Emily's world was black. The suffocating darkness wrapped around her, so thick it felt as though it was pressing into her skin, into her very bones. She couldn't tell if her eyes were open or closed. There was no ground beneath her feet, no sky above her head—just an endless void, cold and crushing.
For a long moment, she wondered if she was dead. If that wave of dark energy had wiped her out, swallowed her whole. But then she heard it—the faintest echo of a voice.
"Emily..."
It was distant, muffled, but familiar. She tried to reach for it, to grasp onto that single shred of reality, but her limbs felt leaden, useless. Panic began to rise in her chest. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. Was this how it ended? Trapped in the nothingness?
"Emily!"
The voice grew louder, more insistent. It cut through the darkness, pulling her back, and then suddenly—
Her eyes snapped open, and she gasped for air.
