Prompt from Sam’s Spaghetti and tagged by HVR.

Secondary prompt courtesy of Pinterest:

The cold bit Sam’s fingers, pumping its numbing venom into his veins. It spread down to the soles of his feet, infecting every blood vessel until not a shred of warmth remained.

The metal floor creaked as he stood up on shaky legs. Sam looked across the dark, barren room to the viewport wrapped in its cracked frame. Rapid breaths clouded in the stale air as Sam tried to recall how he’d come to be here. He remembered collecting his few possessions—the ones that really mattered—and then gifting them to colleagues he almost considered friends.

After that, he’d returned to his assigned sleeping quarters and … Well, the waters through which he viewed his memories grew murky after that. Clearly, someone or something had foiled his plan. Did one of his coworkers report him?

A series of cheerful chimes echoed throughout the cavernous room. Sam jumped, falling back against an icy wall of unforgiving metal.

“Thank you for contacting the Void!” chirped a female, AI-generated voice. “Your scream is very important to us. We understand the very act of existing comes with horrors so deeply profound that it may seem as though the simplest way to quiet those devastating insecurities and feelings of worthlessness would be to delete yourself from this station.”

The Void?

Sam edged toward the viewport. Everyone had heard of the Void, but no one he knew had ever witnessed it. It was alleged to hunger endlessly. The only reason mankind hadn’t been devoured was because the Void saw a use for people like Sam. The same female voice continued to speak.

“But thankfully, that logic is flawed! The Void requires every pair of hands and feet to do the great work. Without you, the universe as we know it completely falls apart. So please, approach the window.”

Sam pressed his forehead to the glass and looked out into space. The shine of distant stars abruptly disappeared halfway down the viewport, overtaken by a vast nothingness that was the blackest black he’d ever seen. Within the Void, there was nothing.

“We invite you now to scream, and the Void will swallow your discontent!”

That was it? Sam braced himself against the spider-webbed frame. Suddenly, he couldn’t draw a full breath. He grabbed at his jumpsuit, the empty room starting to spin around him. That was when he felt it. In his pocket: a fully charged hot knife. He had stolen it from his workstation; it was part of his plan to end everything. Whoever brought him here hadn’t searched him before dumping in this room.

Taking the knife from his pocket, Sam activated it. It wouldn’t take long for the blade to heat.

“Have you screamed?” the female voice asked him.

“Have you?” Sam said and stabbed the hot blade into the viewport.

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