The desert sands whipped and whirled in a furious storm that had stirred mercilessly for about a day at this point. At the heart of that madness, a scrawny young man named Dust limped his tattered body through the beige and white veil. As he walked, his dirty blonde hair drifted alongside the sand, making it look like part of his body. His hair may have blended with the desert but his stark jade eyes attempted to cut through the dirty mists in hopes of finding his destination.
Where is it?
Dust neared closer to the place that would hold his salvation. As he did, his eyes caught on to... Something. It was hard to make out exactly what it was, but it was different from the monotony of the desert. He walked directly towards that oddity, the sandstorm thinning around him as he moved closer.
He now stood before that "something." Without the hindrance of the sands blocking his vision, he could make out the mysterious structure's true form. In front of him lay a massive hole that stretched as far as the eye can see. A hole named the white gate.
Dust smiled and sat down, letting his legs dangle on the edge of the abyss.
Having reached his destination all the pain and hunger he'd been suppressing up until this point hit his weary body like a hammer. To stop this, Dust reached into his tattered cloak and pulled out a dirty sand-root.
At least it's something.
He bit into the crusty fruit and forced himself to chew it down. He managed his way through half of it before tossing it into the pit in an act of petty rebellion.
"I won't be hungry much longer anyways."
Dust rose to his feet and patted the sand off his cloak. He then recalled stories from his village about how the gate was a sort of doorway to the afterlife. Though standing before it now, it really just looked like a good place to end one's life.
He stared into the blackness of the cavity and found his mind being held back by fragmented memories. Flashes of people he once knew poked at the walls of his head like spikes. But that was not enough to hold back the emptiness that had tortured him all his life.
"Now or never I guess."
His eyes paled and his muscles loosened. In the next second he fell into the empty void below him. He managed one last thought before his consciousness faded.
Thank goodness it's over.
***
Dust's unconscious body fell through the deep black of the chasm as it had for the past hour or so. The darkness seemed to stretch on endlessly below him until it was parted by a bright white light. He fell directly into the light, then abruptly stopped. He was no longer falling.
Above him the sky was soaked in deep white streaks that parted the otherwise monotone atmosphere. Beneath him lay a field of ash that had begun to swirl in small spots around where Dust had landed. Mutilated creatures rose from those pools of whirling soot and approached Dust. In a matter of seconds, about ten of the creatures had limped their way towards him. Black ooze dripped from their mouths signifying a malicious hunger. The cinders behind the creatures rumbled, stopping them dead in their tracks.
From the swirling grey a beast rose. It stood as tall as a building and began staring longingly at Dust. Its head was a massive deer skull covered in oddly placed purple ink. Its body was blacker than the night sky and its violet eyes held within them a silent melancholy. The smaller creatures scattered and burrowed their way back into the ash to escape the monster's presence. All the while the beast continued to gaze at Dust. Its calm violet eyes swelled. The creature extended its towering dark arm and pierced Dust's back with one of its many thin claws.
The violet pools that once signified life in the monster's eyes slowly faded. In the same instant the stab wound Dust received on his back began to pulse and contort, filling his flesh with a harrowing purple. His body bulged and shivered while the creature's body seemed to deflate. Something foul was worming its way inside of him. Dust's eyelids twitched. Then they opened.
***
Dust had regained consciousness and now found himself nowhere near the white gate he'd firmly remembered plunging into. Instead he was on the surface, completely uninjured. He found himself sitting on the edge of the fountain that had marked the center of his village. The same village he'd left just a day ago to kill himself.
Why am I here?
Dust struggled to catch his breath.
Why am I alive?
His thoughts were interrupted by a sense of fathomless energy in his chest. He'd never experienced this feeling before. It felt as if he was carrying another life within him. Millions of questions raced around in his head and any time he tried to find an answer to one of them, a million more arose. His hands began shaking. Anxiety and fear froze his fingertips and nausea permeated through his entire being.
"Kazak catza!"
Dust turned as fast as he could upon hearing the mysterious voice. Standing not even 5 meters behind him stood a strange man with a detached look on his face. Seemingly realizing that Dust couldn't understand him, he waved his right hand and spoke in barely understandable English.
"Ha - Herro"
The man attempted to correct himself.
"Hello"
Dust silenced all the confusion and distress running around in his mind and decided to face the situation in front of him first. He raised his hand and awkwardly waved back to the man. Dust felt that something abnormal had happened to him. Additionally there was a burning suspicion in his gut that this man was at the heart of that strangeness.