So, here I am.

Hallowe’en 2026.

A candle flickers, banishing the darkness momentarily. My heartbeat and my breathing clear away the silence.

I’m in a cocoon. A black hole. A void where everything I thought existed no longer does.

Reality has imploded. Lies have been torn wide apart. I started seeing through ‘truths’ to the ‘facts’ they were, transparently, hiding. Their manipulative message crumbling as soon as realisation struck. As soon as one crumbled, along came another, and another.

It’s amazing really how quickly the cloak slips away… how transparent the veil becomes.

Everything I saw, I questioned. Everything I was told, I pondered. Everything I felt was real.

The Laboratory has gone.

The Catacombs.

The Mansion.

Although I saw through everything, the doubts, the manipulation, the machiavellian control centres, I realised all of it was out there, which meant me being in here, I was already shielded.

Me being in here meant I had The Mansion to navigate, its quirks, its changes… I had the Inners to laugh at, to, in some way, try to control myself.

Maybe that’s why I ended up in this parallel existence, with no way up. I realise now everything is a metaphor; everything out there represents a certain inner aspect of myself. I wonder if that is why I see everything as a joke? Maybe that’s why ‘truth’ has to be hidden behind false narratives, I don’t want to see what’s really out there, as it means seeing what’s really in here.

But why am I now in darkness? The candle flame flickers furiously in this draught-free environment. It warms the icy cold temperature so that it is almost bearable. I close my eyes and the darkness becomes more dark. I open them, confused. Are they open? Am I open?

What an odd question. Am I open? To what? More false realities?

There. That question. It’s triggered something. If I’m in here, and everything out there is a reflection of everything in here, I’m creating out there. Instead of seeing false realities, what if they are different realities… different possibilities. Different possibilities I create.

The candle flickers again, the flame glows brighter. I hear a raven calling outside the darkness.

There is something out there. There is more.

My thoughts return to manipulation. I hear a serpent hiss.

Maybe this black hole is the beginning of my new universe. My own mini big bang. If it is, this proves I was here before it; just putting it out there.

This is my universe. I may see it differently to everyone else, but so what? Who really cares anyway?

There’s the raven again.

It’s odd how quiet it is. It’s also odd how loud I breathe. Yet I always hear the raven between breaths.

I have no idea how long I’ve been here. For some reason, I know this darkness is growing, not that I can see the edges to it. I can’t do anything about that though, so look at the aura around the candle flame. Yellow. Gold. White. Flecks of purple and blue.

Spiritual. 

I close my eyes again and see a golden staff slide diagonally into my view. My mind’s eye view. It rotates fifteen degrees so that it is now vertical before me. A blue crystal in the centre which I didn’t see before splits the staff in two, pushing both halves away from each other.

A sudden breeze extinguishes the candle’s flame, and for an absolute second I am in pure blackness. In nothing. No breath. No raven. Blinding light of many different colours floods in between the gap in the staff. My eyes, my physical eyes, not my mind’s eye, fill with tears and expel them immediately.

I have no choice but to blink my eyes.

Now with open eyes, I see the gateway the staff has created. I step through, feeling the blackness shrivel away as I do so.

On the other side I see existence.

The Mansion, as it was (if that is possible), welcoming and warm. Beyond the Front Door is out there. But I know the veil has slipped. I know the reality.

The question now is what do I do with that knowledge?

A voice in my head says, ‘when it’s time, you’ll know.’ The voice is Thomasina’s.

I smile. I turn, happy in knowing I am back from the void. I turn to make myself a drink and kick something. I look down… it’s the candle from the void.

The light in the darkness. Proof it is always there.

I smile again as I hear the raven’s call from outside. 

I’ve just truly experienced reality from The Mansionic Perspective. I quite like the look of things… but I could be lying.