Darkness.
There was no sky.
No earth.
No wind.
No sound.
There was nothing that Luca could see, yet somehow the absence of everything felt heavier than any darkness he had ever experienced. It wasn't the ordinary darkness of a room after the lights had been extinguished, nor was it the darkness of a moonless night where the faint outlines of the world could still be discovered by those patient enough to look.
This darkness had no depth.
It had no direction.
It had no beginning or end.
Luca couldn't tell whether he was standing, lying down, or simply existing somewhere without a body at all.
For a long time, he did nothing.
He simply remained within it.
Then...
A thought appeared.
Am I dead?
The question seemed strangely distant.
He had expected something different.
Perhaps pain.
Perhaps fear.
Perhaps some grand sensation announcing the end of his life.
Instead...
There was nothing.
No pain.
No exhaustion.
No weight within his limbs.
No heartbeat.
No breath.
