SFX: hhhhh—khhh—GASP—
Seong-jun woke drowning.
Not in water.
In darkness.
A darkness so absolute it felt wet, thick enough to chew, heavy enough to bruise the inside of his eyelids. He opened his eyes on instinct—
—nothing.
Not a glimmer.
Not even the memory of light.
It pressed against his face like soaked cloth.
He lifted a shaking hand.
SFX: fwip… fwip…
Nothing.
Not even the outline of his own fingers existed here.
Pain throbbed behind his eyes—slow, pulsing, like a wound trying to remember how to hurt.
Breathing was a chore.
Thinking was torture.
"Where…"
His voice cracked, brittle as paper burning from the inside.
The syllable dropped into the void—
—and vanished.
No echo.
No return.
Just silence, thick enough to crush ribs.
He tried to stand.
SFX: THUD—!
KNEES GIVE OUT*
He hit the ground hard, palms striking stone—cold, unyielding. The impact detonated another spike of pain through his skull.
"Damnit," he hissed.
It tasted like rust.
Like dried blood.
He stayed crouched there, breath ragged, waiting for his body to remember how to obey him. Time stretched. Melted. Lost shape. Could've been seconds. Could've been days.
Finally—
finally—
the pounding in his head dulled to a background roar.
Seong-jun pushed himself upright, back finding something solid—a wall, maybe. Or the inside of a coffin. Hard to tell.
Still darkness.
Still silence.
Until—
SFX: sshhhhhh—
A whisper drifted through the void, soft as moth wings brushing skin.
"You seem lost."
Seong-jun's breath froze.
The voice didn't come from left or right.
Not above.
Not behind.
Not anywhere.
It came from everywhere… or from inside the bones of his skull.
Not male.
Not female.
Not kind.
Not cruel.
Just—curious.
He swallowed, throat raw.
"Who's there?"
Silence.
Thick.
Aware.
Listening.
He turned his head. Useless. The dark turned with him, seamless and infinite.
Then the whisper came again—closer, brushing his ear like a fingertip made of smoke.
"You're not supposed to be here."
A shiver crawled down his spine—precise and surgical, a cold that knew exactly where human fear lived.
He forced himself to his feet, legs trembling, arms stretched into the void.
His fingers found nothing.
Not air.
Not walls.
Not space.
Just absence.
"Show yourself," he said, hating the way his voice wavered.
The dark didn't answer.
But something shifted.
The silence—once perfect—now had a pressure under it. A weight. A texture. Like being watched by a thousand patient eyes that didn't need light to see the shapes of your thoughts.
Seong-jun curled his hands into fists, nails digging into his palms.
Pain.
Good.
Proof he still existed.
Proof he wasn't dissolving into whatever this place was.
"Whoever you are," he said, forcing steel into his voice, "if you've got something to say, say it to my face."
A long moment stretched.
Stretched.
Stretched—
Like the moment before a predator touches your neck.
Then the whisper returned.
This time, it smiled.
He felt it.
The curve of it.
The teeth behind it.
"Oh…
but I am."
And in the blind, devouring dark—
the darkness smiled back.
SFX: KRRRRRRRCK—shhhhhh—
Something opened its eyes.