"I'll need you to close your eyes when I count down to 1, okayyyy? 3…..2…..1!"

As soon as the orb hit number 1 Joy closed her eyes immediately.

One second she knew she was sitting on the hard ground and the next she wasn't. It felt like the ground had dissipated under her, she felt like she was floating in nothingness. She didn't feel her body physically move yet she felt she was moving incredibly fast.

It was odd, she felt like she could hear nothing and everything at the same time. This was jarring as she couldn't see, hear, or feel anything.

This made her do something truly foolish, she opened her eyes but what she saw left her speechless.

She was petrified, she opened her eyes to see bodies, no- corpses floating beside her.

There was darkness all around her.

She was passing body after body and everyone of them appeared lifeless.

There were too many to count. The only thing that was visible besides the many corpses was a light.

It was the orb, a ways ahead of her.

Feeling a itchy stingy feeling from her chest she looked down to see what looked like a rope of light coming from her chest.

The orb was tethered to the light coming from her chest.

She was confused, the orb didn't have the pure bright light illuminating off of it like when they had first met.

It was shining a crimson red.

In the brief seconds her eyes were open she took it all in, realizing it was all a lie.

There wouldn't be somewhere better for her! There was no hope! There wouldn't be peace only suffer-

***

Joy slowly rose from the bed, "Huh, what was I just thinking about? Ow."

Joy winced as she felt a sharp flash of pain in the back of her head.

She slowly looked around the room, trying to get a good sense of her surroundings.

Joy was laying down in a huge bed. She could see many things with white rose embroidery on it, including the bed she was laying on.

"Hello Joy."

Joy jumped up, slightly startled at the voice. It didn't sound familiar to her.

The voice was scratchy yet soothing, it wasn't that deep pitch wise either.

She turned to her left to see a man sitting in a wooden chair beside her.

The man had white hair and freckles with black eye balls and white pupils. She felt like he was looking right through her, not at her.

Joy gazed at him confused and on guard, she didn't know him yet his tone sounded friendly and comfortable.

"My name is Ben, it's nice to meet you."

Ben reached out his hand for Joy to shake but this only made Joy scoot slightly away from him.

She pulled the covers closer to her as she nervously responded, "Yes it's nice to meet you too…"

Ben laughed as he retracted his hand.

"I'm terribly sorry Joy, I know it must be uncomfortable waking up in a place you don't recognize next to a strange man you don't recognize."

She nodded nervously, "Yeah well, could you… tell me where I am?"

Ben nodded adamantly. "Of course, right now you're currently in a pocket dimension called The Void."

Joy paused for a second, processing what he just told her.

"Okay then. I don't remember hearing I would be brought to this place called the void but if that's really the name of this place I'll remember that. I'm slightly confused about some things, would you mind answering some questions of mine?"

Ben gave a warm smile, "Of course."

"I actually don't know how I got here. The last thing I remembered was a strange orb of light saying he'd grant a wish of mine?"

Ben's eyes lit up after hearing her words. "Yes, of course you're one of the new candidates."

"Candidate?"

"Yes, you were brought here to undergo a series of tests or trials if you will. If you pass all of them you get your wish granted."

Joy looked at Ben with a blank stare, "I was never told about any… tests… That orb didn't mention anything like that…"

"Well yes normally you would've got an explanation but it seems you passed out on the trip here."

Joy's eyes lit up, that's right, the trip to The Void...

She couldn't remember anything from after the orb said to shut her eyes on 1.

"Ow" Joy winced once again but this time the pain was a little worse.

Ben looked at her with a concerned expression, "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'll be fine" Joy held her head, she knew the problem.

It was just like when when she woke up and her head started hurting. Each time she tried thinking about the trip to the so called 'void' her head would start hurting.

Ben gave her a thumbs up, "Please don't worry. Getting a small headache is normal after getting transported to the void. You were being moved through space and reality at relatively quick speeds."

Ben flashed a bright smile to try to reassure her, but it didn't work.

Joy did smile back though. She decided that she could at least pretend everything was fine.

She still felt concerned about her memory of being transported to the void being gone but she tried to conceal the concern. At the very least things seemed better here already, she had a roof over her head and a bed.

All she could ask for really and yeah, Ben creeped her out at first being there right when she woke up but she didn't get any threatening vibes from him.

'Yes, this is fine,' She thought to herself.

"Well we should get moving."

Ben lightly stood up and stretched before turning towards the door of the room and starting to walk away.

Confused at the speed of this development she reached out and grabbed his shirt to stop him.

"Wait, where are we going?"

He turned with a smile "To the meeting with Aku."

"Who's Aku?" Joy asked confusedly.

"The one who brought you here. Usually when he travels to the mortal realms he appears as a orb of light, does that ring a bell?"

Joy now starting to feel a little more relaxed she let go of Ben's shirt.

She was relieved finally hearing something she understood.

So far everything in the past couple minutes of her being awake was just revelation and confusing explanation after another.

"Yes I did meet an odd orb of light."

Ben chuckled, "Yeah he's odd all right, now please follow me. I'll take you to where you need to be."

Ben now moving once more walked, turning left out the door.

Joy hopped out of bed and rushed after him.

However, soon after following him Joy stopped in her tracks.

There were many windows in the long hallway yet there was no light shining through them. She could only see pitch black darkness through the windows as if it was nighttime outside. The only thing illuminating the hallways were the many dim lamps that were in each window seal.

Confused, she called out to Ben asking if the lack of light outside the window was normal in the void.

However he playfully chuckled saying, "That's nothing to worry about. If you follow me everything will be made clear."

She bit back her curiosity and obliged, walking behind him as they walked past many rooms and through many different corridors.

After a minute or so of walking through many different hallways and rooms Joy realized how big the building in the void truly was.

Wait building…?

No, the place was too big to be a simple building, it was more like a Mansion.

Joy shuddered in her head hoping this one mansion wasn't the so-called void.

Yes, it felt warm temperature-wise and looked clean but without seeing anyone besides Ben after walking around for a couple minutes had her feeling a little nervous.

She continued following Ben who showed no signs of stopping, he hadn't said a word since saying to simply follow him.

She didn't know what else to do so she simply obeyed, not saying a single word to him despite all the questions that were flooding the inside of her head.

After walking for what felt like hours turning corner after corner and walking through many hallways and corridors they had finally stopped.

They were facing a big door, it was 2 times bigger than any door Joy had ever seen before.

Ben turned towards her with a reassuring grin. "We're here now. After you." He did a small bow, directing his hands behind him toward the door.

She assumed he meant for her to open it herself. Joy could see a faint trace of light coming from the other side of the door. She sighed and with one smooth movement reached for the door.

Joy hoped with all her heart that what she was behind the door would set her mind at ease.