Dance of the Gods

Veronica felt like she was floating in the vastness of space. She felt weightless and a bit strange. It reminded her of some memory, which she couldn't quite recall.

Opening her eyes she saw nothing around her. No light, no matter, nothing. It felt familiar, which was a creepy thought. Why would the vast emptiness of space give her a sense of recognition?

Slowly she began turning in the nothingness and she looked towards a specific direction. This wasn't a conscious move, her body just did it for seemingly no reason. With a lot of confusion, she stared into the blackness.

There was nothing there...

Suddenly something changed. A ripple went through the nothingness, it felt like reality itself was screaming. Veronica had no idea what was happening, she saw a glint in the distance.

It was impossible to tell if it was a few kilometers or a million lightyears away, one thing she was sure of though... it was unnatural.

This wasn't just any empty space. This was the emptiness between universes! Literally nothing could survive or move through it, since that would break the many foundational laws of time and space.

As these thoughts appeared in Veronica's mind, she had gotten very confused. With a quick assessment she noticed that she knew a lot more about everything related to space, especially the nothingness she was currently occupying.

Her previous assumption quickly fell apart, when she started remembering the creatures that lived in this environment. Suddenly a mind splitting headache appeared in her head and she screamed from the top of her lungs.

The memories were flooding in faster and faster, she didn't even know if this was her memories or someone else's. Most of the images she couldn't even really understand, they were either too abstract or blurry. It was like she was staring into a different dimension.

The worst part was, that she couldn't stop it. More and more images appeared. Veronica felt like her mind could explode at any moment.

With a desperate maneuver she reached out for the small well of power within her heart. It didn't do anything at first, just made another image appear with the others...

It was the street with the crooked theater...

Her mind moved quickly and she followed the feeling inside her. It told her to command it, and so she did.

In the empty space another large ripple went through, this time originating from her. Reality changed around her and in the next moment she found herself on the street with the Theater.

...

At the lamppost Veronica was breathing heavily. The images or memories or whatever, finally stopped and the strangest part was that she couldn't remember even a single one.

It was more of a blessing than anything else. While she was waiting for the phantom pains to pass, Veronica examined this past experience in great detail.

"Those images had to have been about higher existences!... That's the only explanation I have for the amount of pain they caused just by looking at them. But why did I began seeing them for no reason?... Questions, questions, questions... *sigh* Wonder when I can start getting answers..."

When her mind was finally not hurting she opened her eyes and tried to look around. Just like always wherever she looked there was nothing else other than the Theater, but looking at it she felt different.

The building wasn't as run down as before. It was bright with its beautiful colors shining over every part of the building. One main difference was that the whole structure was the color of pink, there were no signs of the previous oranges or rainbows.

Looking at it there was nothing left of the strange sensation. No feeling of being watched or judged by the Theater. The only feeling she received was comfort. Like she finally arrived home after years of being lost.

Slowly she began walking towards the building. Veronica still felt a little bit apprehensive, she didn't fully understand what this building was. When she reached the door the previous feeling of suggestion appeared in her heart again.

Following this feeling she raised her hand and made a small flick with her wrist. Suddenly the beautifully engraved double doors burst open, they lead into the same hallway as before, but also different.

The colors changed to pink here as well, but there was something else too. Only now did she notice that the door and inside walls were covered by ornamentations. They were depicting roses which moved on the walls, then there was a lonely woman dancing at a few places.

She was different on every picture, but her face was always hidden. She was always in different dancing positions, but deep down Veronica knew that it was the same person. She spent a long time staring at every single picture and when she reached the end of the hallway, she realized who the dancer was.

All the rose vines congregated here and made a large circle in the middle of the double door. Inside the circle there was the same woman, except the picture showed her from the front.

Veronica looked at the woman with bewilderment. She stared into her magical pink eyes, that hid small tones of oranges and rainbows. She looked at her long light brown hair, her small nose and full lips. The woman had a small confident smile on her face as she danced.

Veronica stared at her depiction for a long time. She didn't fully understand the meaning behind the picture, but judging by her previous commands she had a pretty good idea.

Eventually she took a deep breath and made the same small hand movement. The double doors gently and soundlessly opened, like it didn't want to disturb an ongoing show.

Before Veronica even stepped inside, she heard a magnificent fast paced music. Her whole body began trembling just from hearing it and she quickly ran inside to look down at that formless person who danced there before, only... there was nobody there.

Her excitement started to die down as she looked at the empty stage, but a few seconds later another idea popped into her head.

Veronica closed her eyes and made a silent command towards the Theater. When she opened them again, her surroundings have changed. She was standing in a very bright circle of light. Below her feet the wooden stage was absorbing it all, not letting it reflect towards the audience.

She looked around for a bit, but the music still hasn't stopped and eventually she gave in to the temptation and began moving.

At first her movements were quite clumsy, like a pure amateur who was trying to imitate a master, but Veronica didn't care. Slowly her every step became more defined, her every bend from the waist more smooth, her every arm movement more elegant.

After a very long time she began dancing like a master of the craft. She felt her agility increase by a lot and her flexibility reach previously impossible levels. Her whole body became a machine with only one purpose... dancing.

Throughout the Theater laughter sounded, Veronica's laughter. This feeling was amazing, unlike anything she felt before.

She began doing cartwheels, flips and a bunch of other gymnastic moves, which she had previously no idea or physical capability to do.

Another interesting part was her mind. It was strange, she suddenly knew things that were previously unknown to her, like every type of dance that humanity had created, there were hundreds of them.

She also learnt three different types of ritual dances. One gave her good fortune, another gave someone else bad fortune and the last was for divination.

Out of curiosity she started doing the divination one. She made the first few moves, then closed her eyes and began silently chanting the most important question in her mind...

"What is this Theater?"

It took about a minute for her to get an answer to the question, but it wasn't at all like she had imagined it.

In her mind the theater appeared floating in nothingness. It was from a bird's-eye view and it was slowly zooming out. When Veronica couldn't even see the theater anymore, the picture began changing. It was still constantly zooming out, but it was like she was seeing some kind of flesh.

Only after a few minutes did the picture finally make sense... She was looking at a brain.

"But what does that mean? Is the Theater only in my head? What's the name of this place?"

She still haven't stopped the divination dance. As she asked more questions the answers didn't come as pictures this time, instead it just showed the Theater and a monotone unisex voice spoke.

"This place is something outside of reality. It exists beyond space, time or the ethereal plain. It purely exists inside your head... As for the name of this structure, It's the Theater of Imagination!"

The spokesperson sounded really excited as it said it, which confused Veronica even more. Divination shouldn't be an auditory experience, only pictures and sometimes other people talking, but never answering questions directly!

Veronica was about to stop dancing, but she still had one more question.

"Why am I in the Theater of Imagination?"

The voice answered nearly immediately, but it sounded strange, almost confused.

"Because It is your home?... Because It is yours?... Because It chose you!"

As she heard the last part suddenly an extreme sense of danger washed over Veronica. The previous feeling which always guided her seemed to be screaming for her to wake up!

She was in a panic for a second, then swiftly she closed her eyes and concentrated on waking up.

Veronica's eyes opened, but what she saw made her whole body froze from fear. She was staring right into the barrel of a gun. Suddenly she saw a flash of light inside the revolver, a bullet had been fired straight at her head.