For a few moments, there was chaos as all of the people and weapons rushed up and into the darkness. I looked in the direction I still considered to be down, and was amazed to see chunks of the ground break off and come rushing towards me. I was helpless to avoid them, and ended up being tossed around, sent flying in a random direction. My suit protected me from the brunt of the impact, and I floated into what appeared to be nothingness, slowly rotating along my vertical axis.

I eventually noticed a small amount of light in the distance. As I grew closer, it seemed as though the entire nothingness around me was getting lighter. I looked all around me, and saw nothing. I tried to look in the direction I had come from, but couldn't make out anything. I was unsure if this was a dream, but then I came fully awake, realizing belatedly that I had been asleep until this point. The surrounding space was growing lighter still, slowly becoming a color that was a mixture of gray and blue.

Without warning, blackness began to steadily creep in from all sides, working its way towards the direction I was facing. It gave me the feeling that I was moving backwards away from the area of light, though I had long since been unable to tell if I was moving, or merely floating in a stationary position. The blackness stopped before it completely consumed the gray/blue light.

I turned to my right and saw a spiral of light that began to stretch around me. It transformed from a line of light into a line of geometric shapes which were giving off light of every possible color. When I looked at a shape, I seemed to be seeing it stretch into its own line of shapes, stretching into infinity. It felt like the feeling of infinity a person experiences when looking into a mirror which is showing a reflection of another mirror. Every shape I looked at produced this effect, and as I slowly rotated, I felt as though I were traveling through a bizarre tunnel of some sort.

Suddenly I felt a strong pull of gravity and a sensation as though I was falling. As I looked in the direction that I was being pulled, I saw what was rapidly appearing to be a surface of some sort. I closed my eyes and waited for the impact.

-----////////////////////----- After several seconds, I opened my eyes and noticed that I was laying on a piece of ground which was covered in something that looked like grass, though it was dark blue. I stood up, and noticed that there was nothing around me, aside from the grass that I was standing on, and a door to my left. Looking up, I saw nothingness, though this nothingness was the color of a dark evening, before everything gets completely black.

I walked to the door, which was set in a steel doorframe, and noticed it seemed to be made out of very old stone, with a brass door knob set in the very middle. I grasped the knob and turned it to the right. The door proceeded to swing slowly and smoothly in a downwards motion, until it was laying flat on the ground. I stepped through the doorway, and once I had walked over the door, it swung back up. At this point, the door shrank and twisted, forming into the shape of a crane. The crane was made up of a combination of textures and colors that resembled stone, steel, and brass. It slowly looked around, then walked towards a large velvet curtain and vanished behind it.

Looking around, I noticed that I was in a massive room that seemed to stretch forever to my left and right. The walls behind me and in front of me were a series of endless velvet curtains, which were a shade of dark blue which resembled the color of the night sky. The room was filled with beds, which were arranged in rows that spanned the distance of the room, all the way to the horizon. At a glance, it would be completely realistic to figure that there were billions of beds in this chamber.

There were gaps in between clusters of beds that allowed people to walk around them, and I did notice a few people in dark robes wandering amongst the beds, occasionally tending to or inspecting the beds. There were beds of every possible style and size, and hanging roughly 10 feet above the beds were large ornate lamps, placed roughly every 10 to 20 feet. They hung from large chains which stretched upwards. When I looked up, I could see that they stretched into an infinite darkness, though I couldn't tell if they hung from a very high ceiling, or just from nothing at all. Music drifted through the chamber, comprised primarily of a continuous, soothing piano tune. No matter where I looked, I couldn't see where the music was coming from.

I decided to explore, and so I ventured along the walkways between the beds, taking notice of the people who slept there. They all seemed to be deeply asleep, neither stirring nor moving. Eventually, I heard a shuffling motion behind me, and turned to look into the face of a man in a dark robe. His hood covered part of his face, but in the dim light, I could see that he looked extremely tired, with sunken eyes that had bags underneath them. He appeared to be an older man, though he didn't seem older than perhaps 50 years or so. He seemed thin and drawn, and entirely unamused.

"What are you doing here?" he inquired, with a tone that implied that I didn't belong here, and that he was too exhausted to want to deal with this.

"I'm not exactly sure. I recently appeared here from somewhere else, though I'm not exactly sure where I was," I explained, taking notice of the fact that he was taller than me, even though he seemed to be a bit hunched.

"Well that's a wonderfully detailed story. In fact, it was such a good story that I shall consider my curiosity sated, and I shall now leave you alone," he replied dryly, with a subtle torrent of sarcasm raging through his dialogue.

"I'm sorry, it's just that I'm not sure where I'm currently at," I explained apologetically.

The man let out a deep sigh. "You are in the realm of sleep. This is where the conscious minds of human beings arrive in between dreams, in order to rest. There is a bed for every human being, although yours has curiously been empty for some time."

"That's probably because I haven't slept in a long time. I've been on a very long journey, and am currently attempting to find my way home."

"Don't talk to me about lack of sleep. I haven't slept since human beings began to dream, and I won't be able to sleep until they stop dreaming. One of the interesting things about this job is that we are unable to rest, just so that you can rest."

"That sounds like a very rough job," I said, trying to sound sympathetic.

"Well, someone has to do it. In any case, come along with me so that we can send you on your way," he instructed, walking ahead of me.

I hurried to catch up and walk alongside him, casually observing the many sleepers as I passed. I noticed some beds were empty, and I figured that these must be the beds of people who were currently awake. I never saw anyone leave a bed or arrive in a bed, and wondered how exactly anyone ended up here.

Ahead of us, I saw a shape in the distance. As we drew near, I saw a large piano, which answered the mystery of where the music came from. The piano player was wearing the same robe that everyone else was wearing, and appeared to play the piano without stopping.

"What is the purpose of the music?" I asked.

"The purpose of the music is to provide some atmosphere, of course. Otherwise, we would all be driven mad by the silence."

We walked for quite some time, though it was hard to tell if time had actually passed. Eventually, we neared a door that was set in the velvet curtain that served as a wall. It was a simple wooden door, with a simple moon carved into it, surrounded by ornate carvings depicting scenes that were meant to inspire the idea of sleep within the human mind.