1 How it all began

First Pov

It has been a day like any other, boring. I always had the feeling that I didn´t have a purpose, after I dropped out of school due to extreme social anxieties and fell into strong depression that feeling turned into me questioning why I was even living in the first place and if it was even worth torturing myself if I was going to die anyway.

Don´t get me wrong, I never tried to end my life, and I never had the guts to do that, it was all in my head but I certainly wouldn´t complain if I was going to suddenly be killed by some random psycho on the street. But I certainly would never have thought that I was going to turn into Nothingness, literally.

Right now, I was on my way to a research facility outside the city. Why? Certainly not because I was working there, I hadn´t left the house in two years, no, I was bringing my dad his research papers he had forgotten at home. After my mother left us for another man when I was seven, he always did his best to be a good dad even if he was extremely busy with being a head researcher. I know that it isn´t easy to raise a kid alone, especially one as problematic as me, so I have always been very grateful to him, enough so to go out of the house with his VERY important papers, go to a place I have never been to and talk to strangers there.

So here I was, in front of a giant white building with reflecting glass, electric fences, and heavily armed guards. While I slowly walked to the gate, many thoughts like 'Will they shoot me on sight?'. 'am I even allowed to be here?', 'it should be alright After all Dad called me and asked me to bring them but what should I say? I can´t just walk in' and many more went through my head. It didn´t take long before my thoughts were interrupted by a voice from a microphone.

''Stop where you are, this is a restricted area, if you proceed we will open fire! Identify yourself!'' I heard it shout. Shit, what now?

''A-ahem, hi, I'm the son of Head Researcher Sterling, my dad called me to bring him the research papers he forgot at home. He said they were important and he needed them as fast as possible'' I nervously said.

After a short pause the voice from the mic responded ''go in, you are being urgently expected'' well, that went better than expected

After entering the gate and going through a few fast security tests, which I'm sure would have been longer if the papers weren´t so important, I was led to a waiting room where I immediately spotted my dad amongst other people.

''There you are, why did it take so long? Never mind, that isn´t important, give me my papers'' he said impatiently but excitedly. Wow, I have rarely seen him like that. After I took my bag off to open it, he just snatched the whole bag, tore it open, and took his papers.

After he quickly scanned through them, he excitedly turned to the other people in the room ''It´s all here. We can finally begin'' After he said these words the stoic faces of everyone else in the room brightened and he turned to me ''sorry son, I don´t have much time to chat, with these data we can finally start. We need to quickly go to work and when it starts I will call you to witness history, only if you want of course'' he said excitedly.

Witness history? don´t really care about that but I have nothing better to do and he seems to care a lot about it. ''sure, why not'' I replied. He happily said ''you won´t regret it. you will be there when humanity finally reaches a higher dimension but you need to wait here for a while, I will call for you when we´re ready'' And waiting I did, fortunately, the coach was really comfortable and I had my phone with me as I got the call only after two hours.

I was standing next to my dad, in front of a thick glass window and a control panel with many buttons, switches, and monitors, together with many other researchers and people in fancy-looking suits I hadn´t seen earlier. Through the window, I could see a big pipe, lights, and cables. My dad had a mic in his hand ''We will officially bring the reactor online for the first time and make history in T-30 seconds, T-29, T-28, ...'' As he continued I was wondering why I was even here, I mean I don´t even know what they're doing as dad never talked about his work, top secret and all that.

At 0 he and several other researchers pressed buttons, flipped switches, or turned keys. For the first few seconds nothing happened. After a whole minute of terrifying silence, we finally saw it. Inside the big pipe, in the very middle, a white line was forming, or more precisely growing as it grew thicker and brighter with every second.

The mood in the room noticeably grew lighter but still tense. After another minute something new happened, the white line has now grown to be about 6-7 cm thick but what really caught our eye was what looked like red sparks. They grew more and more frequent the more time passed until they became whole lightning bolts circling across the white line and soon new lightning bolts appeared but each one in a new color.

I still had no idea what I was watching or how much time had passed but it was just so beautiful, almost hypnotic, that I honestly didn´t even care. Time passed and more bolts appeared and now even in colors I have never seen before. After even more time there were so many streaks of lightning that they fully enclosed the white line and spun around it like a metal cable. It was at that moment that some people noticed something and started talking but I didn´t pay attention to them, not only because I was enchanted by what I was seeing but also because I had no clue.

As the room grew louder by the second, I could have sworn that I started hearing hissing like gas was escaping but paid it no mind until it turned into cracking. Finally, after who knows how long, I looked up from the phenomenon that was clearly beyond anything ever discovered and saw something that made my blood turn cold.

The once thick glass was now full of cracks but the strange thing was that right in front of this 'thing' were none, which was coincidentally where I was standing, and only the further you looked to more and thicker they were. Upon even closer inspection I saw that the cracks expanded even beyond the window but not the wand like I thought initially but through the air.

As I looked behind me I couldn´t help but start to be afraid, in the far, all there were were clacks, no walls, no doors, and most importantly no exit. Now even though I was panicking and no longer cared about the 'thing', I immediately noticed that there were far fewer people in the now even smaller room. Not even seconds after I saw why, as the cracks expanded the moment it touched some of the people, it looked like a broken mirror image except that they got sucked into the crack and disappeared.

I stood there in a daze, not understanding what was happening. ''I'm sorry son, I wanted you to be part of my life's work and make history together but I never thought that things would go that bad. I shouldn't have asked you to stay and now you are dying because of me. I shouldn't have dragged you down with me, please forgive me'' It was not until I heard my dad's trembling voice in my ear that I snapped out of it. When I looked at him I saw his tearful eyes look at me with love, sorrow, pain, and regret.

I tried to say something but nothing came out except stutter and tears. As I stood there, trying to say that I didn´t blame him and he shouldn´t blame himself all that came out was ''It´s fine, I love you, Dad, thank you for everything''. The last thing I saw of my dad was a pained, sad smile as he too was consumed by the cracks.

Now I was alone. The cracks had consumed everyone that was once here and I too would meet the same fate in a few seconds. With the cracks just, a few meters away from me I did the only thing I could think of. I turned around expecting to see the beautiful but disastrous cause of all this but all I saw was ... something.

In front of me was no longer the colorful cable of energy I expected but a colorful something that constantly changed shape that I couldn´t even begin to describe. In the corner of my eye, I saw how the cracks were moving forward centimeter by centimeter. Knowing that my end was near, I did what everyone dreamed of doing and I wanted to since I saw this magnificent 'something'.

I let my intrusive thoughts win and reached out my hand to touch 'it'

There was no feeling to it, not warm, cold, hard, or soft. Just Nothing.

Then it happened. I looked at it in my hand, trying to burn that mesmerizing thing into my memory that was responsible for this tragedy and my inevitable doom. It cracked open like an egg and then ...

BOOM