Prologue

            It’s been weeks since I emerged from The Underground. Changed… reshaped… different.

Initially I went in to seek refuge from the world – its smell, its noise… the light; the people – friends, foes… myself. I tried to forget it all in silence. Then that terrible, yet somewhat amazing night came. Or day, I couldn’t really tell. Everything started to hurt – every inch of me was twitching and cracking, inside and out; my skin felt as though it was melting and my bones as though they were turning into dust, my eyes were burning and the inside of my head felt as if it was receiving a million sharp stings; collapsing in on myself, every thought was leaning towards an end, any end, and every end.

Eventually it stopped, and there was indescribable nothingness. It felt like an eternity before it all stopped. I thought I had died, that the longed afterlife mentioned everywhere had finally caught up with me. To this day, I don’t know how far away from the truth that is.

I tried to open my eyes, but couldn’t. I tried to move, but failed. I tried to shout for help… nothing came out. I can’t imagine how anyone going through any of that would end up ever being sane again, yet I was psychically unaffected by any of it, as well as unsurprised. It was as if I had lost any and all abilities and senses which I had ever owned. But then I heard something – water, dripping at a very slow pace – and it was slightly discomforting. It was a lot better than feeling nothing, so all in all it was a good sign, even if it was rather ironic.

Many people had walked by, yet, for reasons I could only guess at, none of them seemed to notice me. I stood there for days, trying to understand what had happened to me, and in doing so I eventually managed to achieve a level of awareness. I could precisely position every step, drop of water, rumble in the ground, echo and what not. The louder the noise would be the more discomfort would hit me. As more time passed by, my level of awareness increased, and I knew exactly what I was sitting on. To put it simply, I became able to analyze and determine the properties of myself and whatever I came in contact with. Thus, I realized why nobody had been able to notice me – I was one with the rock beneath me. I could sense its density, humidity and texture, and they resembled mine perfectly. One thing, however, didn’t match, but it would be quite a while until the nature of what I was missing would be brought to my knowledge.

A broader analysis of me led to the understanding that all perceivable interactions were sensory and auditory in nature. Furthermore, every piece of me was independent of the other, but I was gaining control over each and every one of them. A few weeks had passed before I was able to grasp movement, by simultaneously controlling every bit of me that I became aware of, telling them to latch onto others, slowly gaining the most compact shape I could – a sphere. It was by accident that I discovered I could instruct myself to get a grip of things other than myself, among which the smallest of molecules… I could literally climb air. None of it was easy, but it was required were I to ever escape this place. Escape was necessary once more… something had happened, and I needed to find out what that was, but for that I needed to get out of there and set out in search of answers.

            Latching onto anything and everything I came across, I made my way out of the Underground.