There was nothing. No sound, no light, no warmth. Only darkness, thick and endless, swallowing up all sense of time and space.

A soft breath escaped, the first sign of life in the void.

Where… am I?

He tried to move, but at first, his limbs felt distant, almost detached. Slowly, carefully, he tested each part of his body—his arms, his legs, his fingers. They were all there. He had a body. That much he could confirm.

This is… me.

The next question came, and with it, an unnerving pause.

Who am I?

Silence hung in the air like an unanswered echo. He strained to remember, to pull something, anything from the emptiness behind his eyes. But there was nothing. No memories, no faces, no places. Just this darkness.

After what felt like an eternity, a word surfaced—his name, slipping into his mind like a whisper.

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"My name is…"

He spoke it aloud, as if hearing it would make it more real. His name. A small victory against the abyss.

"And I’m…" He hesitated. How old?

Another gap. He could feel a number, resting just at the edge of his awareness. He grabbed it like a lifeline.

"Twenty-five." Yes, that felt right. But that was all he knew.

His hands clenched into fists, and he stepped forward. The ground beneath his feet was solid, though he couldn’t see it. He could walk. That was something.

With no other choice, he continued, each step reverberating through the endless void. Minutes stretched into hours—or what felt like hours. Time had lost meaning here.

And then, out of the silence, came a sound.

A voice, soft and sweet, curling around him like warm wind. "Let’s be happy together."

He froze.

The voice wasn’t his. It was… inside him, curling in the depths of his chest. He gasped, his body flooding with a strange warmth. It spread from his core to his fingertips, filling him with a quiet joy that felt so foreign, so inviting.

A smile crept onto his face, unbidden, unstoppable.

Then, in the distance, a light appeared. Faint, but unmistakable. A door. It stood alone in the void, framed by a glow that cut through the blackness.

He hesitated, staring at the door. It felt impossible, yet undeniable, like something that had always been waiting for him.

Swallowing the uncertainty gnawing at him, he took a step, then another, until his hand rested on the handle.

With a slow breath, he pushed the door open.