Now, to start things off, I won't lie; this is scary. Very scary. Finding myself on an alien world, with no known face that I can recognise, mistakenly growing a symbiote on my left hand, blowing a hole in the ground and collapsing seconds after, getting tortured the heck out, then finding a different voice in my head wanting to be brothers with me. It's all very strange. I am still trying to absorb all the things happening.

But, as unbelievable as it all sounds, what is the most bonkers out of all this, is the hole in the ground part. Because, that was not a hole I was familiar with. Holes have ends. That one though?... It was blacker than anything I have encountered, and it seemed...how do I say it, off-putting maybe? In my eighteen years of life, I have probably encountered a lot of crazy shit, done some crazy shit in return (no doubt), but, not in my wildest imagination would I have expected to encounter something like that!

And why am I stressing over it now when I have encountered it twice already? Well, you'd see...

Because I'm standing somewhere that lays bare the abnormality of this 'black hole'.

I speak to the charismatic manly voice in my head: Did you know anything about this?

Hmmm, yep.

Makes total sense. Care to explain?

What truly happened, or rather the mechanics of it to be precise, is something I am not supposed to get. I can understand that. Otherworldly phenomena are not the easiest to explain. Then, what am I supposed to do when logic defying stuff is flaunting it's madness in front of me! Huuuhh!!!

In front of me, is a pipe, rather a massive column, completely black, stretching from the ground to the top, standing there like it's the natural habitat it grew in. There are no blast marks, no exploded shrapnel. Nothing! It's as if the aliens constructed this on purpose like the other pillars I saw in the dining area a few weeks back. Damn, it's been so long.

But you knooooow, it wasn't there before. I have walked this area a couple times already.

It doesn't even take a second for me to connect what I am seeing with what I can't explain. That is, the black hole. I now notice it right away when I walk through the humongous corridor. It's the same I had walked through along with my buddies when we were going out on the field to experiment. Worst decision of my life (unknowingly).

Come on now... I'm waiting. I deserve an explanation. You did this!

Hey, it wasn't me. I merely signalled! Why am I to blame if It gets a bit careless.

You call this a 'bit' careless?! I was tortured to a pulp after the first time! Though it was my fault for losing you like that... But I didn't know any better! Ugh.

Breathe, brother. Breathe.

Yeah, right, right. An alien goo is trying to calm me down. Just what I needed!

I had good intentions. You are quite insensitive.

Oh, so you're mad now. You'd leave me again?

I sure can.

Then tell me why did you come back. Why do you bother to stay at all! What happened that these Gods chose me and 'blessed' me with you, someone who's only caused me to face misery and agony!

...

You're really mad, huh?

Can't you tell?

So what do you want me to say. "I was wrong, baby. You were right. You were always right!" He bawls out like a lead drama queen.

Cut that rom-com shit out!

He can even change his voice in my head to that of other people. Goodness!

Oh Gracious fractals, humans are hard to deal with.

No! No! It's you who's hard to deal with!

Okay, fine. I'd accept that we need to respect our differences; again.

Looks like the only way to me.

I sigh. What mess is this that I've found myself in. I never wanted to be the main character! I was on a date for God's sake! When they decided to throw me in the backseat of this hell ride on a goddamned alien frisbee! Again, it all sounds so fricking stupid! Aaaghghhhhh!

Wow, you're grunting again.

Shut. Your. Trap. And answer directly for once.

Now it's his turn to sigh.

I don't like giving long speeches so I'd cut it as short as I can, and keep things simple.

Yes. Thank you very much.

Much appreciated, so um... by the way, you sure Fiona's okay and Beth is fine and Kevin is not crying-

Okay, dammit! I'll walk. I stop standing there like some art student appreciating a piece of contemporary art in awe and move on. I have to find them all. Not the easiest task when I haven't a clue about where I'm going.

Yes, so as I was saying...

...

Are you gonna continue or what.

Umm, you see, I think it'd be better to show you than explain in theory.

You want me to get into more trouble? Seriously?!

You'd be the one in control this time so, I think trouble won't arise.

...

Damn. I forgot it's you.

That hurts you know?

Can't help it. I imagine it shrug at me.

Maybe I'm a jester after all.

__________

I ask for directions. Not any aliens, of course. They don't wanna see my face, nor I wanna see theirs. So, I go back to my trusted space buddy.

I hear a pleased hum. Space buddy, huh?

I am still not sure what I'm supposed to call you.

It's better than sir, I guess.

Yeah, we are supposed to be brothers anyway (however weird that maybe). So anyway, tell me. What's up with you. Why are you here? Y'know, here. I tap on my right temple.

My space buddy grins. Oh, you should have figured it out by now.

Apparently, I'm a 'doofus'.

Wow. You called yourself that this time. This proves you don't really have self esteem, like I do.

...

You can roast me all you want but please give me answers here. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to make out of all this.

You actually do. You just need time.

I think I'm running low on that end.

Mmhmm, won't say that's completely untrue.

I tch. I try to bring my attention away from this good for nothing black mass with a virtual head.

Looking around, there's something I realise- all these large structures are not merely decorative. Nope. I wonder what alien art looks like though. Do they even have ar- no they definitely do. No doubt about it. The buildings are sleek and sexy.

My heart thumps all of a sudden. I don't know why...I feel like- I feel like I have used this same sentence before.

"But Fiona's is meshy-" I mutter.

-!

It happens.

Like a snap of fingertips, it flashes before my eyes.

"What are you staring at again? I swear I'm dating a creep." She's annoyed. Sitting at her study, she's scribbling in her notebook. She's the cutest at moments like these.

"Nothing, just thinking, your hair is so sleek... and sexy."

She blushes. She's cringing so hard right now. What am I even saying! Hair can be sexy?!

But... it is. I'm flabbergasted.

Beautiful blonde hair with light jumps at intervals, her bangs twirled by the unconscious movements she makes with her fingers when she is nervous.

How in lord's name am I dating someone like that!

"Cut that out..." she defensively remarks, looking out into the distance through her window as she glances back at me sitting on her bed momentarily, again with the subconscious playing with her hair.

...

I blink once.

Twice.

Thrice.

I clench my fists, gnash my teeth.

Blinking won't bring it back. It's gone again.

But my heart just won't stop pounding.

___________

Thinking about the possible locations everybody could have been taken to, I strike gold when I remember the term 'enhancement sessions'. They are probably working right now.

Well, it does me no good. I don't know where they make us work. I wasn't assigned. Ever. It all went haywire right after I finished my first alien meal. And I haven't had the taste of food since. I was fed through tubes sticking onto me in the lab.

And only when I think about that does my stomach groan now.

Great timing. Now I'm hungry.

I see. That's what happens when you have to be self sufficient.

I'm not a tree, y'know.

Whatever. I've never had the need to eat anything by grabbing something up. That's an area where I'm all cosy and comfortable. No worries at all. I imagine him smile and relax on a beach chair.

... Disturbing.

How do you survive then?

...

Ah shit. Now I get why I am hungry so soon.

Now I have two mouths to feed. And the worst part is- this one doesn't even have a mouth!

Yeah, duh. I'd sap it right out of your body.

I swear. Somebody get this sucker off me!

Now you're just being rude. I come in handy don't I?

I sigh. I'm yet to see a good example of that.

__________

I keep on walking, beneath the turquoise sky, now devoid of the pink clouds, underneath majestic rings of this alien planet; but I walk in vain. I have no idea where I should be going and I should have just waited in the human hive. Maybe I am just killing time like this. Can't go in to the dining area. They'd hunt me down the moment they detect my presence. I wonder how I'd survive. I can't eat alien vegetation. That's another way to die. A more horrible way to die if you ask me. The last thing I want is getting diarrhoea and dying... explosively in a putrid mess... Gosh that sounds horrible. Why are my thoughts so scary all the time?

Just ahead I see the gigantic hole gaping as I approach it. Peering over, I still can't see the bottom. Is it another dimension down there?

You're not too off. It's kind of like that.

I grimace. Great. I make a mental note not to drop into one of these accidentally. That'd be the end of the handsome and funny Jordan Ramsey.

And now I imagine a grave with my name on it placed right by the side of the crater. R. I. P.

I shake that horrible thought out of my head and carry on.

Walking takes energy and I'm running low on that. Still, as I make on with my current pace, a curious thought crosses my mind. I stop and turn around.

I take in the view of the entire building standing on the green ground devoid of grass. I take in the alien scenery accompanying it, and with my peripheral vision I take note of the sun still hanging low on the horizon. Maybe lower than I remember.

I realise something obvious. The building is massive. Now of course, it has to be. The halls are massive. The dining area and everything that I have witnessed so far is voluminous as an ancient monument. But this one is definitely modern, with that nod to ancient spacious architecture.

But what's important to note is that- I probably haven't visited every nook and cranny of the building.

I wonder what else is in there.

So we walked all the way out here for nothing?

Good point. I chew on that for a moment.

I look around. There is actually a facility I can see right in front. But it's a good two hundred metre walk.

Let's visit that area and maybe then we can get back.

Sounds efficient.

"Mm hmm. Let's go."

I hope you all are alright. Right now is my only chance to explore everything. I don't know what would happen when they find me again, but for now, I wanna feel it. How it feels to be alive.

I breathe in deep, filling my lungs with unique smells my nostrils haven't sensed ever before. It's invigorating.

I quicken my speed as I move on forward with greater resolve-

When suddenly I see something shining in the sky. I stop reluctantly.

A shooting star?

Wait. It's getting brighter.

Oh no.

NO. NO. NOOOO!

I break into a run not knowing where I should be running because that thing! is massive!

"Please, oh sweet Jesus and his sweet mum, I don't wanna dieee!"

I run as fast as I can. The meteor is approaching.

And then I trip. I fall against my arm and roll down a slope.

"Ugh," I don't have time for this but I get up and-

There's no time! You must signal. You must-

But how! How am I supposed to do that!

I can feel the heat. The meteor will burn me hot like grilled chicken!

"Aaah!" I raise my left hand at it and concentrate, because that's the best I can think of.

Think. Think. What is it I should be concentrating on.

Here. Connect with me.

I feel a tendril of darkness. It tickles my mind with it's slimy tip, an aura emanating out of it, indicating something more that's present inside it. I shake hands with it, let it enrobe me into a void of endless potential- possibilities-dimensions and-

And then I find the Holy Trinity.

Black, white and golden, burning brighter than quasars ever could. Because it's not merely intense brightness they emanate.

They emanate the greatest ideal. They make me breathe it. The poison turns into elixir and then-

Then I signal.

And next thing I know, something catastrophic befalls right before my eyes.

_____________

I see it. I see what I thought was make-believe. It's true. It really is. There is no illusion.

I can once again call it home. I am worthy. Black, is my new abode.

What I see, is past infinity. As if I am a part of the greater cosmos that exists beyond. Only my consciousness survives here. But it's not alone. Along with me, there is a black mist. It's familiar. Of course, since it's always been there, ever since I bonded with it back on my first day. It lay dormant, but present. Even when space buddy left with his body, he left his psyche- the black mist with me. Maybe he knew I'd change... I've seen it in both my earlier dreams. It's why he was able to establish a connection with me again- through It. Swirling around my psyche, calming me in this scene of impossible proportions, he is there to support me. Why? How?

I feel nothing, yet everything. But I don't see the spiral. Yet.

The Eye of Eternity sleeps, somewhere. But, I do see them. The Holy Trinity.

In this realm where time is non-existent or existent in a form unfamiliar to me, I feel like them. I feel like God.

It comes forward. No-form. That is what I can only think, of calling It. The embodiment of change, of mobility. Black.

I kneel my psyche, in an impossible gesture of submission.

I see It squirm, then stretch out. Opening the Eye inside it's dynamic being. Once the world is spinning, I am once again taken inside the ever looping spiral. And only now do I realise. There are fractals looping inside it. So It was the key. No-form was always the key.

And Space buddy here, was It's vessel. But, didn't he say he was the vessel of Yttr? What is Yttr, then-

Ah, I can finally pronounce it correctly.

Upon concentrating, it all starts converging. And how beautiful. How stupid, that I didn't realise this before. How satisfying and how obvious.

Unison. The being of One. Attainment of Purpose. It all comes when we meld together. It happened last time as well, in the dream. But I was ignorant of it all when I was awake. I failed to initiate this bonding. How truly foolish of me.

All of us became one. For the greater Purpose. To attain it, we melded together.

I failed to see that. I tried to reject this... holy connection.

It's what I was told in the torture room. This goes beyond individuality, beyond philanthropy. It's what literally is, more. But how? I don't understand.

But maybe, I don't need to. Not right now.

____________

Once I relinquish the stars, my vision swathes in black. But not only black. Looking around, the familiar surroundings greet me with relief. But what happened?

Oh I see what happened alright. There it is.

"The black hole," I enounce beholding the gigantic column of absolute black stretching from the ground all the way up to about the height of the building behind me. The meteor is nowhere to be found.

I think I now get, everything.

Told ya, all ya needed was some demonstration. I hear him yap like an Australian middle aged junkie.

It's fascinating how you can change voices like that.

Why, thank youuu. Now he's a supermodel.

Don't get dramatic. We have a long way to go. And I am already hungry as is.

So am I. So am I. I hear a familiar charismatic manly voice. He's back to normal.