Death's meaning varied across cultures, but I sought its true essence. As a man of science, I required tangible proof, but death's mystery beckoned. I couldn't experiment with death on anyone, nor could I find solace in texts and beliefs. I wanted facts.
I took a deep breath and jumped into the sea of the answer. My senses began to fade. I could feel my life drifting into the other side. It was death. It had come for me. I could feel death's embrace as it held my hand.
My soul drifted into death's arms, and it was quiet, dark, and extremely silent. The darkness wasn't absolute; it was an endless void. No light, no life, and definitely no children singing choirs. There was just nothing.
But there was something else, something that opposed everything the world had believed in. Something that was entirely different. It was nothing. Just an empty void of nothingness.
My consciousness faded away as I silently sank into the sea of nothingness.
As Death's silence enveloped me, I resigned myself to dissolution into the Void. My thirst for knowledge seemed quenched, but the answer only spawned more questions. To my horror, I remained intact, consciousness intact, within the void.
How could this be? Was I caught in some reincarnation cycle, destined for rebirth with memories erased? Or was this something else entirely? The void's silence mocked me, offering no answers.
Just as despair began to consume me, a spatial distortion materialized – a humanoid figure, warped and unsettling. Though I couldn't move or speak, my consciousness remained trapped.
"Ah, a human bursting with curiosity," the figure said, its voice like a gentle breeze in the void. "An Anomaly." The word hung in the air as the figure's distortion twisted into a macabre smile.
My nonexistent spine shivered.