There is no sky here.
No ground.
No sense of direction.
Only darkness — a vast, crushing void that swallows everything except me.
Chains wind around my arms, my chest, my legs. They burn cold, as if forged from frozen shadows, each link heavier than the last. They keep me from moving, from running.
This is my punishment.
Time itself does not like being broken, and I broke it for one selfish reason — to save me. The me who still had a chance.
And now, the sentence is eternal.
No end. No voice. No sound.
At least… that's what I thought.
Because in the nothingness, I can see him.
A tear in the void, small at first, flickers open in front of me like a fragile screen. Through it, I see him — my younger self, years older now, standing on an offshore platform in the roaring wind.
He laughs with his crew.
Gives orders with calm certainty.
He's stronger than I ever was.
I can't hear his voice from here.
But I can feel it — that unshakable will inside him. The will I gave him on that one day.
The chains tighten, dragging me deeper into the dark, but I don't fight. I don't beg. I don't cry.
Because watching him… living, leading, never surrendering…
Yes.
It's worth it.
Even if I am erased from every memory, even if my name and face vanish forever, even if the only place I exist now is in this cold, endless prison — I know the world got a better version of me.
And for the first time in a long, long time… I smile in the dark.