The sky—or what passes for it here—is white, and yet it provides no light, and casts no shadows on the dark ground. The platform under your feet is spongy, as though it’s not really there, and whenever you touch it, little particles of… whatever it is float off in fractal spirals. It’s mostly flat, but covered in misshapen mounds which look oddly identical, and a few tall pillars stretch up into the sky. Far above you and below stretch out more platforms and pillars of the oily, spongy darkness, with dully shimmering whiteness filling in the gaps between them.
Here and there between the platforms float bright sparkling balls of glittering light. They look insubstantial, and oddly… two-dimensional? None are near enough to try jumping onto, but you’re not sure you’d want to try if they were.
From all around you, you hear them screech, the beings that were hunting you. The beings that are still hunting you; you’ve evaded them for now, but they’re everywhere. And they’re getting closer, their raw metallic screeches slowly crescendoing against the low background buzzing. And they’re the only living things here. No plants. No insects. Just these beasts and, for the last few hours, yourself.
And… you swear that every now and then, there’s something else there, watching, waiting, just at the edge of your vision, but whenever you turn to look, there’s nothing there. Could it be related to the sound of distant whispers you can’t quite hear?
Instinctively, you pull out your phone and check it again. Once again, you apparently have maximum signal (and battery too, even though you know it was under 50% before you came here), but it’s unusable. It looks like everything’s written in a thousand different languages at once, and every picture is staring at you somewhat uncomfortably.
Where even are you? This is too real to just be a dream. Is this death? Eternally hunted through this maze of dark platforms? And what happens if you fall?
Or they catch you?
A screech sounds, far closer than the others, and you turn to see one of the creatures stalking across the platform behind you. Seven red eyes glare at you from its two heads—the only colour you can see in this bland world—and its five legs are tipped in gleaming metallic claws. It opens a mouth and fluid drools from between its sharp teeth, hissing as it dissolves the dark platform. Around its feet flickers a shadow—something you yourself do not currently possess—which moves less like a real shadow and more like a two-dimensional creature that just happens to be anchored to this being’s feet.
You step backwards, stopping just in time to prevent yourself from finding out what happens if you fall.
But… what are you supposed to do? There’s no way to talk to them. There’s no way to fight them except with your bare hands.
There’s no way out.
Except down.
And to think, only this morning you were just an average teenager…