The darkness was not empty.
It breathed.
Cold air brushed my cheeks like invisible fingers. Light flickered behind my eyelids. My body felt weightless, suspended in something thick and ancient. For a moment I wondered if I had died. If this was it. The end. A cosmic timeout.
But then the air shifted. A soft glow pulsed against my skin. I opened my eyes. Silver forest.
The same one from the dreams, but different now. Brighter. Sharper. Every tree shimmered with moonlight, their trunks swirling with patterns that looked like constellations trapped in bark. Mist curled over the ground, swirling around my ankles in slow, deliberate strokes.
My heartbeat thudded in my ears. Then the shadows moved.
Shapes appeared between the trees. Not wolves. Not humans. Memories. My memories. They flick
