The air tasted of burnt ash.
It crept into his lungs, burning as if it were consuming him from within—yet he kept breathing. For the first time in what felt like an eternity.
Each breath was a battle—a battle against the burning ash, against the emptiness, yes, against himself.
A heartbeat. Then another.
Was that even his heartbeat? Or did it belong to someone else?
It sounded muffled, uncertain, like the groaning of a forgotten instrument.
He opened his eyes. There was no sky above him, no light.
Only darkness. A dense, vibrant darkness that moved and breathed as if woven from memories.
Something inside him knew: There was no life here. And yet, he was here.
He didn't know who he was. Only that he was.
A faint glow flickered at the edge of his vision.
Was it a dream? A will-o'-the-wisp? Or the remnant of a fading thought?
He tried to remember who he had once been. But there was nothing.
No name, no voice, no past—only the bare awareness that he was not dead.
A whisper echoed through the darkness.
It was barely audible, more of a murmur, like the rustling of dry skin on stone.
"You were not born."
"You were made."
The words came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
He felt them vibrate in his bones, not in his ears.
A strange, uncontrolled tremor ran through his body.
His hands slid across the cold stone floor.
He felt unevenness, cracks—each one felt like a fragment of a memory he was not allowed to possess.
"Made..." he breathed. His voice was little more than a breath.
The word tasted foreign, almost bitter.
It felt as if each letter reopened an old wound.
If it had been created—by whom? And why?
A movement. A drop fell—splat.
He lowered his head. The floor glistened dark red. It wasn't water. It was blood.
Again, the whisper echoed through the darkness.
He looked up.
On the wall were symbols that seemed burned into the rock—luminous, pulsating in a rhythm that perfectly matched his heartbeat.
They were written in a language he understood, even though he had never learned it.
"Born from darkness. Forged from pain. And always alone."
The writing seared itself into his thoughts.
"And always alone..." he repeated softly.
A feeling—faint, but palpable—grew in his chest.
It wasn't fear, not hope. More like something in between.
Something that felt like a memory, even though there wasn't one.
For the first time since waking, something stirred within him. Was it hope—or was it hunger?
He rose.
Immediately, he felt the darkness around him react. The dark mist swirled faster, grew thicker, as if the environment itself were breathing.
A low hum vibrated in the air—deep, ancient, and alien.
Suddenly, his entire body began to glow, to burn.
A scream escaped his throat—not a human sound, more a sound of pure darkness and pain. He collapsed to the ground. The stone beneath him trembled.
And then... all was still.
Only the echo of his own voice remained, fading like a whisper into infinity.
He lay motionless, gasping, unable to move.
Yet deep inside, he felt something new.
A heartbeat—clear, powerful, determined.
It was his. Absolutely certain.
"I'm alive..." he breathed with certainty. "But for what?"
A breeze brushed against his skin—cold and gentle at the same time.
It carried the scent of iron, earth, and something... sweet.
Something that smelled of life.
He struggled to his feet again.
A faint, silvery light glimmered in the distance—so small it seemed almost nonexistent.
Yet it drew him in, as if calling his name.
With unsteady steps, he followed the light, deeper into the darkness.
And the closer he came, the louder the whispering grew.
"Find us..."
"Find what you've lost..."
"Find... yourself."
He stopped.
His hands trembled.
But in reality, the entire ground beneath him was shaking.
A corridor opened before him—narrow, pulsating, formed from a black substance.
The walls contracted and expanded again like lungs, as if she were breathing.
And in the distance, he heard footsteps. Not his own.
Something was there.
Something waiting for him.
As the light faded, he realized this wasn't the beginning. It was merely the reawakening.