The desert sands whipped and whirled in a furious sandstorm that had stirred mercilessly for about a day at this point. At the heart of the madness a scrawny young man named Dust limped his tattered body through the beige and white veil. As he walked his dirty blonde hair drifted alongside the sands as if they were a part of his body. His hair may have blended with the desert but his stark jade eyes attempted to pierce through the dirty mist as if searching for something.
Where is it
Dust neared closer to the place that held his salvation. Soon his eyes caught on to... Something. It was hard to make out exactly what it was but it was different from the monotony of the desert. He walked towards the oddity. As he did the sandstorm that had once raged around him began to thin.
He now stood before that "something." Without the hindrance of the sands blocking his vision he could see the mysterious structure's true form. In front of him lay a massive hole that stretched as far as the eye can see. A hole named the white gate.
Dust smiled and sat down, letting his legs dangle on the edge of the abyss.
Having reached his destination all the pain and hunger he'd been suppressing up until this point hit his weary body like a hammer. To combat this Dust reached into his tattered cloak and pulled out a dirty sand-root.
At least it's something
He bit into the sand-root and forced himself to chew down the food despite its crusty texture. He'd managed his way through half of it before tossing it into the pit in an act of petty rebellion.
"I won't be hungry much longer anyways"
Dust rose to his feet and patted the sand off his cloak. He stared at the pit and remembered why people had called it the white gate. Dust recalled stories from his village about how the gate was a sort of doorway to the afterlife. He didn't really believe that though. Standing before it now it just looked like a good place to end one's life.
He stared into the blackness of the cavity and found his mind being held back by survival instinct and fragmented memories. Flashes of people he once knew poked at the walls of his head like spikes. If he was to be haunted by his memories for the rest of his days then it was better to throw his broken self into a deep endless blackness. Dust steeled himself.
"Now or never I guess"
His eyes paled and his muscles loosened. In the next second he was already falling into that empty void below him. He managed one last thought before his consciousness faded.
Thank goodness it's over
***
Dust's unconscious body fell through the deep black of the chasm as it had for the past hour or so. The darkness seemed to stretch on endlessly below him until it was parted by a bright white light. He drifted into the light, then abruptly stopped. He was no longer falling.
Above him the sky was soaked in deep white streaks that parted the otherwise monotone atmosphere. Beneath him lay a field of ash that had begun to swirl in small spots around where Dust had landed. Mutilated creatures rose from those pools of whirling soot and approached Dust. In a matter of seconds, about ten of the creatures had limped their way towards Dust, each one filled with a devastating hunger. The creatures stopped abruptly. They turned around to see an gray whirlpool far larger than the ones that had spawned them.
From the ash, a beast rose -roughly the size of a building- and stared intently at Dust. It's head was a massive deer skull covered in oddly placed purple ink. Its body was blacker than the night sky and its eyes were made of two shallow violet pools. The smaller creatures scattered and burrowed their way back into the ash to escape the monster's presence. All the while the beast continued to gaze at Dust. It's calm violet eyes swelled. The creature reached out its towering dark arm and pierced Dust's back with one of its many thin claws.
The violet pools that once signified life in the monster's eyes slowly faded. In the same instant the light stab wound Dust received on his back began to pulse and contort, filling his flesh with that same harrowing purple. His body bulged and shivered all the while the creature's body seemed to deflate. Something foul was worming its way inside of him. Dust's eyelids twitched. Then they opened.
***
Dust had regained his consciousness and now found himself nowhere near the white gate he'd firmly remembered plunging into. Instead he was on the surface, completely uninjured. His jade eyes drifted around him hoping to make sense of his surroundings. He was currently sitting on the edge of the fountain that marked the certain of his village. Looking just slightly ahead he could see the home he'd lived in all his life. The home he'd left just a day ago to kill himself.
Why am I here?
Dust struggled to catch his breath.
Why am I alive?
His thoughts were interrupted by a surge of power raging within his body. A feeling he'd never experienced before. It felt as if he was carrying another life within him. Millions of questions raced around in his head and any time he tried to find an answer to one of them a million more arose. His hands began shaking. Anxiety and fear wrestled in his stomach culminating in a nauseous feeling that permeated his entire being.
"Ni Hao"
Dust turned as fast as he could upon hearing the mysterious voice. Standing not even 5 meters behind him stood a strange man with a detached look about him. Seemingly realizing that Dust couldn't understand him he waved his right hand and spoke in barely understandable English.
"Ha - Herro"
The man attempted to correct himself.
"Hello"
Dust silenced all the confusion and distress running around his mind and decided to face the situation in front of him first. He raised his hand and awkwardly waved back to the man. Dust felt that something abnormal had happened to him. Additionally there was a burning suspicion in his gut that this man was at the heart of that strangeness.