I looked around—or at least, I tried to. Everything was black. Void. An endless, hollow nothingness stretched out around me, disorienting and suffocating.
*It's definitely that place... the one I was in when I died. So, if I'm here again... does that mean I'm dead? But how?*
A chill ran down my spine as I grappled with the thought.
"Oh no, no, no," a familiar voice cut through my thoughts, smooth and amused, as if someone were laughing at an old friend. The sound shattered the silence, and then—footsteps. They echoed through the emptiness, louder than they should've been, each step a heavy beat reverberating through the entire void. The sound was so deafening I thought my skull might crack.
I strained to see where the voice had come from, but it was still too dark. Why does that voice sound so familiar? My heart hammered, even as my body felt suspended, almost weightless, trapped in this strange, oppressive darkness.
