Empty.

Floating away on nothingness.

Feeling nothing, thinking nothing, seeing nothing, hearing nothing.

I was absolutely nothing, just a pinprick of thought, drifting in the wind of the universe.

I was at peace. I was whole. I was nothing.

This was heaven.

_Heaven_… why was that familiar? What did that mean?

Where was I? Who was I?

Suddenly the nothingness around me turned black and dangerous. It grew fangs and claws, became deadly beasts prowling this space.

And it _was_ a space. It went on and on, seemingly endless, but I was surrounded by _something_.

The inky beasts snarled, stalking closer to me. An irrational fear snaked through me, making my heart pound in my ears.

If my heart was beating, I was no longer nothing. I glanced down and lifted my hands.

_What the…_ Where my hands should have been, there was only gray-blue mist. But it did _look_ like hands.

With a glance at the incoming snarling beats, I wiggled my fingers. The mist moved too.

_So… I’m made of colored mist, am being hunted by monsters made of nothing, and have no clue where the hell I am,_ I thought. _And all I wanted was to die._

One of the beasts pawed at the ground, about to attack. With a surge of frustration, I thought _I am not going to be killed - again - by a frigging nothing-beast._

Spinning around, I looked for a way to escape. I had to find a way out of here.

As I turned, I saw a door made of more gray-blue mist appear. The mist seemed to condense from the bottom up. First the frame appeared, then the door itself, then a handle. Watching it was so strange, like it was fizzling into existence.

Behind me, the pawing beast sprang. Roaring, it leapt toward me, and I took off. The door was so close! I flung myself to it, grabbing at the handle. _Please, please, please._

_Yes!_ Flinging the door open, I shot through it, not even noticing what was on the other side.

With a _whoosh_, a whole different world appeared around me.