Chereads / The Edge of Space / Chapter 3 - The Suffering Begins

Chapter 3 - The Suffering Begins

O'shae opened his eyes a while later after having slept and giving himself time to process thing. He would say good morning but he was all alone and he supposed earth time probably wasn't the standard. Not that he could tell what time it was anyways. He looked down and found himself in the captains chair where he had fallen a asleep. He was wearing the clothes he had found, which were gray and similar to a jump suit.

He looked ahead of him, taking in the vastness of space. All of a sudden though he felt as if he had sunk into his seat. His hand gripped the chair hard enough to make his knuckles white. What was giving him such a feeling of unease? It was something about the image in front of him. There was something wrong. Something that couldn't be. He didn't consciously realize it at first since he never looked up into the sky at night much anyways. Not only thay but the light pollution on Earth made the night sky something that wasn't special. He had noticed it now though. There was nothing.

This was more than the nothing you think of when you think of space. Usually there would be stars, debris or other anomalies. This time though... nothing. It was empty. Just black emptiest occupied by nothing. He quickly stood up from his chair to make sure he was seeing correctly. There was no way this was possible right? The universe was vast and endless with countless stars, how could there be nothing?

"Where are the stars?!" O'shae yelled out to the ship.

For the first time there was no response. What was going on? He suddenly swung his head and body around to look behind him, a creeping feeling having found its way upon his back. He must be going insane. He was no longer on the ship but now floating in space. It was still nothing. All kinds of thoughts invaded O'shae's mind as he tried to comprehend what was going on.

A moment later a flurry of colors invaded his mind. He saw them vividly from every corner of his vision. He could feel his mind fading. But he had to fight it. He reached a hand out. As he did so, a point of darkness appeared in the flurry of colors. It started to pull him in without mercy. He gritted his teeth as he resisted. He closed his eyes and held them shut with force. Finally after a moment, the feeling was gone.

He stayed there for a moment, unsure of what he would see next. As he kept his eyes closed he started to hear voices. His mind immediately thought that maybe he had woken up from a dream. He opened his eyes and found that he was wrong. Instead he found himself in a new place. This one with a floor.

He immediately noticed the people around him. If you could call them people at least. He first noticed someone with six arms and yellow skin, standing at about seven feet. O'shae darted his eyes to the left and saw someone with a large horn sticking out from their forehead and with mud brown scales. With a pivot of his foot and turn he then saw someone else with blue skin and tiger like stripes upon their face. With constant glances and body rotations, he noticed that this placed was filled with what could only be described as aliens. His head was spinning. So much had happened in such a short period of time and he was trying his best to take it all in.

He closed his eyes for a moment and breathed in. One... Two... Three. He exhaled. He opened his eyes and looked around more calmly now. He had to figure out what was going on once again. He stared at the aliens for a while starting to notice something. Unless they all simultaneously had emotions right now that looked very similar to confusion within their race, then that meant he wasn't the only one unaware of what was going on right now. That's strange. How did everyone end up here then? Did this also mean that everyone didn't know how to speak to each other? That may make things worse.

As he eyes gazed around he noticed that the building they were in was also futuristic. In fact, the design was very similar to the ship. The two things must be related then.

After a fee moments of thinking he started to get frustrated. He was really hoping he would have maybe gained the knowledge or wits of all those characters from the web novels he used to read. In the end though, he had no idea what to do next. He looked up and noticed that the room seemed far fuller than before. In fact, it looked like hundreds of aliens of different sorts were here now. Before he could even try to contemplate what the hell was going on, the lights went out all at once.

There was a sudden panic as everyone started to get a bit loud, causing the room to echo with no lack of strange noises. Suddenly the lights came back on, but only dimly. Red lights started to flash like an alarm without the sound. Then a voice rang out and echoed from all around.

"Welcome all who have been chosen. You have been brought here to fight for an unknown prize which will only be revealed at the end. You are here for the entertainment of those who watch, your safety and well being have not and will nto be taken into consideration. You have all been installed with a general language to understand each other. Once the challenge starts, you will be able to find 'loot' and other items to help you. Now get to entertaining" The voice said in a somewhat monotone voice.

A flashing light filled O'shae's eyes and made him just about blind for the moment as he heard the finally line from the voice.

"Let the suffering begin"