Not drifting—suspended. Like something was holding him here. Not cruel. Not kind. Just… absolute.
Time didn't pass. Or if it did, it passed in spirals. Sometimes he heard things. Sometimes he remembered voices.
"You're not supposed to be here, you know."
"You wouldn't win."
"Something hungrier."
And then—
Silence.
He didn't know how long he stayed there.
Minutes. Hours. Years. All of it. None of it.
He tried to move. Nothing answered. No muscles. No limbs. Just a sense of self caught in a web of void.
'Where am I?'
The question echoed. It didn't come back.
Nothing came back.
Even the voices were gone now.
Even her voice.
Subject 0.
'Did I die then?'
No answer.
Just the dark.
He'd died before, technically. Back on Earth. If that can be counted as a death. Who knows.
Not dramatically. Not painfully. Just—blink. Over.
This felt worse.
Because he hadn't died.
Not yet.
