Tessa jolted awake, her heart pounding in her chest. A scream, raw and heart-wrenching, echoed through the house. It was her mother's voice. Terrified, she threw off the covers and bolted toward the sound, her feet stumbling as her mind struggled to catch up.

When she reached the living room, the sight before her almost stopped her heart entirely. Her father was holding her mother, who was crying uncontrollably, her body shaking with grief. Her father's voice, usually steady, was soft and broken. "I know, I know... we'll get through this," he whispered, but the words seemed hollow in the air.

Tessa stood frozen in the doorway, confusion and dread swirling inside her. "What's going on?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

Her father turned to her, his face pale, eyes wide with disbelief. "Tessa... Liam... he's gone. There was an accident, and-" His voice cracked as he struggled to say the words.

Tessa's breath caught in her throat as she took in the full meaning of his words. The world around her seemed to tilt. Her vision blurred as the weight of the news hit her like a tidal wave. Her mind couldn't process it. Liam? Gone? It didn't make sense. He couldn't be. Not Liam.

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Her stomach twisted painfully as her mother screamed again, and Tessa's knees buckled beneath her. She barely felt her body hit the floor as the room spun around her. Her hands trembled as she reached for her father, but her vision was clouded by tears that threatened to spill over.

"The car... they couldn't find his body," her father's voice faltered. "The wreck was bad, Tessa. They... they assumed the worst."

The words felt like poison in her ears. She felt a wave of nausea wash over her, but it was nothing compared to the suffocating heaviness in her chest. Her body felt paralyzed, as if the very air had thickened around her, making it impossible to breathe. The world was blurring, slipping through her fingers like sand, and all she could feel was the darkness creeping closer, swallowing her whole.

Tessa tried to breathe, tried to find something to hold on to, but all she could hear was the frantic sobbing of her mother and the world collapsing around her. Everything felt distant, unreal-like she was outside of herself, watching a nightmare unfold.

And as the darkness took over, she embraced it, letting the overwhelming weight pull her down.