It takes countless minutes before the hallway comes back into view.
I’m only 10 feet away now, but I’m forced to my knees. My legs can’t support the growing weight of the air around me, and I’m having trouble breathing.
Flat on my stomach now, I’m forced to take my hands from my eyes in a last-ditch attempt to keep working my way forward. I’m so close, though the intensity of the brightness of the hall has scarred me from the inside, so all I can see now is blackness. I open my eyes and close them again. It doesn’t make any difference. I’m not sure how, but I can still feel the proximity of the door even though I’ve all but ceased my forward motion.
The words come into my head saying I’m going to die, but the words are not my own.
For what feels like hours piled upon days piled upon weeks, months, and years, I strain to move forward, but as I reach forward again and again, I feel nothing but the floor beneath me.
The sound of the walls dies down, but something tells me that’s hardly an indication of safety.
“There’s nothing here,” I utter.
“There’s nothing here,” my voice echoes back at me.
“What the hell?” I ask.
“What the hell?” my voice returns.
With substantial effort, I pat the ground with my hand, but no sound comes off of the walls.
“Where am I?” I ask.
“Where are you?” my voice comes back.
“That’s not what I said,” I tell the nothing around me.
“That’s what I said,” my voice speaks.
“Open the door,” I tell the walls.
“The door is open,” my voice informs me.
“Help me through,” I command.
“I can’t see you,” my voice says.
“I’m right here,” I say, certain now that I’ve simply lost my mind.
“I’m right here,” my voice repeats.
A moment later, something is grabbing me by the shirt collar, dragging me forward across the floor. I’m still held down by the overwhelming force of nothing, but whatever has a hold of me doesn’t seem to be affected.
“Thank you,” I say to whomever or whatever is pulling me through, and I can hear a door closing behind me.
That’s when I wake up.
My apartment is quiet except for the television, which is still playing that same movie. I look at the clock on the wall. I couldn’t have been asleep for more than half an hour.
I’m relieved to be awake, and I get to my feet just to prove to myself that I still can, but when I hear the hard knock on my door, I climb back onto the couch.
“Who is it?” I call.
The only answer I get is the sound of my apartment door opening.
“Hey, you home?” that familiar voice calls out, and I’m on my feet.
“You scared the shit out of me!” I tell Jace as he closes the door behind him.