Chapter 1
Session 1 – Day 4 Without Them
March 12, 2025 – 9:43 PM
Written in Room 14-B, under observation
They said three bodies were found.
One was missing.
That one was me.
...
The light here never changes. White. Flat. Endless. Only the red blink of the CCTV camera in Room 14-B —endless, unblinking— a camera, an eye, God, or maybe the Devil— and it never shuts off.
I count my breaths, because there’s nothing else to count. No birds outside. No sky. They say this room has a name: 14-B. I call it: the box.
A few days after that night, once I was finally able to sit up, Dr. Kramer placed a notebook on the table.
He said, “Write. Maybe words can do what the pills couldn’t.”
But to me, it felt more like an interrogation than therapy.
No one said, “We’re glad you’re alive.”
All they wanted to know was why I was.
My name is Lena. I’m seventeen.
The only one who came back from a night when the four of us decided to cross the edge of life—
and three never returned.
Micah. Siena. Aiden.
My friends. My world. Everything I had.
Now there are three graves.
And me—the one left behind.
Not because I was stronger. Not because I chose to stay.
But because something—or someone—refused to let me go.
Four nights ago, we made a decision.
To do something others had only whispered about.
They said the experience of brushing against death—on purpose—can change you forever.
Or something like that.
Aiden said, “When you reach the edge of death, it’s like putting on a new pair of glasses. The world looks different.”
Siena laughed—that laugh that always pulled people in—“We’ll go and come right back. Just a quick trip.”
Micah sat quietly, eyes locked on his hands. When he finally spoke, it was barely a whisper: “If we really come back...”
I said nothing.
Not out of fear—but anticipation.
Maybe for the first time in my life, I was doing something entirely for myself.
Aiden had brought his GoPro camera to the villa .“ We’ll record everything. Maybe sell it later.”
Siena smiled: “ If it’s about money, take it from me. This isn’t about that. This is rare. Controlled.”
And then—darkness.
When I opened my eyes, the ceiling above me was white—not the night sky.
The beeping of machines filled my ears—not their breathing.
The hands on my body were strangers’.
Not Micah’s hands—the ones that always made me feel safe.
Two days later, the police came.
Not to comfort me.
To interrogate me.
They said: “Micah, Siena, and Aiden... they’re dead.”
Then came the questions: “Why you? Why don’t you remember anything?”
I was alive.
But I had no answers.
Only a blankness where the memories should have begun.
This survival... it isn’t life.
It’s something worse.
Death, breathing through every moment.
And I am forced to witness it.
