The Indefinite Glitch

I.

»Every story has a beginning and an ending – Always! But this story had neither one nor the other. Because everything started with an endless dark void, that haunted you to the end of your life. Without any memories of the past or present; you had to experience everything again like a reset; only that this new beginning was accompanied with the chance for a new beginning. And that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, was it? And this story is about a brave, very attractive, intelligent girl...«

»Can you just finally tell the story! And do you have to talk that cheesy? Besides: Stop giving yourself compliments!«

»Okay, man! Let me live... but alright; let's dive into this supernatural story of this great girl then.«

»I think, I'm going to throw up – You're doing it again. Do you realize you're talking about yourself? Not that the past went to your head...«

»Hey! You little, ungrateful – «

»Arina.«

»Erm, I-I mean, you lovely child, you. Wait a minute: What are you doing here, Frypan? Why are you not with Newt – «

»Since I'm already here, would you just tell the story now, would you?«

»Relax! You don't have to criticize me like that. You really don't! Very well then: It all started when the girl woke up in complete darkness...«

An unpleasant smell went straight up my nose. I opened my eyes gently and sat up on my bed – admittedly hard bed. From then on I knew something was wrong. I blinked a few times and narrowed my eyes so that I could see the silhouettes better. But I soon gave up trying – it was pitch-dark; I couldn't even see my own hand in front of my eyes. Only a few objects were illuminated by the little efficient red light that was coming on and made me flinch. Now they were blinking on and off all the time, so that I could recognize the objects to some extent. I scanned every corner and direction with my eyes, searching the relatively small, narrow surrounding for a way out, but this was of rather little use.

Seized with a panic, which, under the circumstances, was only natural, many questions swirled around in my head, to which I had no answers at all and which only made me even more nervous. Breathing got a lot harder for me and I turned my head in every possible direction. The red light above me suddenly became a lot more threatening and my heart was about to jump out of my chest. I just wanted to get out of here; it felt like the walls were getting closer and closer. I wanted to breathe fresh air and feel the cooling breeze on my skin again. The rapid breathing made me increasingly dizzy and my vision got blurry. If I weren't sitting on the floor, I would no longer have a firm footing, would've toppled over. I pressed my hand on my stomach: I had the bad feeling that everything was going to come up, everything that could only come up. Even on my forehead there were small beads of sweat that slowly dripped from my temple to my chin and then to the floor. I was hot and cold at the same time; everything seemed so surreal as if it was all just a bad dream. But when I pinched my skin, I just flinched, I didn't wake up. Not only was I panicking, no, the spot that I had pinched burned like hell!

What had I done to face such agony?

And suddenly, as if at the push of a button – as if I already practiced waking up in a dark room, without any memories – I breathed in and out evenly. If I didn't maintain my composure now and just sat in a corner crying, it wouldn't help anyone. I should concentrate on the essentials, should try to visualize the most important questions to somehow get at least a small overview in my mind.