Chapter 1: Chapter 0 – a l o n e _ i n _ t h e _ d a r k n e s s

 

.....

 

.....

 

"Hello?"

 

.....

 

"Hello?!"

 

A searing flash of light blinded me as I quickly screwed my eyes shut. Why can't I... why can't I feel anything? Why can I feel everything?!?!

 

Pain. Love. Loss. Grief. Fear. Anger. I could feel sensations ripple across my body that I couldn't even conceptualize. I was falling, falling, rising just to fall again, being pushed backwards, forwards, in directions that I didn't even know existed.

 

Crack

 

I opened my eyes to see spiderwebs of light shimmering, disappearing, and reforming in fractions of seconds.

 

"Hey!" a voice yelled.

 

I reached out and quickly retracted my hand as blisters formed across its scarred surface.

 

"Hey, sir! Get out of the road!"

 

Crack

 

The pristine, sanitized floors left a hypnotizing smell that seemed familiar, just somewhere out of reach in my mind. "Hey, there, beautiful," I spun around to see... her. She was my love, my whole world, my everything, my---

 

Crack

 

I was in the same yet startlingly different room.

 

"Hey, there, beautiful," there she was, again, but her hair, her clothes, the decorations in the room, the layer of dust lining the countertops were all in stark contrast to before.

 

"Aaaa... Ammmmm..." I tried speaking but it was far too painful.

 

"Babe, are you okay?" Her face contorted with confusion, and then fear as I felt my body start to give way to the---

 

Crack

 

---crashing into the sharp, thorny thickets. "Fifteen... fourteen... thirteen... twelve..." I knew it wasn't real. I knew he wasn't here. He was in jail, but I could hear his voice in my---

 

Crack

 

Unbearable pain.

 

Crack

 

Passionate love.

You are reading story p a r a l l e l at novel35.com

 

Crack

 

All consuming grief.

 

Crack

 

Fight or flight. Yes or no. Blue or red. Broken or whole. Pain. Love. And grief. And pain. And love and loss and grief and anger and pain and love love l o  v   e    and overwhelming fear and fear and run run runnn and fight or flight fight or flight fight flight freeze freeze fear f r  e   e    z     e      and compounds and molecules and atoms and quarks stretching across the endless bounds of impossible reality and---

 

Crack

 

---

 

"Hello?!?!"

 

I couldn't feel anything below my jaw. Where... where am I? What am I? How am I? Fire. Fire and burning and... yes, it was coming back to me now. I remembered clawing my way through the burning building, desperately trying to save the screaming girl before...

 

...why can't I feel anything? What happened to... oh, no. She was on fire. I failed. I failed her, but... no, she wasn't. She was fine, and I was carrying her outside when...

 

...my arm was starting to go numb as it turned a sickly shade of grey. This wasn't how I wanted to go out, I just wanted to see her one last time before my death. See her... her... who is she? Who am I? Who is...

 

...wait, how is my arm is starting to go numb? I can't feel anything... and I can, at the same time. "Jace, you're a hero, man," the paramedic's voice echoed through my head as a twinge of a feeling I couldn't quite put my finger on made me ache at the core of my being... the core of my being... but where is my body? Where am I? Who is she? WHO IS SHE?!?! Who is she... Aaaa... Ammmmm...

 

.....

 

Amber! Amber. That name made me feel loved, and safe, and seen. I placed my hand on the glass right up against hers, our rainbow nail polish matching each other's. I just wanted to hug her one more time and tell her... tell her that I....

 

...okay, I could definitely feel something now. I could... oh god. Oh god. It burns, getmeoutgetmeoutgetmeout.....

 

...did I have an Amber? What does that even mean? My hand on the glass slipped as I... I couldn't even conceptualize it. I tried to scream, but the void was pulling me in as she pounded against the glass. But wait... there was nobody there. Was she gone? Was I gone? What the f.....

 

...am I dead? Was that after I saved the girl? But I didn't... I could hear her family's sobs... no, I couldn't. I was sitting in the dressing room, crying into my helmet, but I definitely saved that girl. Why was I crying? Was I even crying? And why is the void at my feet again... what do you want from me?

 

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!?!"

 

It was all gone. Memories echoed through my head, but the void was swirling shut. I began to ground myself as a cold, burning sensation swept over my limbs. The memories were real, but... but they weren't mine. Yet, at the same time, they were. But not mine. Where were my memories?

 

"Hello?" I called out again, but it didn't matter. I was alone in the darkness.

 

Alone in the darkness, in the unbreakable silence of whatever prison of a place I'm stuck in. Alone in the---

 

An eerie chuckling sound rippled through the room and haunted me to my core. I had heard that laugh before, that fractured laugh of someone who had been shattered and rebuilt just to be shattered all over again.

 

Oh no.

 

Oh no no no.

 

I was not alone in the darkness.

 

My killer was here in the room with me.

You can find story with these keywords: p a r a l l e l, Read p a r a l l e l, p a r a l l e l novel, p a r a l l e l book, p a r a l l e l story, p a r a l l e l full, p a r a l l e l Latest Chapter