In the stillness of the night, his heart suddenly began to pound with an unfamiliar intensity—like someone was relentlessly knocking on a locked door deep within his chest. Despite the silence hanging in the air, he could feel something very close to him… so close that each breath began to tighten in his lungs.
He rose from the chair, but his legs refused to support him. A strange ache spread through his shoulders, arms, and wrists—as if a shadow passing through dark corridors had brushed against his body. His mind grew hazy, his thoughts scattered. It felt as though the windows of his memory were shutting one by one, and he was losing himself in the echo of his own breathing.
The walls of the room seemed to slowly close in around him. His heart trembled—just as if an unseen hand had seized him and was pulling him closer. It felt as though something inside him was trying to tear his heart out, as if an unknown fear had placed its cold hands upon his soul. He became certain that this was not mere anxiety—this was the opening move of some unseen game.
And then he heard it—a voice, neither fully clear nor completely faint—words slipping through, not into his ears, but directly into his heart:
“You are not alone anymore…”
