As Noah drifted into sleep, his mind, though clouded with exhaustion, refused to grant him the peace he sought. Instead, it pulled him deeper into the recesses of his thoughts.
In the quiet of the night, the mansion around him seemed to fade, and Noah found himself standing in that strange, white place again—the same one that had haunted him earlier in the night.
This time, though, there was no confusion, no ambiguity about the space. He knew exactly where he was: within his mind. And waiting for him, as always, was the girl.
The girl whose presence in his memories had resurfaced and triggered something inside him.
She stood before him again, as if time had never passed. Her expression was still soft, still filled with the innocence that haunted him.
"Noah…" she whispered, her voice carrying through the emptiness like a ripple on water. It was a single word, but it held the weight of everything he had tried to forget.
