At first, there was only stillness.
Not the kind of stillness that feels empty, but one that held me close, pressing from every side as though the world itself had wrapped around me. It was soft, but it was also heavy. The silence here was alive, humming faintly, vibrating with distant tremors that I could sense but not see.
I lived inside that silence, not knowing there could be more.
But soon, the silence grew restless. A twitch stirred within me, small at first, then stronger. The walls that had held me all this time pressed harder as though to keep me in, yet I pushed back. I didn't know why. I only knew that some part of me was ready for something beyond.
The walls strained.
I struggled again, wriggling, twisting. The pressure resisted, but each attempt loosened it. Tiny cracks formed, invisible yet certain. The world outside called faintly, a pull I could not resist. I pressed once more, with everything I had, and the casing gave way.
The prison broke.
And suddenly I was released.
The space I entered was vast. It was not solid, not fixed, but something else entirely. It held me, pressed me, rocked me gently, then pulled me without warning. I drifted, clumsy and weak, unable to command myself. Yet the space cradled me, refusing to let me fall too far or too fast.
It was strange, limitless.
I twisted, and the whole place seemed to answer back. My movement rippled into the space, turning me, lifting me. My body was small and awkward, but now it was no longer bound. For the first time, I felt both fragile and free.
And I was not alone.
Shadows stirred all around me. Flickers, presences like my own, though none exactly the same. They darted close, brushing against me for a heartbeat, then vanished into the wide place again. I could not count them, there were too many. They moved with the same clumsiness, the same restlessness. We were alike, though separate.
The space hummed with our presence. Each twitch, each ripple, seemed to connect us in ways beyond touch. None of us spoke, yet I felt them, hundreds, maybe more, each one alive, each one beginning.
Above us, something heavy stretched. A vast covering that muted the world, holding back a brightness I could not yet see. It cast everything in shadow, letting only faint hints of light slip through. Those hints bent and wavered, scattering in fragments that teased but never revealed.
Time passed, though not in ways I could measure. There was no morning, no evening, no marking of days. Only the rhythm: the trembling hum around me, the brushing of others, the pull and sway of the wide place. That was all I knew, and it was enough, until the whisper began.
It came from within me, faint at first.
A hollow stirring, a small ache in the core of my being. Not pain, but absence. It returned again and again, each time sharper, pressing me with a need I could not understand. I twisted, restless, though the space offered me no answer. The whisper deepened, echoing through every part of me, demanding something I could not name.
I feared it at first.
What if the whisper never stopped? What if it hollowed me out completely until I was nothing?
I pushed against it, but it was not something I could fight. It lived inside me.
And then, everything changed.
The covering above shifted. Slowly, then suddenly, it lifted away.
Light poured in.
It was unlike anything I had ever known. Brilliant, unbroken, dazzling, it scattered across everything at once. The wide place shimmered, alive, transformed in a heartbeat. The shadows that had been my companions became clearer, their forms etched by radiance. The dim world I had always known was now bathed in a brightness that made me tremble.
Warmth spread with the light, sinking into me, showing me that I was more than shadow, more than the twitching weakness I had been. For a moment, I simply stilled, overwhelmed, caught in the wonder of it.
And then something else followed.
From above, delicate threads began to fall. Tiny flecks, soft and golden, breaking apart as they descended. They scattered through the brightness like rain, drifting slowly, spreading wider and wider until they touched every corner of the world.
I froze, watching.
The hollow inside me stirred. The ache, the whisper that had grown unbearable, quieted in the presence of this new thing. The falling flecks carried with them a promise I could not yet understand, only feel.
The rain drew closer, surrounding us all. It descended in silence, gentle yet certain, threading itself into the space like a gift meant only for us.
And when the first fleck reached me, brushing softly against my being, the hollow hushed.
The world was no longer the same.