Once again, the darkness parted. This time, revealing a cold black landscape laying silent beneath a sparkling sky of stars and planets. He jolted up and reached for the side of his head. There was no pain nor lingering sensation. Instead, he felt a foreign, strange clarity that seemed to course through his every nerve.
He could feel the subtle shifts in the atmosphere, and he could feel the cold almost whisper against his skin as if it was a living thing rather than a natural phenomenon.
And he could also feel the sands that he rested upon, but as he looked down to look at the grains that were pressing against his skin, he could barely see a thing.
It was so dark. So dark that it made it seem as if he was staring at darkness itself. The physical kind. It felt like he was sitting on top of a lightless void that he could somehow touch.
Dragging his fingers through it, he scooped up a handful of the sand and held it up to the starry sky above. From there, he watched as the grains filtered through his fingers as they fell to the ground. Sure enough, it was a physical thing, and it appeared to only slightly react to the light of the stars which seemed to paint his body in a dim blue hue.
"Wha-?" He began, unsure of what to say or think. But as he began to think and piece together thoughts, a gasp escaped his throat.
Wait, what am I doing here?
He scrambled to his feet as his heart attempted to leap out of his chest. However, before he could move another muscle, a terrible howl ripped through the dark desert as the realm around him shook violently. The ground beneath him opened up and swallowed him whole.
As he plummeted, he saw a bright speck of light beneath him. It grew brighter and brighter until it too swallowed him whole.