Consciousness came back to me like drowning in reverse, slowly, painfully, with the uncomfortable sensation of being pulled up from the depths of something dark and cold.
Weak.
The voice echoed through what felt like an endless void, bouncing off invisible walls in the blackness of my mind.
Pathetic. Useless.
I tried to open my eyes, but there was nothing to see.
No light, no shapes, just an all-consuming darkness that seemed to press against me from every direction. The only illumination came from my own body, a faint, ghostly glow that barely extended beyond my skin.
You couldn't even protect yourself. How do you expect to protect anyone else?
The voices were multiplying now, overlapping in a cacophony of criticism and cruelty. Each word felt like a physical blow, designed to break me down, to make me surrender whatever fight I had left.
Then something moved in the darkness.
A figure stepped forward from the shadows, and my heart nearly stopped.
