I wake to a sound I can't place—a breath, or maybe a whisper, low and fractured, like a secret barely spoken. The waiting room is the same pale square of quiet I've known, but tonight, it feels different—thicker, heavier, as if the air itself holds its breath.
My skin prickles. The silence shifts, folding in on itself, and then the voice comes.
One word.
Just a single word.
"In..."
It slips into my mind, not spoken aloud, but felt—like the pulse of blood in my ears or the faintest brush of a shadow against skin.
I try to say it.
"In."
The sound feels strange on my tongue, foreign yet urgent.
The others stir, eyes flickering toward me. The woman with the long black coat narrows her eyes, the old man's hands tremble, the boy's gaze sharpens, and the tall one's face grows hard, unreadable.
The voice returns, clearer now but still fragmented, slipping between syllables like smoke in a draft.
"…in… d'rinn… in the…"
I repeat, struggling with the strange cadence:"In… d'rinn… in the…"
The tall one leans forward. "D'rinn… That sounds like... 'door'?" His voice is rough, tentative.
The woman shakes her head slowly. "No. Maybe 'within'? Or 'between'?"
The boy bites his lip. "Could it be a name? A place?"
The old man strokes his chin. "Whatever it is, it's a beginning. The first word, at least."
I feel the weight of their gazes, heavy and expectant. I want to make sense of it all, to pull the meaning from the haze, but the words slip through like water.
The voice murmurs again, distant but urgent, a shiver running down my spine:"…within the shadow where time sleeps…"
The phrase hangs in the air, fragile and terrible.
The woman's eyes flash. "Time… sleeping? Here?"
The tall one nods slowly. "This place. The waiting room. We're caught in it. It's not just a room—it's a trap. A place outside time."
I swallow hard, the word pressing in my throat.
"'Within the shadow where time sleeps,'" I whisper, tasting the phrase like poison and hope all at once.
The boy shivers, voice barely audible. "If that's where we are… then maybe the message is how to leave."
The old man sighs, voice low. "Or how to stay trapped forever."
The room seems to breathe around us—walls pulsing softly like a heartbeat.
I look at the clock. The hands are still, frozen in place, but the seconds feel like they stretch into infinity.
The voice fades, leaving only silence and the weight of that single, cryptic message.
"In… within the shadow where time sleeps."
A beginning.
A warning.
And maybe, just maybe… a way out.