Yim was resting in her apartment, lying on the couch. The house was utterly silent.....so quiet it felt as though even the walls had fallen asleep. Everything was neat and perfectly in place, not a thing out of order.
But Yim… she was trapped in a nightmare.
In her dream, a raging inferno devoured everything.....her home, her family...burning them alive before her eyes. And she? She stood there like a lifeless puppet, watching, powerless, as the flames consumed everything she loved.
Her breath quickened. Beads of sweat rolled down her temples. Her heart raced as if it were trying to tear its way out of her chest.
Suddenly....
CRASH!
A deafening crack split the air as lightning struck somewhere outside, rattling the earth. Yim's eyes flew open.
The power was out.
The entire apartment was swallowed in darkness. Pitch black.
Outside, the rain was coming down in furious sheets. Inside, shadows clung to the walls like sinister whispers.
And Yim… Yim was afraid.
Then....
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Someone was pounding on the door. Hard.
The sound echoed through the hollow silence of the apartment.
Her throat tightened. Her feet felt like lead, yet she forced herself to move.....slowly, hesitantly.....toward the door.
FLASH!
A streak of lightning tore across the sky, flooding the room with a burst of white light for the briefest second.
And in that flash, she saw it.....
There was no one at the door.
No one.
Her breath hitched. Her body froze. Sweat trickled down her spine as the pounding of her own heartbeat thundered in her ears.
And then.....
A faint glow behind her.
A soft, pale light.
Before she could turn… before her trembling lips could even form a word…
Darkness claimed her.
---
Some time later…
Yim lay on the same couch, her body still and fragile as her eyelids fluttered open.
Warmth. A soft flickering glow.
Her gaze drifted around the room, and what she saw stole the breath from her lungs.
Candles.
Candles everywhere. Their flames swayed gently, casting eerie shadows on the walls.
But she remembered.
She remembered the blackout. The suffocating darkness before she fell unconscious.
And the presence.....
That dreadful feeling of someone standing behind her.
Then it came.
A voice.
Low. Deep. Calm.
From behind.
"Yim."
Her blood turned to ice. Every hair on her body stood on end. Her breath… vanished.
Slowly.....so slowly.....she turned her head.
And there, bathed in the golden candlelight, stood Talotkan.