My head... my head... My head is hurting. Why is my head—hurting? Wha ...t is this 'information'? Karma thought. The pain throbbed in waves, muddling his thoughts.
Then, suddenly, the pain dimmed, loosening its grip, allowing him to think—barely. Then a realisation occurs to him that.
He didn't have a hand to hold his head. He didn't have a head to hurt. In fact, he didn't have a body at all.
"Where is my hand?!" he yelled. "WHERE IS MY BODY?!"
...Then how... how was I grabbing my head just now? He whispered into the nothingness. Panic spread through him like wildfire.
What am I? It was only a leftover instinct from being human, a reflex drilled into him by a lifetime of existence in a physical form.
His words echoed in the endless void, yet no answer came. It was just him—and the crushing emptiness. His breath grew ragged, though he wasn't even breathing.
Calm down. Calm down. If I can still think, I am still alive, right? Just breathe.
" "
He took a deep breath—or at least he thought he did. A strange calm washed over him, though there was no air, no lungs, no anything. But it helped. The panic shrank enough for his thoughts to sharpen.
What is this place? Karma began to focus, studying his surroundings—or whatever passed for "surroundings" here. There was no left or right, no up or down. Just endless nothingness stretching in all directions. And yet...
When I tried to search my surroundings there was nothing, however I somehow saw tree which was upside down, ...no it wasn't a tree it was it something beyond my understanding but I can only think of it as tree.
Karma has witnessed something beyond human understanding —The Tree, which has many names.
I tried to move forward but I wasn't able to... I have to move forward...
Suddenly he trembled and saw an colourless yet bright line which seems to hold all colours coming out of the 'The Tree', connecting to his soul.
His consciousness turned into chaos and everything turned off.
Inside the temple on the side of the pound lay a body as if the soul was sucked out of it. The finger moved as if it came back to life.
Karma woke up on the place where he had lost his consciousness found himself on the side of the pound and backed off as fast as possible.
He felt a throbbing pain in his head and held his head with his hand, the pain was unbearable to the point where he tried to scream but no sound came out his mouth.
However slowly the pain started to became bearable, he slowly removed his hand from the head and started to think what what has just happened but didn't got any answer.
What just happened? Am I still alive? But... where was I? That place... that Tree... He thought.
He used his hand as a support to stand but he wasn't able to and realised that his leg were still numb from the things he had just experienced and sat there for few minutes.
----------------
At Home
"Karma you look exhausted and your clothes are dirty" Karma's mother who had woken after sometime he left for the morning walk, asked him as she saw him on the main gate entering.
"Yeah, I did some sprinting on the walk so I got tried and sat down on the side of the temple leaning back against it wall." Karama said.
It would be best to keep this thing to myself untill I... can explain it ?. He thought to himself.
He didn't tell his mother or grandmother anything as he himself don't know what happened or actually he didn't know how to put that in words if he told them about it or anyone they will just thought that he joking or something along that lines and if he insists on it they might think he has gone mad.
" Go and take a bath" His mother said with simple look, unbeknown to what had happened, however she can feel that he is trying to hide something it can be called mother's instinct.
In the shower, water streamed over his face, but his mind was far away. The Tree. The line. The void. It all felt like a fever dream, yet the lingering pain in his head said otherwise
I can't focus on anything . He was now in the room putting on the clothes after bathing his mind still filled with the strange event that happened earlier.
Coming down stair he sat on the sofa facing the T.V.
' ...yesterday, last night there were some strange phenomenon were recorded in the space by satellite that we currently don't know what actually happened, but according to the some space scientist the stars were moving in the strange manner that was never recovered before in the last twenty years'
'More puzzlingly, electromagnetic field disturbances were detected on Earth shortly after the event, with preliminary theories pointing to stellar winds as a possible cause. However, the anomalies didn't stop there.'
'For a few minutes, satellite signals—transmitted through eleven-dimensional coordinates—were disrupted. This marked a rare and unexplained failure in a system designed to function reliably under even the most extreme conditions.'
"Huh... " Karma who was eating breakfast looked in shock to the news showing on the T.V. and feroze.
The words echoing in his mind. Stars moving strangely... electromagnetic disturbances. Could it be related to the Tree? No. That's impossible... isn't it? He thought.
" Karma... Karma 'Huh... Ha' " Karma who was in shock and deep thought suddenly came to reality as he was called by grandmother.
"Why are you not eating? " His grandmother asked.
"I-I was focused on the news."
"It's not a good habit to suddenly stop eating just because you are focused on something else." His grandmother with little strict tone.
" Sorry " He replied with apologetic voice.
I should ask grandma about the temple as she may know about it after all she been living here for a long time.