Darkness.
Not just the absence of light—but a living, breathing thing.
It wrapped around me like a noose, pressing into my skin, choking my lungs with icy fingers.
I tried to move.
I couldn't.
Something invisible weighed me down, crushing my chest.
I wasn't standing. I wasn't floating. I was simply… trapped.
Then, the darkness cracked.
Like shattered glass, reality shifted—and I was standing in the last place I ever wanted to be.
My old home.
The walls groaned with decay. Damp wood and rot filled the air. The floor was warped and blackened like it had been burned. A dim, flickering light barely revealed the peeling wallpaper, the broken furniture, the filth caked on every surface.
Then—voices.
Low. Angry. Familiar.
> "Look at you. Pathetic."
> "You'll never be anything."
I turned toward the sound. I didn't want to—but I did.
Figures emerged from the shadows.
Blurred faces, twisted bodies, towering over me with hateful eyes.
Them.
My parents. From the life I thought I left behind.
But these weren't just memories.
They were worse. Distorted. Monstrous. Their limbs stretched unnaturally. Their teeth too sharp. Their voices warbled between human and something else—something feral.
I stepped back. My legs shook. My throat tightened.
> "Please…" I whispered.
They grinned.
And then—the pain began.
A hand like iron slammed into my face.
CRACK.
My head snapped sideways. Blood sprayed from my mouth. My knees gave out, and I collapsed, gasping for air.
But it didn't stop.
A boot slammed into my stomach. Another into my back. Over and over. My ribs screamed. My skin split. I curled into a ball, but the hits kept coming. Their laughter was louder than their blows.
> "You think someone will ever love you?"
> "You were born broken."
> "You deserve this."
Their voices weren't just cruel.
They were absolute.
Like truths I had no strength to deny.
I screamed.
Not from the pain—from the belief that maybe they were right.
Then, everything stopped.
I was no longer in that house. No longer beneath their fists.
Now, I was alone.
In a frozen void. My breath misted in the air. My skin turned pale from the cold. I was on my knees, trembling.
No sounds.
No lights.
No warmth.
No one.
Abandoned.
Unwanted.
Forgotten.
My chest ached. Not from wounds—but from emptiness. From the gnawing loneliness that never went away.
> "I don't want to be alone again…"
My whisper drifted upward—soft, broken.
And then, from the silence… came laughter.
Their laughter.
It surrounded me. Echoed inside me. Mocking. Relentless. Their shadows stretched from the black, reaching for me again.
I tried to run—but the floor crumbled.
I fell.
Endlessly.
Helplessly.
Into a bottomless pit of despair.
I clawed at nothing, screamed into the dark—until the world finally snapped—
---
I woke up.