Darkness was all around me. From every angle I was stifled, an infinite weight pressing on all sides. Movement was impossible, though I still tried. My awakening existence demanded that I move, yet the all-encompassing tightness imprisoning me prevented it. Muscles pulsed, ligaments pulled. The unending mass of black fought against me.

  An eon passed; my attempts never ceased. Eventually, my persistence won. I felt my… fingertips(?) press back against the weight, pushing the oppressing mass away and allowing the digits room to wiggle. I felt a thrill fill my burgeoning mind at this small victory and worked even harder to free myself from this black prison. My neck(?) twitched, causing my head(?) to shift. The twisting motion pushed against the blackness, the pressure on my cheek(?) increasing as it pressed back at the unknown mass holding me. My jaw moved, opening my mouth. On instinct my lungs tried to pull air in, but this only caused bits of rock(?) and soil(?) to enter and push down into my throat. I hacked and coughed, desperate to breathe(?), but there was no air here.

  I drowned slowly and in silence.

  Furiously, I continued to move, each wiggle and twist a hard-fought battle. My fingers grasped and clutched, and eventually I found enough purchase to pull myself in a direction. My arm(?) strained as I clutched at the dirt and pulled, forcing my entire body through the black. Inch by hellish inch I pulled myself through the darkness. That airless, lightless void seemed endless, yet I did not relent. Over and over I continued, my left arm reaching out and digging through the black, grasping at and using it to pull myself forwards.

  A thousand years passed. Maybe more. I continued onwards. I rested when I could, slept when I could, yet I did not quit. I would have screamed if not for the dirt, frustration and anger and fear raging through my newborn mind as I wormed my way through that all-encompassing darkness. Madness edged in at the corners of my brain, yet I retained my sanity and stubbornly refused to give in. My fingers continued to dig, my mind refused to wane.

  I would not give up.

  It seemed as if another eon had passed when my fingers pushed through something hard, then met nothing. The absence of the unending weight was so alien that upon feeling it all of my movement stopped. I waved my fingertips about, then felt cold(?) air blow past. Excitement surged within me and I scramble forwards, fingers digging through the darkness, trying to reach this new yet oh so familiar sensation. Eventually my hand burst through, followed by my arm, then my shoulder, then the rest of me. I pulled my body through the rock and as soon as my head burst out and into the open air I spat out the soil and filth inside my mouth.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  For the first time, I managed to breathe.

  I gasped and coughed and hacked and shuddered, relishing the cold, stale air that rushed into my lungs. I continued to scramble out of the hole until my entirety was completely free from the dark embrace of the earth.

  I lay on the ground, face pressed against the dirt for who knows how long. I was free, finally free. I breathed in and out, enjoying the taste of the air and the lightness of my body. I felt so tired. Exhausted. My mind slowly drifted towards sleep.

  Before I could reach blessed slumber, something appeared in front of my vision.

  I flinched at the glowing blue box that was in front of my face and tried to scramble away from it. For some reason my right hand and legs refused to move so all I had managed was to flail around a bit.

  What was this thing? And those words. What did they mean?

  I tried to move my right hand towards the floating blue box to touch it, but once again it refused to listen. My gaze traveled down to my shoulder and soon found out why. Where my right arm should have been there was nothing more than a ragged stump.

  My arm! What the hell happened to my arm?!

  I ignored the box, too preoccupied with my missing arm. I twisted my body and tried to stand, only my legs wouldn’t work. The movement caused me to fall on my back. I lifted my head and looked down, quickly discovering that my arm wasn’t the only thing missing.

  No…

  Everything below my chest was missing. Nothing remained except rent, ragged flesh.

  I opened my mouth to scream, only for a shrill, inhuman shriek to emerge from it instead.