole body, even without blood or life, knew.
The pulsing of his core became intense.
'THUMP-THUMP…!'
'THUMP-THUMP…!'
Something inside him was calling, the ever-present but dormant hunger was calling for what was missing.
The core seemed to be calling for the life it lacked, and the world around him was responding.
The pressure around his body increased. Everything around him seemed to contract, as if his world and his cocoon were pushing him out. The warm, comfortable cocoon was becoming unstable. And little by little, a small light passed through his closed eyelids.
His core pulsed like never before. The force and rhythm increased rapidly. His body trembled.
The empty veins began to writhe. Like a dry river, with an insatiable hunger, waiting for a flood to occur. The hunger in his core was taking shape and expanding to the rest of his body. The hunger was no longer just an abstract desire that he did not understand how to satisfy.
But his core had given an inner command. It was now, this was the moment.
The invisible heart vibrated with a bizarre sound that was not a sound, a high-pitched scream, but silent, inaudible to all. And then, instinctively, the core opened.
Countless roots broke out of the core like tentacles completely invisible to the eye, extending from the pulsing core inside him and quickly touching something.
It was warm. Unlike him, it was something alive, but it seemed weak.
From what bound him to this warm, small world, there seemed to be something his core desired most.
Outside his cocoon.
There was a woman lying on a bed. Her body was shaking. The contractions increased rapidly as extreme pain surged through her entire being. Sweat kept pouring down.
She didn't know, no, no one in that room knew what was happening. She didn't even feel it. Her life was slowly being drained away.
Her blood, her vital essence, her Qi, her soul. Everything was disappearing and being consumed.
She couldn't see it, but everything was flowing through invisible threads, little by little being sucked into that thing inside her belly.
And finally, the endless hunger seemed to be sated, but not with food. With existence.
Blood ran through the veins of the small body for the first time.
A deep, dark blush spread across the previously lifeless flesh, veins pulsed, and muscles contracted. The heart, still invisible, glowed faintly, still formless, but now alive.
The woman's body on the bed suddenly collapsed, weak and exhausted from everything. Her open eyes lost their shine, her once blonde hair turned white, and her skin wrinkled, as if she had aged eighty years.
And then, from inside her, he was born.
In silence. With his eyes still closed.
With extremely pale skin.
Inside him, the essence of everything he had devoured became what made him truly alive.