EVANS
I jolted awake, my heart pounding in my chest as if trying to break free. My breath came in shallow gasps, my hands trembling as I gripped the armrests of the chair where I sat.
Valerie lay still on the hospital bed, her features serene in the pale glow. I envied her calm, though it was likely the result of sheer exhaustion. My muscles were tense, and my body felt as though I had been through a battle myself. I rubbed my hands over my face, trying to shake off the remnants of the nightmare, but it clung to me like a second skin.
Darkness. Cold. The consuming void that had surrounded me in my dream was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. It wasn’t just an absence of light; it was alive, pressing in, suffocating. And the voices—one faintly familiar, the other sinister and demandi
