Black… that was all Don saw.
It felt like the world around him had completely vanished.
Unlike with the other scream he encountered earlier… he couldn't hear any voices… or sounds for that matter.
No ringing. No distant impacts. No fire. Nothing.
Only emptiness.
His body felt missing too at first, disconnected somewhere beyond reach.
Then slowly—very slowly—feeling began returning in broken pieces.
The needle-like sensation crawling through his hands weakened little by little, fading from painful static into dull numbness.
His chest finally registered next. Tight. Heavy. Breath moving unevenly in and out of him.
Then the wind.
Cold air brushed faintly against one side of his face.
Don focused entirely on opening his eyes.
The effort felt absurdly difficult. His eyelids resisted as though weight had been placed directly over them, forcing him to strain just to move them slightly.
Muscles around his face twitched weakly before finally responding.
