Chapter 1

I woke up with a start and rubbed my eyes sitting up. Upon opening my eyes, I could see nothing, almost as if a thick black fog—or perhaps smoke—was hiding everything from view. The air smelled of rotting flesh, death, pain, and destruction. The disgusting scent wormed its way past my nose and onto my tongue: I tasted the scent as if I had actually put something made of the scent on my tongue.

I stuck my tongue out and fumbled for it with my hands, but I couldn't even move my hand. In fact, I couldn't see my hand! It felt like something brushed the side of my face but the black fog was so thick that I couldn't see my own limbs. I turned my head looking around, to no avail: all I could see was the thick black fog, everything was so quiet. After sitting there for who knows how long, I finally heard something. It was a faint voice, it sounded sweet and full of light:

What is your name?

It was weird: it was almost like I heard it not through my ears but from my mind, as if someone was speaking directly into my mind. I sat there, not knowing what to do. I didn't think I could speak; if I couldn't even find my hand how could I find my voice? After a few minutes I decided to finally attempt to speak.

"My name? I... I think it was David..." I said.

I was a little surprised that I could talk, but what surprised me more was the fact that it was hard for me to remember my own name! The voice spoke again after I stopped being surprised.

I cannot see through this darkness... Please tell me what you look like.

I tilted my head.

What kind of question is that? I thought to myself before looking down at my hands.

I paused for a moment: I could see my hands! Not just my hands, but my body, too! I stared at my pale hands. I then look at my white tee-shirt and gray pants. My shoes were black and white; a skull was imprinted on my shirt. A black and white checkered under sleeve was over my left arm and it made its way under the short sleeves of my tee-shirt and onto my shoulder. I looked in front of myself into the black fog and told the fog what I saw. It spoke again.

Ah... I see now. Tell me, which of the many worlds do you hail from?

I tilted my head and held it, trying to remember; it was getting harder to remember things. I had forgotten who my parents were, my name, my age, and I was starting to forget the English language. I tried to recall what a world was.

Wasn't it like a continent? Just not spread out over a sea, but in some never ending darkness? Yeah I think so, I thought.

I tried to recall my home world... wasn't it...

"Dusk City," I said.

I didn't even realize that I had just spoken. With a rush of warm wind, the fog is blown away as the area is flooded with a warm light. I fell backwards, not because of the wind, but because my memories rushed back into my mind with such force that I fell backwards holding my head screaming in pain. After the pain had subsided and my memories had returned to normal, I opened my eyes to look around and was blinded by the brilliant light.

When my eyes finally adjusted, I saw that I was sitting on a flat circular mosaic window. At least, I thought it was a window: it had a red border with a strange heart symbol in circles inside it; under the border were crowns in circles going along it. There a picture of me leaning against the right side of the border: it showed that I was holding something in my left hand, but I couldn't tell what it was because whatever it was, it was blacked out.

Behind me was a circle. Inside, it had four circles next to my head and body, these were black, too. Under this circle was a background: it looked like Dusk City. I could see the massive castle in the middle, along with the train behind it, and houses going along the left and right of it.

Your heart is still incomplete.

I jumped at the voice; I had forgotten that there was someone else here. I turned to look around to find the source of the voice but no one was around. I looked back at the black spots.

"Incomplete?" I asked no one in particular.

Yes, but we cannot complete it now. I have managed to get as much of your heart repaired as possible, but I cannot finish it. Your heart will heal the rest of the way over time. For now, it is time to wake up.

Then, everything went black before I could say anything.