21. Chapter 21:
Chapter 21:
I looked around, or what must have been around, for I had no reference point to check it against. I could not tell how much time had passed, my mind and body just floating independent of each other it seemed, aimless. I soon forgot my name, and I did not want to remember it.
All of a sudden the Witch around me began to darken in colour, become more corporeal, though never actually getting quite close enough to having a physical form for me to dismiss it being in actuality something I had thought up. Nothing happened for a moment, as the world stood still and I waited, not expectant nor bored, in a liminality of emotion.
My chest began to vibrate again, but I felt no pain - I doubted whether I could even feel pain anymore. I could hear what the Witch was telling me. I felt a wave of anticipation followed by terror - what was I going to find out?
"PAST. YOUR'S." I felt my mind being transported into a younger, less developed form. "YOUR PARENTS WERE BAKERS" I heard the smell of fresh bread rising hot through my chest, exiting through my skin. I smelt the dry air rushing past my face, saw the flavour of sweet cakes filling my mouth. "TAKEN." The motions rushed away.
I expectantly waited for any more information, but my chest vibrated at a low humm, transferring no more information. I cannot explain why, but I felt strangely confused.
I Had expected something more in some way. Something slightly more complex, some special past I had not known about. I ha traveled who knows how many miles, for I couldn't even guess how long. I had almost died, multiple times - gotten sick, experienced more excruciating pain than I ever had in my life. And this... Is everything I get.
I felt a dense mass accumulating in my throat, something that made me angry and unbearable sad at the same time. I did not know what to do (I could do nothing), I did not know why or how... anything. I was powerless in front of whatever disgusting creature had trapped me in this cage of its mind. The rage corroded away at any other thoughts, and I was left with a writing mass of hate and resentment. I had expected to feel something on having heard about my past, something that made me unique or interesting or sad. But I felt nothing. I wanted more. I was greedy.
I tried to concentrate my thoughts out of my anger. I began to vibrate more sporadically as I did so, almost as if I was disrupting the frequency of the witch's mind, as if my thoughts were counteracting the control the witch had on me. "Why me?" I enunciated through my body.
I stopped vibrating for a split-second.
There was no response.
This only made me more angry. This made me want to scream even louder into the void, channel everything I had into the words I chosen to convey.
"Why did you choose me?"
The vibration in my body began again, with the vibrations at a greater amplitude.
"NO REASON." I could barely think over the movement of my body, my flesh overcoming my body. "YOU ARE NOTHING." "WE HAVE MADE OURSELVES GODS." "WE ARE IMMORTAL." I saw different colours so quickly that I doubted that my eyes would be able to resist. "YOU ARE NOTHING." "YOU ARE ONLY BECAUSE A PART OF US IN IN YOU, LIKE THAT CHILD." I had nothing to think or say to this. "YOU TRY TO KILL US." "LIFE WAS ABANDONED LONG AGO." "WE SEE YOUR PAST, YOUR PRESENT, YOUR FUTURE." "WE HAVE NO NEED FOR LIFE, JUST EXISTENCE." "IMMORTALITY IS A PROCESS THAT REQUIRES SACRIFICE." "ONLY THE YOUNG ARE WORTHY ENOUGH." I winced at the clear attack towards the young. I found each and every word in their stilted, broken poem of ideas disgusting. I hated everything with a burning passion I was not entirely in control of. "ONLY EXISTENCE HOLDS US BACK." "THAT IS WHY YOU ARE HERE." "FREE US FROM ITS SHACKLES." "DO OUR WORK FOR US." "LET US ENTER NON-EXISTENCE." "AS IF WE NEVER WERE." "THINK US AWAY."
I suddenly found myself able to move about in the endless freefall I found myself in. Thinking of nothing else ot do in my state of violent anger, delusion and tentative uncertainty, I thought that I would try and hurt the withes in any way I could. My mind was tired, so the physical form would have to do.
I turned around to find my pack, and opened it up. I pulled out a small sling, and grabbed a small metal lump out of one of the side pockets. I tried to sling it towards the Witch, who I now saw as a compressed object somewhere in front of me.
The swing did not swing properly. The stout rope that held it at both ends twirled and slowed in the air, and the leather itself did not generate the force to keep the nugget in the sling. I released it, watching it float towards the shapeless creature. I knew that my efforts were futile.
I heard that mind-snapping cackling once more, and I felt my body slowly accelerating as it fell. I saw myself from above, hurtling down towards a ground that was coming ever quickly closer.
The world became a brilliant white the second I collided with the ground. I did not at first feel the pain, only heard the thud and the snaps of my body slamming against a mossy floor.
My body vibrated again.
"STUPID THING." "POWERLESS." "UNIMPORTANT." "PUPPET."
Quiet settled over me, and I drifted off into sleep.