Shrouded in nothing but palpable darkness and maddening silence, he lay still and hopeless on the uncomfortable, hard, and rocky ground. His back screamed in agony, but there wasn't anything he could do.
He could barely move his arms.
For long hours he lay in complete silence and stillness with only his eyes darting around, unable to perceive anything that was around him. Many more hours went by, and slowly he began to feel himself going mad.
He completely lost track of time, battered and bruised, his body aching with pain and his stomach rumbling in hunger while he lay helplessly on the rocky ground. For short moments, he would drift off, and then he would have strange dreams.
The memories of his younger sister still lingered in his mind, but clutched in the embrace of darkness, another memory began to surface in his mind. It was the memory of a boy with blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes.
He would dream of him each time he slept, but he could never remember who the strange boy was. He had no doubt that he had never had any friends as good-looking as his dream friend was, but right at the moment in which he found himself, his grasp on reality was perhaps at its faintest.
Why was he dreaming about a strange, beautiful blonde boy when all he wanted to see was Anna's smile, hear her laughter, and gaze at the sky with her sitting next to him.
Not knowing how long it had been, he still tried to persevere through the misery he found himself in, trying to move his limbs as time flew by. A few other strange thoughts started to seep into his mind as well, like the fact that his body now felt different, but in a good way.
His body, though battered and bloodied, was far more muscular and toned compared to how it had been before, which didn't make any sense. He had survived a train crash...
'How did I even end up down here?'
Drowned in the depths of darkness with nothing but the echoes of silence, the only thing that remained in his mind was his sister and memories, or dreams rather, that weren't supposed to be his.
He thought for a while, and then the memory finally came back to him.
'That's right, I got caught in an accident, but shouldn't I be in a hospital? Am I... dead? Is... is this hell?'
He lay still, life slowly returning to his wounded body as life was sapped from him, and then, finally, after who knows how long, he strained and pulled his upper body up from the rocky ground.
His back still ached, but it wasn't unbearable; his chest throbbed, and his shoulder trembled. Clasping his hand against his wounded abdomen, he pulled himself further up from the ground and staggered forward, instantly falling to his knees.
A muffled groan escaped his lips as both of his palms were quickly placed on the ground to support him. He swayed and knelt for a while, and then he began to slowly get up once again.
This time, he managed to achieve four more steps before he fell to the ground on his face, proceeding to pull himself up once again. Refusing to give up, despite his pain-riddled body, he continued to edge forward.
And after a long while of desperate struggle, he finally caught sight of something worth his attention. Deep in the darkness of the hell he had found himself in, a pale blue light was burning in the distance.
It was pale and almost inconceivable. The light would sometimes flicker, but still continued to burn regardless. In the desolate hell of darkness, it could perhaps be the only thing that could save him. He could barely remember the last time he had seen light.
But the journey toward that light was nothing but torturous for him. Barely able to take more than a dozen steps before he would plummet to the ground, his body was slowly beginning to give in to the pain.
For at least four dozen times, he slammed his face against the rocky ground but got up and staggered forward, slowly closing the gap between him and the blue light in the distance. The light remained as pale as it was when he saw it in the distance, but his vision of it was becoming clearer.
It was his only clue to know that he was on the right track.
And finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the surrounding area began to be illuminated by a warm blue glow. Darkness still lingered in the farther reaches around him, but he could finally see the ground on which he was standing.
Around his feet, dozens of insects crawled, scurrying under the tiny rocks scattered on the ground as he staggered forward, and after a couple more face falls later, he was finally able to reach his salvation.
The burning torch stood tall and firm, perfectly lodged deep into the ground, as if it had been placed there for but a single purpose. Now that he was finally close to the light, he was beginning to find it a little strange.
As he knelt on the ground and stared at the blue flame, he couldn't help but notice something weird about it, something that he couldn't quite make sense of. His body wanted to get as far away from it as it could, but his mind persisted.
He had found heaven, and he wasn't ready to leave yet.
For a while longer, he lingered around the flame, basking in its warm embrace, and then his stomach grumbled. With a pained groan, his gaze shifted to the ground at the insects crawling around.
At first, he didn't want to think about it, or even consider it, but now a different thought was running through his mind.
'It's just one bug.'
Moving as quickly as his hand could manage, he reached down and grabbed hold of one of the crawling creatures: an average-sized black bug. He stared at the unfortunate insect for a while, and then he opened his mouth wide and threw it in.
Scrunching his face as he bit down on the bug, he instantly regretted his decision, but he didn't have a choice. Barely chewing his little snack completely, he swallowed it and went on to pick up another one from the ground.
He was just that hungry.
But then he heard footsteps swiftly approaching from the distant darkness. He looked up, the graceful figure of a young lady appearing under the gaze of the pale blue light.
She stared at him and contorted her face in disgust.
"Who are you?"
After a brief moment, she added.
"... And what happened to you?"