I never lived, I just fell through time unable to smile from the heart. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMNMeFbqKiC
Scars and bandages litter my wasted vessel as I finally succumb to the inevitable end. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpV1WIDIvLY
Now I sit here in a chair stationed beyond life and before oblivion. Across from me sits a blank mark, a hole in reality shaped like a man. It sits with an upright professional posture. Nothing around us but the void and my oppressive thoughts.
“What form do I take for you?”
I hear its question, nothing left for me but to answer it.376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM8XiytjaIi
“You are nothing reflected in my eyes, a hole in this void.”
It tilts what seems to be his head in confusion.
“Not many see me as such. No matter, before you enter into oblivion I want to hear your life’s story.”
“I ask this of every person who enters here, now it’s your turn.”
I let out a chuckle and sigh. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr5yFfllxx2
“Life? I never lived one.”
“What life there was, it lost all meaning when it ended.
“It ended before it ever really began, I died in a state of limbo. Alive but not living, surviving in the hopes of a day in the sun. However, that day never came for me.”
“How typical, so goes the fate of the background character. The world’s story stars the lives of a few great individuals, I was no such being.”376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXpQBRUZNMy
The being then takes a moment to respond to my words.376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡax9v9fHOIp
“Even still I want to hear it, all stories are equal in my eyes.”
I look at its form in order to see any sign of sarcasm, surely my life can’t be equal to any other. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzC9XVg1uO1
Despite my efforts, I see nothing. I resign myself to telling my story to it.376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwhIRSYdkbi
“As all stories do, my life began when I was born.
I was born with expectations, not impossible expectations but expectations that had no weight in reality. There was no become this or that, it was you will be that. As if it was ordained by God, that my path was set in stone.376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9M1FdmoZb0
Funny since my “Family” believed in a higher being.”376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA9y2cH1jBG
I take a moment to remember where I am and then look at the Blank mark.376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKZoyDw61Q6
“Were they right?”376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡizvrNOmIZp
The being took longer to answer my question this time.
“It doesn’t matter now, I’ll just say I am not that being your family believed.”376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsaytwSPr3I
“I see.”376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbVcaGJcXL8
I continue my story.
“Not much to say after my mistaken birth, I lived life in ignorance but always given a taste of what’s possible. Always given a glimpse of what lays outside my house’s walls. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjLKvqtnGuj
But I was not great enough to survive in such a world, given no real opportunity to grow into something that could.
You see me and my family were not well off, as many faith-based families tend to be, as so they believed that someone would save them from this situation. I was dragged along that road, unable to escape my cage to live. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7l3lVF7xrc
Time flew by and then I died when the ceiling collapsed in my room. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyhWAL0dhqu
I never knew true happiness, the bond of a friend, joy of lasting creation, the warmth of love nor any other pleasure that makes life worth living. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp3Z7oJTwvS
A child in an adult body, never given the chance to grow and live a life.”
I refuse to go into further depth, I look at the blank mark dejected and disappointed.
“What was it all for? All that time locked up just to die as a number in a statistic?”
The being changed into a more engaged position, with his hands clasped together and his back bent towards me. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq796ajIZCP
“Why do you think I listen to your stories?”
I shake my head.
“It’s because the only thing certain is me, in my eyes your stories are equally important. At least in this place can you find peace in knowing someone knew your tale.”376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyibI7PBzOE
I take a moment to think about its words, the only thing I think of though is-
“You didn’t answer my question, what was it all for?”376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWCkuJQMCUy
“Nothing.”
I’m taken aback by the instant answer, I’m conflicted on the revelation. I’m relieved in the fact there is no set path but horrified at the notion that I failed in my own pursuits. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaJIird8kgz
Not because of vengeance by God for abandoning his path but because the world just happened to end my story before the second page.
“I would have preferred to never have been born if I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish my own purpose.”
“You’re not the first to feel this way.”
“Then-”376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSS3EFKjJyl
“It’s because life is like a tree, individuals are leaves destined to fall and scatter into dust without any real universal purpose. Only a few leave any mark on the trunk or feel at peace when they return to the void.”376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs2ndDbIOJl
Is that so? Is this how it works, why such a broken system? This isn’t right….
Instantly I felt what should be a silent heartbeat once again, I grasp my chest. It burns as if it was on fire. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhZ27zLpjpl
“???”
The being seems confused at my state but soon reclaims his calm.
“You didn’t finish your story, what was the purpose that you built for yourself.”
I focused on his words and my memory, I was reluctant at first but I needed to get my mind off of this pain.376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXIVhN3ParF
“I know that life was not going to hand us happiness like my parents thought so I scrapped at the walls of reality in order to find it.
But no matter how hard I worked or wished, I never scaled its heights. Instead, the opposite happened, I lost more of my tools. Tools that made scaling it possible, without them I had nothing. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFUuld6tTYA
What’s funny is that all I wanted to do was write a book, to tell a story.376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡABY7rAeX0Z
A life with a purpose unfulfilled and work unrewarded is no life at all. It was just wasted time and air.”
I had no more energy to speak of my life, I’m sure I had did not have as bad as others. Who am I to speak of suffering, I’m nothing. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBUFWN4iDHs
I’m no legend that was cut short, I was just another fallen leaf.
“I’ve heard and understood your story. Sadly, I don’t know if I can say anything to make your departure any easier. Many feel similar at their death, a meaningless end.”376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5XeEntrvoi
“It’s to be expected, you know despite my complaining I know that my problems mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.”
“Why do you think that way?”
“It’s because of the small-time I had outside of my cage that I tried to help and connect with others but I always failed. I would hurt them and they in turn would hurt me, an endless cycle. What a dilemma....”376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsAEfoTr9xN
The being looks straight into my eyes and says-376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ01plMnhmLZ
“Makes you wonder why such a cycle exists….” 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUtJH0olMZF
Once again that heat comes back at those words. If life does this to most of us, why even start it. Wouldn’t it be better if everything return to zero, save us the suffering? 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Okxmzgv6p
We don’t even live, we just survive day by day for a chance for a better future that most likely never comes. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtESFKetskh
Shouldn’t we right this mistake of wasted time….376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFNnRItRuFd
My dead heart speeds up and the heat increases to an unbearable inferno.
The being notices and I don’t know but I think I saw….a smile.376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJntu4aUUrF
“Why does this tree of life even exist? Just to give the chosen and seemingly random few the happiness siphoned by the rest of us?” 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr2F5gcQy3i
I stare at the being, demanding an answer before my final sleep. I must know.
“So all the majority in pain outweigh the few chosen blessed ones?”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
The being returns to his professional posture but this time more relaxed.
“No one knows, it just does. I would usually try to guide you towards a peaceful end, to accept this reality and your hand in life. However, I feel the need to ask….should you accept this reality?”376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSylznNPC2Y
My heart speeds up again as I ponder the answer but isn’t it obvious.
A reality that actively tortures it’s inhabitants in varied ways, a world that’s hostile to conscious life.
Conflict, disease, death….
Lack of connection….
Lack of meaning….
Unfulfilled purpose….
Generally Chaos!376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuTyymnkVqn
What kind of reality is that?!
I….I…. I!376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnZLNajAvmR
My heart seems to burst out of my chest as words spill out of my mouth that I don’t recognize or understand.
“Revel; Rewind to our Stasis Origin….”376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtswv2IluDm
A blinding light appears and instantly I’m on top of the being who seems to be melting into me. The void seems to also be collapsing. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡraf0sRMUUi
“So you’re the first one….”
“What’s happening to me.”376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkVoTEkn5fS
“I don’t think you’ll understand fully but, you signal the beginning to Terminus.”
I hear the relief in its voice but before I can process its words the blank mark begins to fill in with a noticeable form, a form of a little girl with long raven hair. She has fair skin and blue eyes but behind them is something that has seen far more than anyone of her seeming age should. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV876Y2DuP0
“What the…..”376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmGGt2I00UL
“It’s been so long anyone could see my real form.”
The young girl brings her hand to my cheek and caresses it. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNkVa1qwsKq
“Thank you for freeing me from my cycle, I saved who I could. Now it’s your turn.”376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSvGpsS1EcV
“But I don’t know what happened, how can I save anyone.”376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzvMvHZZUW5
“I’ve heard that the first Revel will signal Terminus, when someone’s heart begins to burn with a maddening desire for a change. More will appear now thanks to you.” 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPskFTRfDVI
She continues to melt into me but that not what disturbs me, it’s my calmness to this situation. I instinctively know what to do, I need to reset it all back to the beginning to break this cycle of hostile life.376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYqYPk0mHlY
“I see you understand, I can finally disappear and leave this existence behind. My predecessor was wrong, there was no greater purpose….”
She finally assimilates fully with me and I can feel her desire inside me. The void collapses leaving me a place more empty then even the void, but beyond this space lays the whole of creation.
I can see it, far greater and wondrous then I could imagine. Yet, there is still so much suffering.
I know what I have to, I need to reset this mistake called conscious life.
I’ll return this tree to the dust, as she wanted and as an apology to those that still survive aimlessly. 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLp3xuMCCBh
[Terminus - First Trigger] 376Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRCjuliORfk
and then Add to home screen.