Chapter 1. World Unfolded in Darkness
“…” = dialogue
italic = thoughts
normal text = narration
Zachary’s POV
I never thought life would be this unfair. At twenty-two, unemployed and living alone after Mom passed away, I clung to the only thing that still gave me hope—my stories. Every day, I wrote and wrote, wondering if anyone would ever read them.
It was the only thing that made the silence bearable.
It was early morning when Zachary returned from his evening shift—his routine, as always. To escape the crowd, he wandered off into the forest instead of going straight home.
The deeper he went, the quieter everything became.
My life… damn it, it’s so miserable. If only I had a chance, I’d fix everything.
That’s when he saw her.
At first, he thought his mind was playing tricks on him.
A figure stood between the trees.
Pale. Still. Wrong.
His mother.
Her hair—soft, glowing, almost unreal—fell around her in strands of fairy-blonde light. It looked too perfect to belong to this world.
Zachary froze.
This can’t be real.
But then something changed.
The air shifted.
The forest felt… alive.
And suddenly, an invisible force pulled him forward.
He couldn’t stop himself.
He moved.
Not because he chose to.
But because something made him.
“Mom…?”
His voice came out broken.
He ran toward her.
His heart pounded so hard it hurt, every step heavier than the last.
But the closer he got—
the farther she seemed.
Like she was never meant to be reached.
No… something’s wrong.
The ground beneath him disappeared
One moment he was running—
The next,he was falling
No sound.No light.No air
Just the unbearable certainty of death swallowing him whole.
