Though I was born into wealth, that fortune was never meant to last.
The security that defined my childhood unraveled by the time I reached high school. My father's company went bankrupt, taking with it everything we had once taken for granted.
My older sister, once carefree and ambitious, took on part-time jobs to help make ends meet. The exhaustion was visible in the dark circles under her eyes and the weariness in her voice.
My mother, armed with a master's degree in biology, found work quickly, her resilience offering a small but steady comfort amid the gloom.
I felt an urge to contribute, not out of obligation, but from a transactional mindset. It was as though I needed to 'repay' what my family had once given me.
Resourcefulness became my asset. I turned to the one domain that still held me: the Internet. Before long, I was selling whatever I could find, earning money through methods that often skirted the boundaries of legality.
While the rest of us struggled to adapt, my father crumbled beneath the weight of his failure.
The bankruptcy shattered him. He spiraled into a deep depression, withdrawing further with each passing day. The once-commanding presence that had shaped our family now barely existed.
Yet, my younger sister clung to him. Loud, demanding, and unfiltered, she basked in his attention, even when it came wrapped in incoherent ramblings. She seemed to revel in it, as if oblivious to the darkness consuming him.
The house, once hushed in the wake of our downfall, now throbbed with life. But it was the wrong kind of life. It was chaos without direction, a desperate grasp for normalcy that no longer existed.
***
Amid the ruins of our old life, two figures remained steady: my mother and my older sister.
I had always admired my older sister, even if I rarely said it aloud. She had borne my selfishness for years, and now I saw her quietly shouldering new burdens with steady resolve.
But it was my mother who surprised me the most.
I had long viewed her as someone rooted in comfort, thriving in a life of ease and privilege. Yet when everything collapsed, she became our anchor; the force holding us together when all else threatened to fall apart.
She worked tirelessly, not just to keep us afloat financially, but to keep us whole when it felt like we were breaking.
Only later did I learn the truth, that hardship was no stranger to her. Long before meeting my father, she had fought tooth and nail for everything she had.
She had survived this kind of struggle before, and now, she was enduring it all over again, for us.
As for me, I lingered on the edges of our unraveling world, a spectator to my family's struggle.
My mother rebuilt; my sister endured.
I drifted, unmoored.
Most days, it didn't matter where I slept, what I ate. The future felt like a concept meant for others, not for me.
My mind remained fixated on something else, my gnawing, relentless 'pain'. A presence so overwhelming it drowned out everything else.
It was always there, silent, growing, and utterly indifferent to the wreckage around me.
***
The scene ended.
I floated in an endless expanse, weightless amid stars and galaxies. Their brilliance should have been blinding, but what struck me most wasn't their beauty.
It was the absence of something that had always been with me.
'The 'pain'… it was gone.'
For the first time in what felt like eternity, I knew peace. No ache, no suffocating pain pressing down on me.
The sensation was so alien, so intoxicating, that it almost frightened me. I wanted to cry out in joy, to revel in this unfamiliar bliss.
But then, I realized, I had no body. No mouth to shout with, no hands to grasp this newfound freedom.
I wasn't even sure what I was anymore. My vision stretched in all directions at once, as though I had shed my human form entirely.
Yet, everything around me felt strangely familiar.
I drifted, content to wander this celestial abyss, reflecting on my past as though I could remain here forever.
No wants. No needs. Just existence.
But as I settled into the peace of this eternal moment, something shifted.
A fracture ripped through the fabric of space.
"What the—"
Before I could react, an invisible force gripped me, dragging me into its depths.
***
My vision shifted.
Gone were the stars and galaxies. Instead, I stood in a grand, dimly lit chamber. A yellow crystal cast flickering light across the room, illuminating furniture so ornate, so lavish, it felt suffocating rather than luxurious.
It was night. The silence pressed against me, thick and unnatural.
Then, Something stirred within me.
The 'pain.'
It returned, creeping through my chest, sinking its claws into me like an old predator reclaiming its prey.
For the first time in a long while, something burned within me.
Anger.
A low, unfamiliar growl rumbled from me, thick with something dark, something raw, something terrifying.
And then, I spoke.
The voice that emerged was not my own; it was deeper, colder, resonating with an authority that sent a chill through the still air.
"Who dares summon me here?"