[Dark Room—Alfio's Pov]
It was dark.
When I opened my eyes, the hospital ceiling was gone. So were the walls. So was the bed. I was no longer in that sterile white room but in a space that wasn't a space at all—an endless black void. No floor beneath my feet, no sky above my head. Nothing.
Yet, somehow, I was standing. Breathing. Alive.
"Where am I?"
I took a step forward—
CLANG! CLANG!
The sound ripped through the silence. My breath hitched, and when I looked down, my chest turned to ice. Heavy iron chains coiled around my ankles, biting into my skin. I stumbled, clawing at the shackles, nails scraping uselessly against cold steel. No lock. No keyhole. No escape. The more I pulled, the tighter they seemed to cling, as if they wanted me as much as I wanted them gone.
"No… no, no, no!" My voice cracked in panic. I yanked until my hands burned, until tears blurred my vision. But nothing broke.
And then—footsteps. Slow, deliberate.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
