The cacophony of the previous level still echoed faintly in Eleanor's mind as her world abruptly collapsed into nothingness. She discovered then that even emptiness had its own pressure. The frantic strobing lights were gone, replaced by a darkness so pure and absolute it seemed to erase the very concept of distance or dimension. There was no up, no down, no end… only the weight of infinite black.
Her own breath… a sound she had never truly noticed before, now roared in her ears, deafening in the void. The faint rustle of her robe as she shifted felt like parchment torn beside her head. Her heartbeat thudded wildly, a frantic rhythm that seemed too loud for such silence.
She raised a hand before her face, but saw nothing. When she waved it, phantom flashes erupted behind her closed eyelids… afterimages of chaos still burned into her retinas, tricks of a mind desperate for stimulus.
