Darkness.
A place filled with nothing but black.
Like drifting inside a dead star, it was cold, it was eerie, and it was empty.
'Why?'
A question formed, hollow and unwelcomed, inside the abyss.
No voice carried it, yet it echoed.
Sparks came next—small ruptures of thought, the first fractures of imagination tearing into the void.
A paradox clawed its way into being: existence where there should have been none, a shape pressed against a formless canvas.
'It's too quiet…'
The silence cracked. Hairline fractures spread across the black, and from those fissures bled colors that should never mix—crimson, violet, azure, gold, and an ink-black deeper than any shadow.
They twined together, bleeding and devouring one another until they painted something new.
The world bloomed.
Wind howled through the void. Light stabbed at the horizon.
The emptiness collapsed.
'Where…?'
Moments later, Riley's eyes opened.
VOOOOSH!!!
Something screamed across the sky above him.
