The cold was the first thing he felt. Not the cold of the air, but the cold of silence. Elias slipped through the tattered fence, avoiding the scattered stones, leaving behind the city's sounds which were fading bit by bit. He knew that the construction workers were on a break and that this unfinished building was his only refuge, his last sanctuary. The steel structures rose into the sky like gigantic bone columns, and the wind moaned between them, making faint sounds as if whispering secrets of the past. The smell of fresh cement, mixed with the damp scent of rust, filled his lungs, but he didn't feel it. All his senses had frozen, leaving him with only a feeling of internal emptiness, a bottomless void.
He climbed the stairs slowly. There was no light, except for a faint glow from the distant streetlights. Each step was a heavy burden on his body, but he didn't stop. There was no hesitation, only weight. It was like walking underwater; every movement required a huge effort. His feet crushed the accumulated dust on the stairs, and the echo of his footsteps vanished into the open space. He wasn't thinking of anything, didn't remember anything. No reasons, no happy or sad moments. The void filled everything. He was the void itself.
When he reached the rooftop, the wind was whipping his face. It was strong, carrying with it drops of rain that had begun to fall slowly. The rain wasn't just water; it was like frozen tears smearing his face. The wind pierced his coat, seeping into his bones. He shivered, but he didn't know if the shiver was from the cold or from something else. His fingertips were numb, his skin was blue. His body was just a tool for receiving pain, but the pain itself was empty, stirring no reaction.
He stood on the edge of the roof. The city glittered below him like a sea of embers. He wasn't looking at the lights, but at the darkness separating him from them. The darkness represented the end, the peace he was searching for. He had no desire to live, nor a desire to die. His only wish was for all of this to stop. To end this feeling of non-existence that enveloped him. It wasn't sadness, but a feeling that everything had been exhausted. There was nothing left worth trying for, nothing worth living for.
He closed his eyes. He heard the wind moaning and the sound of raindrops falling. The distant sounds of the city reached him as a faint echo, but they carried no meaning. They were just empty sounds in an empty world. There was nothing to live for, nothing worth fighting for. All he had was this void that filled him, and this desire for it to end.
He slowly extended his hand. There was no hesitation, just a mechanical movement, as if his body was moving on its own. It wasn't his hand, but just something moving in the void. He knew this was the last step, the last moment he would be something. After that, he would become nothing. This was what he wanted, to turn into a void, into non-existence.
He opened his eyes. He looked at his feet, then at the space in front of him. He wasn't thinking about the consequences, or anything else. He was just a body about to jump. The desire for everything to end controlled everything else. He was getting ready to give himself over to gravity, to leave this body, to leave this void that he carried. This was the last moment.
He was slowly extending his leg, preparing to move. The moment had come. The moment of the end.
Elias's foot had already left the edge. It was a moment of falling. Nothing else. No thoughts, no feelings, just the end. The wind was whipping his face, and the rain was smearing it. He was about to be swallowed by the darkness. But the fall didn't come.
Everything stopped.
It wasn't a sudden stop, but a gradual one. The raindrops that were falling slowly began to freeze in the air, like transparent pearls suspended on invisible threads. The leaves of a distant tree stopped swaying, and the wind stopped moaning. Even the light from the windows of distant buildings froze, turning into straight lines of color. Everything was in its place. Everything, except Elias.
He was the only one able to move in a dead world. He felt strange, confused. He raised his hand and saw it moving slowly in this frozen void. Everything around him was silent, still, as if it were a massive painting drawn in a single moment. A car in the distant street had stopped in the middle of the road, its lights frozen as they shone into the void. A person was raising their hand to greet another, and their hand was frozen in the air. All movements, all sounds, had stopped.
The first thing to disappear was the sound. Gradually, the city's sounds began to fade. There were no more car horns, no faint shouts, no distant music. There was the sound of the wind moaning, but it also disappeared. Then came the silence. It wasn't an ordinary silence, but a profound silence, a silence that filled everything. It was a silence that made you feel more alone than ever before. It was more terrifying than noise. Elias could only hear the sound of his own heartbeat and the sound of his breathing, but even these two sounds seemed alien in this frozen world.
He walked on the roof, slowly and cautiously. Each step was a strange echo in this void. He approached the edge and looked down. There was a person holding an umbrella, and the umbrella was frozen over their head, with raindrops suspended around it. Everything was in a state of complete stillness. He felt dizzy, as if his mind couldn't comprehend what was happening. He was looking for anything that moved, anything that would break this profound silence, but he found nothing.
Loneliness was a feeling he hadn't known before. The despair he had felt earlier was different. It was a despair of existence, but this loneliness was a despair of existing in an empty world. There was no one with him. He was the only one living in this universe. This thought was terrifying. This loneliness was more horrifying than the idea of death.
He extended his hand and tried to touch a frozen raindrop. It was cold as ice, but it was solid. It didn't break. It didn't melt. It was just a solid object in the air. This world was like a strange dream, a strange nightmare. He wished he could wake up from it, to return to his world, even if his world was one of despair.
He stood in the middle of the roof, turning around. He felt like he was being watched, but he saw no one. His thoughts were jumbled. What happened? Is he dead? Is this the afterlife he was promised?
But before he could think of an answer, the absolute silence began to undulate. It wasn't a sound, but a vibration in the air. Something strange and invisible was approaching him, as if it were weaving itself from the shadows and the faint lights. He felt an immense pressure on his chest, as if an invisible entity was trying to talk to him directly in his mind. The words weren't comprehensible, but just scattered thoughts, questions without answers. This force was condensing and gathering near him. He felt that the space around him was changing, that the laws of this frozen world were beginning to be distorted. This force brought with it a strange sense of curiosity, as if it were wondering about his existence. This feeling of curiosity filled him, but he didn't know its source. He stared into the void in front of him, at the spot where he felt this force was centered, waiting for it to take any form. The shadows were swaying and moving, as if trying to take on a shape, but they couldn't. Elias was trapped between this profound silence and this mysterious force that was approaching him. This waiting, this anticipation, was more terrifying than anything else.