'What was that again?'
The sensation of rubbing leather could be felt on his finger tips, his fingers are uncontrollably twitching. His leg is shaking. Rubbing against the back of the car seat.
'What was I just thinking about?'
His hand clenches as he ceases his unnerving movements. Bringing his right fist upward, placing it directly on the bottom of his chin.
Archie stares at small droplets of water, landing erratically on the tinted glass of the windshield. It seemed inconsequential. Archie tried focusing on a thought. A single thought, that seemed just out of reach.
It was as if he could feel it, as if he could see it, as if he could understand it. At the same time, this single thought could not be felt, it could not be seen, and it could not be understood.
The thought itself seemed like a raging sun, mere moments ago. Now it seemed dull and lifeless, fading more into an obscure nothingness.
Half-heartedly, Archie dismissed the thought. He knew that once a thought was lost, it could not be recovered. His time would be spent in vain. Attempting to retrieve something that could never be recovered. Even so, it felt important. Very important.
This night was oppressing, the darkness seemed to shroud everything except for the road, which lie ahead. Illuminated by artificial lights, attached to the front of the car. Archie stared from the back seat.
'Shame, the mountains are so pretty too.'
Archie's gaze lied forward, as he turned his head. Viewing the road from the passenger's window. Pessimistically, looking over at the steel rails on the side of the road. Created for the sole purpose to stop cars from plummeting over the edge.
'What stops people from plummeting.'
"BEEEP–!"
'Huh, what's th–'
A semi-truck plowed straight through the car. The last thing Archie saw, was a bright headlight.
—
Everything was dark, everything was silent.
There seemed to be nothing in the world. Hands were shaking, chest was beating. All consuming darkness consumed the soul of the very world
Only it was not darkness, his eyes were closed and he was yet to realize it.
His heart began to sink, his fingers began to shake less. Sensations, and feelings were gradually returning. He felt something on his chest... something rugged.
Expecting to see his own mangled corpse, Archie kept his eyes shut. He didn't want to accept it. So he tried to avoid the possibility.
There was no pain. There was no agony. He had heard stories about people on the verge of death no longer being able to feel such sensations.
He attempted to deceive his very self, to ignore the pressing issues at hand. He knew of course, it was a temporary procedure. Splitting his focus, so reality was slower to set in. It allowed him more time to grieve losses.
Only this time, he was the one to be grieved.
'Ok, ok.'
He had to open his eyes, there was still a slight chance he may live, and he didn't want to die.
'One can't remain stagnant.'
Archie's eyes quickly lit up, his red iris's. Staring straight into darkness. Archie realized that something was pressing against his face. The ground.
He slowly turned around, sitting up and staring at his body. It seemed fine at least. In fact, it seemed a little too fine. As if he didn't just get hit by a literal semi-truck.
'A dream?'
Archie began to look around. It was quiet, and it was dark.
It was so very dark, the world seemed to be shrouded in a dark mist. Normally, Archie could see well in the dark at least comparatively.
There seemed to be nothing in this world, just darkness. The thought Archie had been suppressing all this time, finally came to light.
He was dead.
Dead as a doornail, well not exactly. Archie didn't even know how a doornail could classify as dead since it was never alive to begin with. Maybe? It was due to it being a wooden door?
A dull orange light began to emerge on the horizon. Dark blue light seemed to envelope the sky near it. Causing the darkness to recede. There were several small tree branches blocking this view. Only something was off. Instead of being horizontal like a normal sunrise should be, the dull orange light, seemed to be, more vertical.
It wasn't perfectly straight up and down either, instead it was maybe a seventy degree line. Or at least that is how Archie judged it by eyesight.
The line itself was actually a vast surface of water that traveled for all that the eye could see, remaining as tilted as the horizon itself.
Looking down, Archie noticed that he was lying on top of a massive fallen tree, it was maybe half the size of a road. It twisted and turned in every which way. Tracing it back to a massive tree behind him.
Tracing where the fallen tree branch came from. He was then perplexed. For what he was standing on seemed to only be a branch. The tree itself, was colossal. He had to turn his head in order to see its edges.
There were several other massive trees. All of them with massive branches stretching and turning in what seemed to be random directions.
The twists and turns looked unnatural. Everything seemed unnatural. One thing seemed abundantly clear to Archie, he was no longer on Earth.
It wasn't clear where exactly he was, it could be some place souls go after dying or… he could have been transported to another world.
Archie's face grew grotesque. He was either dead, or put into a cliché fantasy world. He had read a few novels about some loser from real life dying then becoming an overpowered hero who basically just had everything handed to them on a silver platter.
Those stories also typically had the main protagonist, meeting with some kind of god, saying "Oh, I'm sorry you died because of my very misfortunate mistake, how unfortunate, well I guess I'll give you this magic ability in this new fantasy land!"
'I'm not a loser... right?'
He slumped his head, unamused. Then tried to dismiss the idea from his mind.
Archie used to enjoy those kinds of stories, though lately. It had been far too repetitive. To the point where a mere ounce of hate has seeped into his heart for the specific genre. Well, every now and then he would find an interesting story that incorporated something new making it interesting once more.
He also truly didn't believe that this was real. He had this belief, where you could only see what is right in front of you. Seeing reality in a similar way to the famous Schrödinger's cat experiment. Therefore, if something right in front of you didn't exist, then you would still believe that it was real. Since you can see it.
Or, in other words, and a different way of thinking altogether. Time is an illusion, you can't interact with the past and if your memories were altered then that suddenly becomes the one true past.
'Who knows? Maybe the world has always been this way, and I just forgot about it.'
He had much more than a simple doubt strike his mind and body. It was quite obvious to him that what he said was wrong. He was thinking illogically, he had a good reason to think illogically at this moment. Even so, it seemed clear that this world was real. He could feel a cold breeze run across his cheek, he could feel the rough bark, poking into his skin.
It could have been an illusion, but something in his heart told him, it wasn't.
There may have been similarities with those isekai stories, but there were also differences. To his knowledge he had not received some kind of ability or weapon, nor was there a system.
The world seemed just as plain as his old one. The only difference was the scenery was truly breathtaking.
Archie decided to set a goal, sitting on the massive branch of the massive tree.
One can not achieve something with nothing. Or at the very least it would be quite difficult. Therefore, Archie's main goal was to get back home. He was on his way to see his family during thanksgiving after all. What kind of man would miss thanksgiving?
It was something to set his mind on, something he could accomplish that would drive him forward. Even if that goal ended up being impossible he would travel further with it than without it.
Archie promised to himself that he would go home. No matter what.