Maya

Everything was dark—an endless, suffocating darkness, thicker than anything I’d ever known. I could hear faint whispers, a woman’s voice, then another, one more familiar but still unreachable. A heavy weight pinned me to the bed, making it impossible to move, to speak, even to open my eyes. My mind felt hollow, memories blurred and slipping away like grains of sand. There was nothing left to hold onto—no faces, no names, no moments I could recall.

It was as if ...