Chapter Text
At first, there was pain. It was the kind of pain that rips through the flesh and lights every nerve on fire. The kind that digs deep and settles in the bones. The kind that sits in the heart and squeezes until everything aches. All Simon felt was pain.
The blood was all around him. Inside him. It crept up his skin, over his arms and legs, into his eyes, his mouth, his mind. It felt like an invitation, a promise for salvation. After everything, didn’t Simon deserve just that?
Under the pain he could feel it soothe over the aching in his chest. He was thrown down here to pay for something he hadn’t done, he was given hope only for it to be stripped away, it was just one betrayal after another. Maybe down here he could rest, maybe he wouldn’t ever have to feel that pain again…
What?
Maybe there was salvation here,
That makes no sense.
At the bottom of this ocean.
Let me go!
What if this was heaven?
There’s no such thing.
Or maybe dying is the only salvation left.
That can’t be.
How would you know?
Because… what was it all for then?
For us.
No.
For this.
Please.
To join us, here.
I just want to live!
Are you sure?
The pain is gone. Everything is gone. Where is he? Simon tried to move, but he couldn’t. All he could see was a void, and all of a sudden, even that was gone too.
____________________
Music. That was the first thing Simon heard. How strange, music was rare on Eden, or anywhere for that matter. On Eden, most music was just religious hymns sung for the last tree since music could help plants grow, or at least that’s what Father said
The music Simon heard now was nothing like what he had grown up with. It was beautiful, yet chaotic. He could pick out some repeated notes, but the rest was a strange symphony. Where was it coming from?
Simon tried to open his eyes to look. He hadn’t even realized they were shut. It proved to be a strenuous task. As he tried, a voice cut through the music.
“Eye movement detected.”
All of a sudden the music stopped, and the light finally hit Simon’s open eyes.
It was too bright to see, so Simon simply took in what he could feel. He was lying down, his body felt heavy and he couldn’t tell if it was from his exhaustion or if something was physically pulling his body down. Rather than sit up, Simon tried to simply wiggle his body, and he immediately regretted doing so as all the pains and aches from before were reignited, roaring through his body.
“Body movement detected.” That same voice cut through the silence.
Simon wheezed with pain, which caused even more pain, this time from his lungs. He hacked and wheezed uncontrollably, jostling his body, causing more pain to ring out. Slowly, Simon registered that something molten was creeping its way up his throat from his stomach. Ignoring his body’s protests, Simon squeezed his eyes shut, rolled to his side, and vomited.
Once he was sure nothing else was coming up, Simon spat out the remaining bile from his mouth and took deep breaths through his nose, willing his stomach to fully settle.
Slowly, Simon once again opened his eyes. He was laying on a bed of some sort, though if anything it was more just a thin mattress on the ground since it was so low he was practically face to face with a red, chunky pile that was most likely what he had just chucked up.
Simon groaned and moved to wipe his mouth with his left hand, but no contact was made. Why was his body not responding? He moved to prop himself up with his right hand and felt his body once again protest in anguish, yet he still moved. That worked, so why was his left arm not moving? Simon turned and looked to his left side, only to find nothing there. All of a sudden he remembered searing pain once more, his ligaments had been stretched all they could stand, his arm popped out of the socket, and all of a sudden he had no more arm.
“Right. Good times.” Simon thought sarcastically
All of sudden, Simon was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of more music. He looked around the room, attempting to locate the source once again. The room he was in was white and sterile, and as if that wasn’t odd enough, there seemed to be strange rocks surrounding him.
Simon fully sat up and decided to get himself sorted first, he finally took a proper look at his body, only now realizing there was an IV in his arm. Simon tried to mutter something, but the air simply passed over his vocal chords and came out as a breathless sputter. He let out a frustrated exhale and tried to reach to pull out the needle, but to no avail.
“Right. Only one arm. Time to get creative.”
Simon reached for the tube the needle was connected to, gathered it around his fingers, and yanked it hard. The needle was out and it made a soft plink as it fell to the ground, but he had no time to think before he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and heard the music grow faster. Simon whipped his head forward and saw one of the strange rocks crawl towards him. Simon’s eyes widened in fear and he pushed himself backwards with his hand to try and put distance between himself and this strange creature.
Taking a closer look now, Simon was able to discern that he had clearly glazed over some crucial details in his initial assessment of whatever these things were. Firstly, they had arms, or legs. Limbs of some kind with three digits on the ends. The other rocks in the room stood on five, however the one approaching Simon had its two front ones put out in a seemingly placative manner and used its back three to continue moving towards Simon, albeit a bit slower than before.
“Who knows if it’s really trying to help though.”
Simon took a breath and stopped squirming back, the rock approaching him also stopped and put its arms(?) down. The next thing Simon noticed was that there seemed to be some kind of casing around the creature, or all of them for that matter. It was very geometrical and it seemed to shimmer in the dim lighting.
“Protective suits?” Simon wondered. He didn’t blame them if that’s what they were, the blood he had been covered in was probably foreign to these creatures, if he had a choice he wouldn’t have wanted it on him either.
A chitter brought Simon back once again. It was similar to the music he was hearing, and he recognized the notes from what he had been hearing while waking up. The creatures seemed to be able to make different kinds of noises, but most likely the messages were the same. Maybe it was similar to how humans change their voices by yelling or whispering?
Simon tried to speak, but his voice once again betrayed him and his words came out garbled. The creature in front of him turned slightly to the others behind it, chittering and stamping its foot twice. The creature was met with silence, that is, until the largest of the group stepped forward. This one was taller and bulkier than the rest of the strange group, it was a teal-ish color with brown marks on its limbs.
The first creature crept back and the teal rock approached Simon slowly. It rumbled out a low melody, but Simon couldn’t understand. Simon decided to try and speak again.
“W-where am I?” His voice came out scratchy and low, but it was progress. The group of creatures chittered excitedly and shuffled around. Two of them approached the door the group was in front of, it opened like an air lock and the two walked out. Simon frowned and looked back at the teal rock. It rumbled something else and lowered its body onto the ground, tucking its legs under itself. The rest of the group seemed to calm down, but most still shuffled around excitedly and rumbled to each other.
“H-hey,” Simon wheezed “What the hell is going on?” The creatures turned to him (or maybe not, he had yet to see a face on any of them) but he heard the low notes once again from the teal rock. Simon let out an exasperated sigh and pushed himself up to sit on his knees.
A few minutes pass while Simon simply observes the creatures some more with narrowed eyes. He’s about to speak again, but the air lock door opens once more. The two creatures that left come back, one of them holding some sort of device. The teal rock stands as the creature with the device excitedly approaches Simon. Simon tries to stand and once again put distance between himself and the strange creature, but loses balance and falls flat on his ass.
“Fuck…” Simon mutters. He fell half off the back of the mattress, thankfully not fully busting his ass, but he had thrown his hand out behind him and slammed the heel of his palm into the solid ground. The approaching creature stops and slowly sets the device on the edge of the mattress, then retreating to the crowd once more.
Simon looks from the group to the device and then to the teal creature (he really needed a better name for it). Simon peers once more at the device. Now with a closer view, it looked like a computer, but portable? Every computer Simon had seen was attached to a wall of some kind, even the one on the SM-13 was stuck to the side.
The SM-13. How had he gotten out? Was he out? Or was this all in his head? Simon shook his head and reached for the computer. Maybe there were answers on here.
On the screen, there already seemed to be a program running. Simon almost began trying to search through the computer when he heard more low notes, and on the screen, words appeared in the black text box.
*Welcome to Erid*