Suspension

She walked into the room, it was blinding white, void, deeply void, not even the sound of her breathe resonated. Her eyes darted around, trying to grasp something, anything. How had she arrived here, "Think!" she thought, closing her eyes tightly and trying to remember...something, anything! Nothing. Slowly, she opened her eyes, taking a deep breath and centering herself. Again she looked around the room, this time calmly and with intent. She closed her eyes and listened into the void, at first she heard nothing, then slowly the shallow and raspy pull of her breathe in and out. Each breathe slowly rolling out and then pulling back in, crashing into the gates of her pursed lips like - waves? Her eyes flew open, sure enough a few feet in front of her, as if it had always been there, dark waves rolled into one another, crashing right into the sharp whiteness of the void. "How?", she gasped. Her voice echoed through the room, vibrating louder and louder until the sound of it met with the crashing of the wave and both came to an abrubt end. Shocked she stood with her hands covering her mouth, staring at the now still wave, it stood hovering in the air, mid crash, water crystals pointed at her like daggers. Slowly she removed her hands from her mouth and took a few steps forward. She stopped, blinked several times and looked around, then took another few steps forward. Closer to the wave she could see that the water crystals weren't crystals at all, but droplets of water sprayed out in suspended animation. In wonder and disbelief, she reached her hand out towards one and gently touched the droplet with her finger tip. It was wet! Cold and wet, it sat on her fingertip still in form, until she jerked her hand in fright and it fell to the ground and rolled away into the void. Again she ferverantly looked around. What WAS this place?! She slumped to the floor and closed her eyes, "This has to be a dream", she thought " I am dreaming." She pinched her arm hard. "OW!", she yelped loudly, followed quickly by a scream as the loud echo of her voice caused the suspended water to...shatter? Wide eyed she sat there looking as each of the water droplets burst, each sounding like the loudest bubble pop she had ever heard, before they vaporized and disappeared. And just like that again, she was alone in the room with only the whiteness. She wondered, If her breathing could create the waves, her voice still the waves and also disperse of them... what else could she do in here? Closing her eyes again to still her nerves, she intently begun to tap her fingers one by one on the floor - tap, tap, tap. She stopped when she heard a low distant rumble and opened her eyes. The rumble grew louder and closer. It was coming from below her. She jumped up, only to feel the ground give way under her. She fell to the ground, yet instead of feeling a falling sensation, she felt herself quickly being elevated. So quickly that it almost felt like she was floating. Propping herself up on all fours, she tried desperately to grip the ground beneath her and keep from falling into the void below her. The rising stopped, but she stayed in place, tightening her grip. Her head spinning, she tried to concentrate, extremely conscious of the slightest breath, yelp or tap, instead she tried to fall into stillness. She remembered a meditation app's prompt before that said to " be present in this moment and this moment here and again in this moment. Be still." She repeated the phrase to herself as she tried to "ground herself into her body". Gathering inventory of her senses, "What do I see?" - Nothing. "What do I hear?" - Nothing. "What do I taste?" - Nothing. "What do I feel?" Nothing...?! Stifling a scream, she fought hard to keep herself from reacting. She felt nothing, nothing at all below her. The ground which she had been gripping was completely gone. Below her was only the white void. There was nothing but her and the white void. She closed her eyes again. trying to hold back tears for fear they would without fail create a flood for her to be submerged in. Through the stillness, she heard a very faint beep. She listened harder and found that there were several rythmic beeps. And even fainter were words following the rythmic spurt of beeps. She couldn't make out what the voice was saying, it sounded monotone, almost like an old computer system. She listened harder, it was counting down. But to what? Afraid, she held her breath and strained to hear the words more clearly. Finally she heard, '2nd warning, please reset your password or prepare for system shutdown.' " System shutdown??", she thought, "what system... what password??" Thinking frantically she tried to remember how she had gotten here. Was she in a sim, she knew there were game sims that were pretty trendy these days, but of course she couldn't remember if she had ever played one. To think about it, she couldn't even remember who SHE was. '3rd and final warning..", the voice said louder this time, 'please reset your password or prepare for system shutdown!' She squeezed her eyes closed tightly, "concentrate!" she thought anxiously. Where are you? Who are you? Just then the voice begun to countdown, '10, 9, 8...'. Who are you, come on think, if you can remember just one thing! '4, 3,2...' Crying she thought , I do not remember who I am , I don't know, tearfully her eyes flew open and she yelled out into the void, "I just am! I am!" Slumping down she braced herself for whatever was coming out of the void, whatever "system shutdown" she was to experience within it. Instead the voice abrubtly stopped counting , chimed and said, "New password "I Am" has been set. Before she could even process what the voice was saying, a warm light enveloped her, pushing her forward thru the void quickly. Gasping she closed her eyes again, until she heard a voice yelling, "that's it, breathe. Breathe Alyssa! At the sound of her name, everything come flooding back. Her eyes flew open, she was laying on her back. "What do I see?" The bright blue sky and sun. A bird. "What do I hear?" A familiar voice. My sister! I have a sister?! "What do I taste" Something very salty. "What do I feel?" The warm sand under me, the gentle wave rolling back and forth about my head. I feel alive. Just then Alyssa remembered everything fully, going after her nephew who had swam too far out, the large way that hit her and pushed her down before tossing her back up again and how she had hit her head on the rough rocks. I am alive! She never shared with her sister or anyone else for that matter about her time in the void or how she had been asked to "reset her password", mainly because she felt that no one would understand. How could they when she herself did not."