The room was quiet.
Besides the soft breath that whispered into my ear, I couldn't hear or see a single thing.
The breath dulled my senses, yet somehow made them sharper, as if I were standing inches from someone I couldn't see but could feel. The weight of the presence pressing against the dark.
I felt the pounding of my own heart, ringing inside my ears.
The call stretched every nerve in my body to its limit, like invisible threads pulling tight across my skin.
I sat frozen in my seat, thoughts emptied, letting the breath speak and the silence swallow everything else.
The silence felt as though it stretched on forever.
And just as my nerves pulled taut like an elastic band stretched to its limits, ready to snap...
—Hello...?
The breath turned into something else.
A voice.
Male? Female? I couldn't quite tell. I could hardly focus on the voice. I wanted to reply, but held myself back.
'No, not yet. I need to understand the situation better.'
—Is anybody there?
