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Did I really want to reset with my head smashed in?
I didn’t think so.
The idea of tossing myself into the river crossed my mind, but the haunting memories of my previous experience with that deceptive stream deterred me.
The sensation of being pulled under, the chilling embrace of its waters, as it rushed down my throat and choked me… was not something I yearned to revisit.
Suddenly, the edge of the platform appeared before me.
It was closer than before, just as Jayas had mentioned.
With each reset, the world around us collapsed, the boundaries pulling inwards.
All I needed to do was throw myself over the edge, let the endless void of space swallow me and it would be over.
Before I could gather the courage, quiet rustling behind me grew louder.
An enormous alien beast burst forth from the dense foliage, its eyes locked onto me like a heat-seeking missile.
Time seemed to slow.
The space between the creature and me shrank rapidly as it lunged forward.
A decision had to be made.
I twisted to the side, narrowly avoiding its sharp claws, and fell rather than jumped over the side and into the void.
* * *
As I left the platform’s edge, the weightlessness of space gripped me, and the artificial gravity of the shrinking world lost its hold.
The initial sensation was exhilarating, like the highest drop on a roller coaster.
The vast expanse of blackness spread before me, dotted with distant stars twinkling like far-off beacons.
The wind, though thin, whipped my hair around my face.
The thrill, however, was short-lived.
The thinning air quickly became a cause of panic.
Every breath I tried to take felt like a futile attempt at sipping through a straw that was clogged.
The familiar feeling of drowning resurfaced, but it was worse this time.
At least in water, you had the sensation of being enveloped, of being held.
Here, in the void, it was just… endless.
The blackness below seemed like a relentless beast, its jaws open, waiting to swallow me whole.
Desperation grew, the fear bubbling up inside me.
What if the reset didn’t happen?
What if this endless fall was my new eternity?
How long before my mind would fracture under the weight of this endless isolation?
