Chapter Text
Simon’s eyes are blinded by blood, his vision full of swirling, burning red. He’s drowning, he knows he is.
He’s dying.
After all he went through, he was dying. He was dead the moment they sealed him into that cursed submarine. He should have known that. Giving in, Simon lets go of the pipe he was clinging to, letting the blood take him over. He feels it fill his mouth, his body convulsing as air no longer finds him. His vision goes from red to black, his head becoming light. He was dying.
But…instead of the eternal and empty nothingness he expected to follow the sub imploding…he feels himself begin to fall, gravity suddenly pulling him down through air that couldn’t exist. He coughs, hardly able to breathe. This must be death. He’s falling into the afterlife. Probably hell. It’s what he deserves.
“I tried…” He manages to whisper with the last breath of air in his lungs, the deafening screams of the monster and the collapsing sub vanishing, a sacred silence replacing it.
And Simon hits solid ground, his head spinning and aching madly. He feels that he’s on his back. He can’t move. His ears ring, but that’s all he hears now. The voices of the monster and the ghosts are gone. The sound of blood rushing into the sub are gone. Beside his ears ringing and his heart pounding…it’s seemingly dead quiet, the sound almost tranquil.
Simon groans, still not moving as his mind catches up to him. The ground is a smooth, odd stringy texture he’s never felt before. It’s cool almost, and soft to the touch. He tries to adjust, but he gasps, his adrenaline fading. He is suddenly very aware of the pain his body is in. His arm. His burns. His broken bones. Every part of him was in agony.
With a shuddered breath…he screams once more, all his pain arising at once, encompassing his body. He can’t even thrash in his torture. He can’t move at all. His body feels like it’s on fire, and he’s unable to do a thing about it.
Everything hurts!!!
He squeezes his eyes shut, and clenches his teeth, only twitching in pain as he feels dizziness start to take him over. He wants it to stop, he needs it to stop!
He’s suffered enough!!!
"P-please..." He whispers, unable to take any more.
He hears calm footsteps approach, the sound muffled by the soft ground. They stop beside him. Simon cracks his eyes open, and sees a blurry figure looming over him in the dim light, arms held casually behind their back.
He sees his own face staring back at him, a sly, malicious smile on the man’s face. His hair was shorter than Simon’s, and slicked back, his skin free of blood or wounds or scars. Simon could see the figure was wearing red, the color of his death.
Was this a vision? Some being from the afterlife?
Simon couldn’t dwell on it much longer as another jolt of pain took over his body, sourcing from his left arm. He arches his back, crying out a broken cry, eyes squeezing shut once more.
“I’m glad I let my intuition guide me. Seems Dark was sloppy, and didn’t anticipate your arrival…shame.” The man says lightly, his voice smooth but cold in Simon’s ears. “I do believe you will be of great use to me. Your success should have been mine, after all.”
Simon turns his head slightly, his breathing wet and ragged. He heard the man talking, but the pain was too much for him to really focus on what was being said. Was he being judged for his actions in life?
“You won’t die, don’t worry. I’ll give you a purpose here. That, I can assure you, Simon…”
Simon feels the man place a hand on his head, almost stroking his hair. He groans, and tries to beg, to plead with this being to help him, to take away this pain. To let him move on to where he is destined to go. But he only coughs, the taste of metal strong in his mouth. He wheezes, his body going limp. He feels cold…
“You’ll be a wonderful prop in my story…and you’ll soon know nothing else. This pain will fade, and all you will know is your role. Let’s get going, shall we?”
Simon gasps, feeling himself falling again. But this time, when he hits solid ground, it’s too much for his broken body to handle. His awareness fades away, everything he once knew rapidly turning into an empty nothingness. Like the corpses of the stars he once saw in his dying sky, he felt himself fading to an endless dark.