'What… is this…'
His lungs convulsed, clawing for air that wasn't there. Each breath scraped like glass, his chest caving in, ribs screaming under invisible weight.
No—he was suffocating.
But there was no hand, no blade, no wound.
Only darkness.
Pitch-black, endless, pressing down on him from every side until he couldn't tell where his body began or ended.
He tried to scream. Nothing came. He reached for his own arms, but—
Nothing.
No hand. No limb. No body.
Just crushing emptiness, choking him.
'Help… Help!' His voice rattled inside his skull, desperate, cracking. 'Somebody—please—'
The darkness coiled tighter. His chest seized. His throat locked. The world shrank to that one endless sensation—suffocation, raw and merciless.
'Who's there?! Who's suffocating me?! Please—help—'
He could feel it now—something like a noose tightening, dragging him further into the black. A weight that didn't just strangle his lungs, but his very existence.
