She needed air! She began coughing, struggling for breath as she laid there, the floor smooth and cold against her cheek. She didn't dare to open her eyes, Nivin was too afraid of what she would find if she did. The memories of water and fear weighed heavy, sticking to her like tar she wasn't able to shake off.
There was no sound, it was absolutely quiet. She didn't hear her blood rushing through her veins, her breath passed her lips but was not heard. Silence covered everything like freshly fallen snow.
Something brushed by her cheeks with a featherlight touch, making her open her eyes as she tried to scramble up and away, barely managing to stand before toppling over at the sight of n̶̟̐̃ȯ̴̫̲t̵͉͂͝h̸͎͖̓͝î̴̗̪n̵̘͆͘g̷̜͊. Nivin took a few deep breaths. She had to calm down. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea. Calming down… Breathe in, breathe out. Okay.
The world around her was white.
No wait, that was wrong.
The longer she looked, the more static began filling her mind, as if there was something here but her mind just wasn't able to comprehend it. For her, it looked like static from a TV accompanied by the white noise from a radio and she got the feeling there was so much more just behind that static. She was looking at something. Something her mind couldn't comprehend. Encrypted with no key to translate.
It felt familiar.
No horizon, no landmarks, no mountains, no plains, no hills, no nothing, only her and her reflection on the floor surrounded by static. She knelt down to inspect her reflection more closely. It was a familiar sight. It was her. But at the same time something was almost overlapping her reflection, hints of feathers maybe, that flashed for just seconds past her vision before returning to the original image. It was eerily similar to her dream, albeit a bit clever now. That's when she noticed her hands. Her wounds were healed up. She couldn't help but stare at them in wonder. Her fingertips and palm were covered in scar tissue yes, but it looked almost old. There was no pain. Like it happened years ago, not minutes.
Something brushed against her shoulder and she promptly stood up and whirled around.
Again. Nothing.
"What the hell is happening here?" she whispered to herself
"That's what we'd like to know too.," came from behind, and once again, Nivin whirled around, only to stand face to face with her two best friends. Alive.
They looked…healthy, their wounds healed up in a similar fashion. She saw massive scars covering Daniels throat, and poking out from underneath his black and white hoodie, overlapping older scars she knew he carried. He looked worn and tired, pale eyes muted, but he gave Nivin a tired smile. Mary's skin was covered in scars, and she looked almost like a shattered piece of pottery that was glued back together. Her shoulders were slumped, her skin almost a sickly gray. Both of them were showing the same weird distortion Nivin noticed in her own reflection. Glimpses of fur and scales flickering across their forms, but never sticking around for longer than a fraction of a second. Nivin didn't care as she jumped forwards to fling herself at both of them, pulling them into a strong embrace. The warmth emitted from their bodies as they wrapped their arms around each other was the best reassurance she could ever get. They were here, they were alive and they were together again. That was all that mattered.
"I am so sorry, I never meant to put you two in danger! It's my fault and now we're here and-" she broke off, surprised, as Daniel softly slapped the back of her head. -Shut up- His look implied. -This is NOT your fault.- Nivin deflated, but Mary wasn't having it either.
"We decided to go into that cave with ya Niv! We decided to follow ya, ya dingus!. So don't blame yourself. We're alive, aren't we?" Mary smiled when Nivin raised her eyebrow. She stepped back and out of the embrace.
"Uhm… well. You see… that's kinda the problem? I don't know how much you remember but I'm pretty sure the last time I saw you," she pointed at Mary, "-you decided to play strawberry jam under a rock and Daniel," she pointed to the guy in question, "went bungee jumping without a rope." Daniel glared at her and Mary just looked sheepish.
"Well, what would ya call it then?" Mary asked Daniel before looking to Nivin, "And what even happened to ya?" Daniel didn't say a word. He hasn't since they found each other in this strange place shrouded in static.
"I panicked, okay? You were gone and I had no shot of getting you out of there, I tried! But I had a chance to get to Daniel. I had to at least try!" Before she even finished her sentence, the guy in question was suddenly in her space, his hands gripping her shoulder and his eyes looking absolutely scared, a clear question in them. Nivin looked to the side. "I didn't see where you landed, you might have been injured but alive. I wouldn't have forgiven myself if I didn't try to get to you." She paused for a second. "In the end it didn't matter what my plan was, the ground crumpled underneath me. I fell into a lake before the falling debris knocked me out cold." Nivin met Daniel's eyes. "I saw you when I fell." He pulled her into a bone crushing hug, his huge frame curled around her. She realized with a start they were both trembling. She felt Mary joining them and for a moment, they just stood there, curled around each other, basking in the comfort of each other's presence.
Time was weird here, that Nivin could say for sure. They might have stood there for seconds, or years. It was hard to tell. But once they separated once more, they started to think about their situation more.
"If this is the afterlife, it's a really shitty one." Mary whispered into the constant silence of this place. Daniel made a garbled sound, it might have been a laugh or a smartass comment, knowing him. Her eyes fell on the scars littering his throat. "Does it hurt?" She awkwardly pointed at the scars and his hands shot up to trace them before falling back to his side. He shrugged nonchalantly before making a 'so-so' motion. He looked annoyed, and the woman couldn't blame him. Daniel always valued his strength with words. They were his biggest assets. To suddenly be without them, Nivin couldn't imagine. "We will solve this. Somehow. I have no idea how but then again, we are definitely not among the living so who knows what the hell is possible here." She gave him a reassuring smile, and Daniel huffed before his head suddenly snapped to the left, his eyes focused on something else entirely. Then he set off towards whatever he saw. Nivin followed his line of sight, but didn't see anything. God, it felt exactly like that one time when her cat decided to stare at a corner in her room for multiple minutes without blinking even though nothing was there. It was a concerning feeling.
"Whelp, seems like he found something and I really don't wanna split up.," Mary said and shook her head, as she quickly headed after him. "Guys, wait for me!" Nivin said before running after them.
The feeling of wrongness started to set in as they walked. A glance to Mary and Daniel confirmed she wasn't the only one who felt it.
"You guys feel it too, don't you?" Nivin mumbled and Daniel nodded.
"Something isn't right. Something's missing." Mary looked up, her two slightly different, discolored yellow eyes looking troubled. No, green. Nivin knows they are green.
"I feel like I've forgotten something. Something important. I feel...", she paused for a second, "-thrown off balance."
Nivin agreed.
The feeling had been more prominent when she woke up but lingered even now. Whatever was happening went against every set rule of the w̸o̶r̷l̵d̸ ̴s̶y̵s̴t̸e̶m̷ and someone was bending them to a point where they threatened to snap. She knew this place. And Ǹ̶̞i̸̠͝m̷͚̋ṷ̴̅ẹ̸͐ was aware that they wern't supposed to be here.
-WE FEAR THIS IS OUR FAULT, AGNO.-
Three massive heads suddenly rose from the ground, breaking the mirror-like surface like water, their single body that joined the three long necks together shrouded by fog and static. The creature heads were covered by animal bone-like masks that appeared fused to its serpentine necks. The eagle skull on the left lowered itself a bit and the right head -a tiger maybe? Or a lion?- followed suit, while the middle head remained where it was. Nivin couldn't identify the animal, the skull didn't look like it came from any animal she knew. It was blank, didn't follow normal skull structures, and the only holes were for the eyes on the sides. She had to admit, this one was more terrifying than the other heads.
The creature's voice came from all around them, breaking the silence of the place in a way not even their own voice managed.
-WELCOME TO AXIS.-