Chapter XV

“What’s this?”

I opened my eyes… or at least I think I did… I’m… not sure. Where was Ignis? I didn’t feel like I was in that jail cell any longer… I looked around. I saw… myself? Alright… this was too confusing. I was looking at… myself… floating in thin air. But I wasn’t... wasn’t inside myself. It was like watching a movie! Like— Like! Observing. Looking down at a character. I… don’t know how else to explain it.

Look here! I was floating, alright?! I was floating, and I was watching myself float. There was nothing else, literally empty, like being inside a giant pool, but not being able to place the walls or the surface. I saw and felt myself blink.

“I don’t get it,” I heard that me say out loud when I tried to speak the words.

He screamed.

He sobbed quietly and covered himself, curling up as I tried to recoil away from this horrible vision. But… I couldn’t. He could hide away from all this. But I felt no shield. And neither did he, because I was him, and he was me, exposed and…

“LET ME OUT!” I heard me shriek. I held my breath for as long as I could. I felt dizzy.

“Who are you?” a female voice abruptly interrupted my thoughts. I was almost relieved to hear somebody else other than myself.

“Hi, could you help me get out of here?” I pleaded as my voice echoed to myself.

“What do you mean out?” the same voice replied. It sounded so… empty.

“Out! I mean out! Out of all… this! I want to go back home!” I begged, feeling my voice breaking up.

“Where is home?” a second voice asked in that same horrible empty tone.

“What makes home… home?” the first voice insisted, impassive.

“Home is home! Back on Earth! I want to go back! Let me out!” I cried, feeling powerless; overwhelmed.

“Are you part of your home, or is your home part of you?” probed yet another voice.

“What do you even mean? I… I… stop…! Stop!” I yelled as hard as I could.

And then… then… they all began unanimously. “Discover yourself, not through the origin, but through the objective. Your time is near.” Then, gradually… they were gone.

“Wha—What does that even mean?” I opened my eyes to look around, confused.

And then, this intense brightness lit the whole kit and caboodle up with an intensity I had never seen before, with the fury of a thousand suns, drawing near. Closer, closer…!