The tear pulsed, expanding slightly as if in response to his recognition. And in that moment, David understood what had happened. The experiment hadn't failed—it had succeeded too well, opening not just a stabilization pathway for his own dimensional frequency, but a direct observation window into the space between realities themselves.
Yet as he stared into the void, something within that infinite darkness seemed to stare back—a presence ancient and vast, stirring at the disturbance of its domain. A tendril of pure darkness, thinner than a thread but blacker than the absence of light, extended from the tear toward David, drawn to the unique resonance of his fractured existence.
It moved not like matter, but like thought—silent, deliberate, intelligent.
