Chapter One

Darkness. Utter, simple, aphotic, tenebrous, atramentous darkness. I see a pinpoint of light, and try to swim toward it. Either I get closer to it, or it gets closer to me, but I can’t tell in the inky darkness. The pinhole expands as it gets closer, and I get pulled toward it. It expands, and suddenly engulfs me in a flash of light. I’m in a perfectly cubical white room, apparently made of marble. I turn around and see the hole I came from. An human-sized black, inky hole. It seems strange in this perfectly white cube. I turn around and start to look for an exit, but as I walk away inky black tentacles lunge out of the hole, gripping me tightly. I struggle, but their grip is iron. They pull me back, to the world of darkness, but I don’t want to. I try to twist about, attempting to writhe free from the tentacles. I break free, go flying forward, toward the white wall. I brace myself for impact... And go straight through the wall. I stumble, and almost fall. I find myself in a large room, but with an enormous hole in the center. I look around, but there’s nothing but solid white marble walls. I turn around, and they wall I stumbled through is still there. I test its solidity, and as I expect, it’s solid. I search around the room, looking for any way out. On closer inspection, I see on panel of marble is slightly loose. I lightly tap it, and the echo tells me it’s hollow. I pull the panel off and look inside the tunnel. I see a simple switch. I look around, looking for anything else I can do. I pull the switch, shrugging. It’s not like I have anything to lose. Suddenly, the marble block right under the secret switch, goes flying outward, hitting me hard in the stomach. I fall backwards, into the hole. I spiral down, falling down the enormous hole. As I fall I think, I was wrong. I still have my life to lose. Oh well. I’m surprised to see myself still alive. I look around, and yay. Instead of a cubic marble room, I’m in a cubic jade room. Nice improvement. I