Into the Void Pt. 1

Into the Void - Part I - Innocent Beginnings

Foreword

Years ago, I wrote a “short” story about a time traveller who travelled around time, firmly ignoring the most fundamental laws of Physics and generally making a mess, which he then has to clean up. I called the series the extremely infuriatingly long name of “The Mysterious Black Box”. I was 3 parts and 9000 words in when I stopped and did not continue further. Now, almost four years later, I set out again to finish it, this time giving it the more bearable name and one that’s hopefully more suitable for any time that’s not the 1800’s. As the first two parts and the unfinished third part were lost, I started again from Part 1, gradually remembering the plot and how bad I was at the time, as I wrote until my keyboard broke. Literally. And then I fixed it and wrote more ranting words from a madman. Here is Part I. The rest, when and if I do them, will be uploaded here after I finish if I do. Now, to the actual thing itself. 

***

The delirium of mutterings was about to end. I had sat through it way too long. Finally, through the clear, bright, loud haze, a rusty bell started to rustle, then blast out waves of ear-piercing sound as I stuffed my book into my bag hastily, ready to run from the last day of Michaelmas Term. 

I knew the route back well. On the way, I passed High Street, and was just about home when I saw it. It was a curious thing. Rectangular in shape, about the size of a fridge and extremely dark, and as far as I could tell, no one else could see it. It seemingly had no texture. It was just there. It existed. But that was it. It was just a black void, absorbing all light that dared try to brighten it. I reached out a spasming hand, cautiously letting it creep closer and closer. Other people were noticing me. They pointed questioning fingers at me, and most were muttering under their breath. I did not care. My hand was millimeters away from the gnawing abyss. It waited for my hand to come. I could sense it. Closer and closer it crept, until…

Nothing. 

Nothing happened. It felt as if I was touching air. Air as clammy and icy as the fine specimens of the stuff found in deep caves, where every turn makes you suspect that there is a skeleton of another weary traveller like you waiting to shoot you in the head using pure shock. Then I put my whole arm in. 

Still, nothing happened. A couple of birds squawked ominously, but that was it. Nothing jumped out form behind the tarmac road to do whatever these apparitions do to people to me.

My arm was now so far out in the void that my shoulder was experiencing the icy cold glare itself, finally not needing to pester my arm for details. 

I went so far my fingers went through on the other side. 

People were now laughing at me. Then, I felt a push on the back, my balance slipped, and the mass of organic matter with balancing issues that was I toppled over. Straight into the void. 

I was falling. I could not breathe, and, in opening my eyes, found that I was falling through galaxies and stardust. I saw Earth zooming by. Then it wooshed back into the rest of the galaxies of galaxies. It was at that point that I realised that the lack of air seemed to be fine. I felt no strain on my lungs. I felt strangely surreal and weightless. Then I fell, face first, into a hard stone floor. 

After rubbing my nose for a good half-hour, I lifted my sore neck and used it to spasm my head around. I was in a stately and majestic room, with a high, domed glass ceiling. Sunlight filtered in, landing on the polished marble floor. Marble columns were decorated with golden linings, supporting high ceilings. A second floor, overlooking the first, revolved in the circular building, and on it were velvet couches with silk pillows, and lamps perched on tables near it. Bookshelves full of books were behind the plush, light blue couches. I felt the awe-inspiring majestic beauty of the hub of time itself wash over me. I shuddered. In the centre of the room was a black stunt falling mat, rather out of place, and obviously where I should have landed, had I actually bothered to point my eyes on the floor and not the heavens. Next to me, there was also a small table, with the same grand look as the room I was in. On it was a golden laptop, its case ornately carved out of platinum and gold. Next to the table stood a chair, plush, grand, and extremely inviting. I sat on it. My eyes then travelled to the laptop screen, which displayed a text input box and the caption ‘Please input the date you wish to travel to’ on its screen. I wanted nothing of this, and so willed my fingers to hastily type in 17/01/2021. Too hastily. They wrote 17/01/20210 and before I could stop them,they slammed the enter key with finality. 

The floor disappeared beneath me and I fell back into the void. 

I landed on a rocky island, about as big as a king-sized bed. Wave after agitating wave of pure heat lapped at my skin. The black box was next to me, but some part of me, consisting mostly of pure idiocy, wanted to explore. I opened my eyes, and, trying to ignore the increasingly uncomfortable heat, clambered up into a weak imitation of a stand. What I saw almost made me die by burning into a crisp. The rocky island was surrounded by bubbling lava stretching as far as I could see, like the ocean in the days where land still covered the Mantle. Then I noticed a small red plastic button, awkwardly jutting out of one rock, and that there were lots of small floating islands in the sky, miles above. Then even as I started to squint at the frustratingly small squiggles and lines known as details in the rocky bottoms of the islands, a great chunk of rotting bananas, defunct electronics and snot-strewn tissues tumbled into the lava where they were immediately incinerated in a most pathetically small flash of most definitely not blinding light. 

I did something I would later regret. My hands, which were causing me rather a lot of trouble lately, slammed on the button, whose red colour could not have been more clear. I felt a sickening tug on my spine, and my surroundings changed. So they’d figured out how to teleport people without killing ‘em, I thought to myself. 

I was outside of a large building, with a sign saying “Central Hub and Co-Op Abingdon''. Shiny bridges of something clear connected the main island to houses with peeling paint on their windows' skirtings. The houses all had back gardens with a great view of the churning lava beyond. I went to the shiny air bridge. It was enough to fit two extremely insert-word-here people. I made my way across it as it shone and let me through. However, just as I went past, two people in a roughly made flying car with two seats crossed me and landed beside me.

 One of the policemen said suspiciously to his companion about my being new and strange - looking, then one barked at me in a rough voice, asking me if I had identification. I said that I had nothing like it, and would just like to get back to the island below when they said that they hadn’t heard of no island and that I was a liar and should feel bad for my bad lying skills. They then proceeded to defenestrate me (for I was brought into a warehouse to be questioned). 

I started to fall, and as the lava went closer and closer. then I remembered my jacket and the most basic laws of physics. I tore it off and used it to hang glide to the island, accidentally pulling off one of the hardest hang-gliding stunt moves ever invented in order to land perfectly into the void. 

I fell again into the marble room, this time on the mat, which did little to stop the impact. I breathed heavily, recovering from the fright of what was about to happen. I stood up shakily. I decided that since I might never see this place again, and wouldn’t want to, I went to explore. There were five grand hallways leading off the main Atrium. I went down the one pointing forwards. The passage was long, but retained the stately quality of the main atrium. 

At the end, two opposite archways led off to different rooms. I could see that the right room had the sign ‘Spacecraft Simulator’ next to a numpad lock of white plastic, arguably more out of place than the black stunt falling mat in the main room. Within, I could make out another great marble room with glistening chandeliers on top, with two small elevated rooms inside rooms supported by big three-axis gimbals, rather like an aeroplane simulator used to train new pilots. These were too extremely out of place. 

I tried to enter the room, but when I passed the threshold, a blazing pain entered my head, and I quickly stepped out again. Then a thought that was not mine was pushed into my mind, telling me that I had to enter the password to enter the room. 

The other room was much the same as the first, but had the label of ‘Location Manager’, and instead of simulators had big ornately carved and gilded blackstone walls, what was inside of which was unknown, although I suspected that it allowed someone to change the location of where the time machine appeared. 

The end of the main hallway led to intricately sculpted gardens. Tall spruce trees and trimmed hedges lined polished granite roads. A gentle yet soothing sea breeze was wafting through the air. Millions of flowers blossomed under the sun, It took me more than an hour to reach the garden’s edge, where it had many fields and overlooked a vast ocean with no end in sight. 

I then proceeded back to the main building, blatantly wasting another fine hour (although this place has no time). When I got back, I headed in the other direction, where I saw the front entrance of the building. It had majestic stairs leading down to a square platform, with a golden centre surrounded by marble. I touched the gold and was surprised to find that it was soft and fall-absorbing, although it seemed hard and cold. A sign behind it said ‘New dropping zone. Will begin its service at 1/1/108284 Standard Inter-Time Time.’I threw myself upon the golden platform to find that it had perfectly absorbed my fall, and that it was cold and hard. 

Next, I tried the right corridor, which brought me to two other rooms in a similar way as the first ornate hallway I tried. The left room contained row upon row of shelves of small, black buttons. fastened onto their shelves. I was glad to find that for once this room had no numpad, so I marched in. There was an ATM - like machine in the centre of the room, containing instructions for how to use Inter - Time Time Displayers, as well as how to borrow one. 

Following the instructions, I pressed the only button and a light flashed on one of the shelves. I walked there to find the button it corresponded to rapidly flashing; I pressed the button and it released itself. When I pressed it again, it flashed and a holographic display showed up. It said the following:

I pocketed it. It would come in handy. I also cursed my luck. Had I discovered this place three days later, I would have had a nice, soft landing on a golden platform with beautiful scenery. On the other hand, I would have had to walk a long way to access anything. 

I turned around to the other room, It was locked, and said ‘Standard Inter-time Time Counting Room’ and seemed to have a server-like box in the center. It was plugged into an awkwardly repeatedly extended cable that eventually ran into a small hole in a wall. 

The final passage was the longest, and,where the first four were positioned with 90-degree angles to each other, this one awkwardly jutted into a side of the room, and I would have gladly bought a golf buggy to traverse its distance. It slowly became less and less ornate, becoming almost steampunk and cramped. It slowly led to the end of the passage, where there was a single, small room. Inside, was another steampunk room, full of rotating gears, hot copper tubing and valves. These ended in  the side of the wall, which was clean but had a ring of obsidian where it touched other walls. There was a small table in the room, with a big box of matches on it. I lit one of them, then, not sure what to do with it, threw it at the obsidian ring. Instantly, a purple, swirling light was stretched between the inside of the ring, evidently a portal, and I stupidly jumped headfirst through. However, my head hit the side of the wall and I crumpled back, and another thought, this time more natural and seemingly not crudely pushed into my mind, told me that the portal only worked if I had enough ‘Combat Experience’. 

On turning back to the main room, it was now evening, and the sun slanted through the windows, casting great shadows onto the floor. I headed in the other direction. This time, I was led to a single door. It was closed, unlocked and did not fit at all the proportions of the rest of the Timeless Island. The door was of spruce, and looked like it belonged in an old manor, for it was worn and battered. When I tried the handle, it would not budge, but asked me what I would like to see within it by pushing the thought of that within my head. For it was now late, I visualised a form in my mind and wrote into it that I would like a bedroom. 

There were great whirring noises, and a second later, the handle let me push the door open. 

inside was a grand room, with high windows and a large four-poster feather bed, with the same architectural style as the rest of the building. A bathroom was connected to it, so I went in there to find that it was a small room - still ornately decorated, only small - with only two buttons: a button saying ‘Clean Teeth’, and another saying ‘Take Shower & Change’’. I pressed the first button, and my teeth felt instantly as if they had just been brushed, and my breath was unusually fresh. Next, I pressed the next button, and another form was pushed into my mind’s eye. This one ran rather like this:

You have no clothes stored here. Should I clean yours to use them again, or let you browse our store of clothes?

I selected ‘Clean my clothes’ and submitted it, and all of my clothes vanished upon the instant. Then, after a second of awkward nakedness, my clothes reappeared, I felt fresh and my hair looked better than it had ever done before, and my clothes weren’t grimy and wet with mud and heat anymore, and a stain that the washing machine had never overpowered had disappeared. I walked out of the room, thinking that if nothing else, this place would resolve my showering needs. 

After I slept on the bed, I went to travel back to the present, although now, my impression of the place was that it was more of a cleverly designed shower than a gateway to near fatal adventures. I sat myself once more on the blue chair and typed on the golden keycaps, which perfectly rebounded after every keystroke, ‘17/01/21’. Having once again realised what had happened, I tried too late to jump out of the chair and away, but the floor disappeared once more below me and I fell ungracefully through. However, I was saved. I kept falling for an unnaturally long time, then another thought was pushed into my mind. It asked me if I would like to cancel the travel as travels into the past can be dangerous. The idiotic part of my brain instantly told it that I wanted to do it, against my will, and I soon landed with a crash both physically and figuratively. Little did I know at the time what would ensue from  this one action of pure stupidity and utter ignorance to basic time travel laws. There was a reason why the Void had warned me against it. And it was clear. 

On the bright side, I checked my Inter-Time Time displayer and it told me that it was only one more day until I could have a nice soft landing. And it was also a day until one had to run a marathon in order to defy Physics. 

I looked around my surroundings. I was in a plain field, and there was a rural village next to me. There were basic shacks, but since I was in A.D.21, that was to be expected. I, however, was still overrun by the idiotic part of my brain like Mojang is to villagers, and ran off again to explore. Little did I know that this would ruin me forever.

I walked past a villager, dressed in filthy and tattered brown clothes, smelling as if he had never touched water or soap once in his life. The villager made strange, muttering noises, but to my surprise, I could understand, as though the meaning was forced into my mind. It muttered about some ‘stranger’ and it tone was clearly suspicious. I spoke to him wishing to reassure him, and found myself muttering ,instead of concise modern English, the same strange, trollish, and unsophisticated language. Instead, he cried for help and six muscly, blank-faced henchmen sprung out from under a bush. For reference purposes, this bush will be hereby decreed the title of ‘The Bush’. They sprang at me, wielding clubs with dull tips that might not have sliced my arm off but certainly could grind my skull into powder and beat my brain into a mushy mess. I ran. They chased. I ran some more. In the heat of the moment and at the high point of my idiocy, I threw my torch to distract them and ran back to the reassuringly close void. I jumped in without further thought and fell back to the grand room. 

After taking a good moment to catch my breath and to say the longest and most creative swear word the world had ever heard, which made me more breathless, I plopped myself onto the couch and, thinking naively, thought that my troubles were over and that I was now free to go home and enjoy an hour of Hypixel Skyblock. 

I landed on my face on a surprisingly similar path. However, now the High Street had advertisements for slaves, with the cheapest being just 100 pounds, and the most expensive being over 300 grand. I walked back home, thinking that I was too tired to fix this and would probably have to fix it after a good dinner and a nice comfy bed. After around five minutes of walking, the house which I had inhabited and slept in  finally decided to show up. I strolled in and gave the bell an extra long ringing, just to annoy my dad, who hated every screeching second of the bell, especially since his favorite armchair was right next to it. However, instead of the lean, young figure of my father, existed a man, at most 50, with a sizable quadruple chin, and a belly so big that it was a miracle how he managed to fit through the door or put his weight down on any of our chairs and still survive the crash. He spoke in a posh accent, asking me who I was and just what I thought I was doing here. I then noticed an unbearable stink and quickly turned around to see my father, dressed in tattered, worn clothes and with a bent back and a bad smell, digging a pit so big it could fit a suitcase for the man, to bury his pet goldfish who had died of malnourishment and bad water quality, as I later learnt in later adventures,. 

The man caught me staring and asked ‘You want him? He’s extremely lazy and you can ‘ave him for 50 pounds. I ran away, feeling as if I was watching a dystopian film. I felt as if I was in a dream: barely being able to control my own pelting limbs, watching myself from a distance through heavily fogged binoculars. 

Once again, I ran back to the void. I landed on the ripped crash mat with foam spilling out as usual. Someone heavy must have used it between my last landing here, and now. I wondered why I had never seen them. The crash caused more foam to ooze out, so I took it upon myself to restore it. I ran to the undefined room, told it that I would like to see a crash mat storeroom, and pushed the handle, to find a room of an unfittingly modern style with a RGB gaming PC and a triple-monitor. Then , as briefly as it had come, it was replaced with a big room, with shelf upon shelf of black stunt-falling mats. There were high windows lining the tops, letting cold, blueish morning light into the whole thing, casting light on the circulating dust. 

 

 

The concrete floor was somewhat polished, and I used the ladders on one of the shelves to climb to the topmost window. It was frosted. I tried to break it with a metal tool lying on a mat to see what was outside the room and it shattered, revealing one blueish colour of the light. I pushed my head out and saw that I was in an endless void of that colour, and that only the windows were visible, not the walls they adjoined, before my whole body was shoved to the other side of the room and the broken window restored. Then a message appeared in my brain telling me that I was stupid and that if my whole body had been through and I fell, then I would have kept falling until I died of hunger or thirst. I tried not to think how close to dying the worst death possible I was as I dragged the mat into the atrium and replaced it. I then carefully planned out what to do, sat on the soft velvet chair of torture and sent myself ten minutes before the time that I had first arrived in. It was because the suspicious man happened to be walking in my direction at the time and ten minutes would give me enough time to hide. 

I landed on a spot of cow excretion. I wrinkled my nose and took my foul-smelling shirt off, thinking that I would wash it in the undefined room later. I then hid in The Bush and waited for me to come out. A second later, I fell from a crack in the sky and landed with a thump fifteen metres away. I then saw the villager come, chase me with his men, myself drop the torch in absolute stupidity and run off. The villager didn’t notice the torch, or just thought that it was a piece of junk metal and walked away. I waited for a few more hours, and a mist formed. In the mist, I heard the first suspicious villager run back to where I was, to presumably get the torch, only to see another me quickly run through, pick it up, give me a wave, and run away. I waited for the man to come, see that it was gone, and go away again before going through the box myself. I knew what I had to do, so I travelled to when I saw me appear for the second time. 

I sprinted off to be able to hear the men’s mutterings but still not see them, ran back to the torch, reassured the me in the bush by giving a wave, and ran back. This time, I again fell for an unnaturally long time, before I was asked whether I would like to land on the proper landing pad or the makeshift crash mat, which would be moved to a better place and upgraded soon to the gold version. I was also assured that I would be asked this every time should I change my mind. I chose the gold version because I had a sore back crouching in the bush and landed on the scenic pad. After a brisk jog uphill ,which I definitely should not have managed without hyperventilating to death, I went back home and finally found everything normal again except that my dad was still missing. 

I ran into the house and immediately crashed onto my bed, instantly falling asleep. I woke  to see that I had rolled onto the floor and that I had a CGP History book over my face. I did have homework to revise history, so I decided that giving it a read will do me no harm. I opened its table of contents and to my horror, immediately found something wrong. The Before Romans section, usually short, had five extra pages, detailing ‘The Rise and Dramatic Fall of a Mysterious Group with Modern-day Technology. ’ I then realised that by going back in time while another me was already there, I had accidentally cloned myself. That clone must have used the torch to his advantage to control and terrorise the people in the village with a god-like tool of a torch. Then it occurred to me that it must have been me who had to stop him. I looked around at my messy room fondly, then looked at my mound of homework, before deciding that I needed to prepare to do it properly, mainly because I was tired and felt that a good helping of frozen supermarket ready-made food would do me some good.