bChapter /bb186 /b

bI /bshook my head, trying to make sense of it. I took a step forwardb, /bbut I felt like I was sinking bdeeper /binto this strange, surreal version of my old home. It was like I was standing in my parentsb‘ /bbroom/bb, /bbbut /bat the same time, I wasn’t. There was no warmth to this ce, just an unsettling silence, ba /bfeeling. that my father’s presence had never been here at all.

“Mom?” I whispered, my voice feeling strange in the quiet. I waited for a response, but there was nothing. No sound, no movement. Just me standing alone in this room, surrounded by my mother’s things, but somehow not feeling like I belonged here at all.

The darkness seemed to fade slowly, but it wasn’t the kind of fading that broughtfort. It felt more like a slow unraveling, like something was pulling at the edges of my reality. I looked down at my hands, as if trying to ground myself, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that everything here was

wrong.

bI /bblinked, looking at the space behind the bed, my heart pounding in my chest. The photo had always been there, the one with my parents on their wedding day, the only picture I had of them together. But now, it is gone. All that was left was a framed photo of my mother, standing alone, her smile radiant. My stomach twisted as I stared at it, confused, unsettled.

I had never seen my mother like this. It surprised me, the way she seemed so… different. For as long as bI /bcould remember, she had always been this worn–out person, like she was struggling with something I hadn’t been able to grasp until she was gone. She always seemed tired, as if the weight of the world was on her shoulders, and I’d never seen her look any other way. But now? Now she seemed calm, almost serene, as if a veil had been lifted. It was strange. I stood frozen, trying to take

it all in.

Suddenly…a voice called out to me from this strange ce.

“Aurora,” it is called, soft and insistent. I froze, my eyes darting around the room. The voice wasn’ting from any one ce–it seemed to surround me, reverberating in the walls, in the air itself. My heart skipped a beat.

“Mom? Is that you?” I whispered, though I wasn’t sure what I was hoping for. My pulse quickened, and I spun around, scanning every corner of the room, but there was nothing–no one.

“Aurora,” the voice came again, this time louder, more urgent, and I felt a shiver crawl up my spine. It felt wrong. My breath caught in my throat as a sudden force jerked me forward. Before I could evenprehend what was happening, I felt myself being dragged, as if the very ground beneath me bwas /bpulling me into its depths. My hands scrambled, grasping at the edge of the bedb, /bbut it was no buse/bb. /bI tumbled forward, the world around me spinning uncontrobly.

My stomach lurched as the sensation shifted, no longer solid ground beneath me, bbut /bbwater/bb–/bbcold/b, dark, and suffocating. bI /bgasped, iling as bI /bsank deeper into the liquid. Panic surged bthrough /bbme/bb, /bbmy /b

bChapter /bb186 /b

bchest /bbtightening /bbas /bbI /bbfought /bbto /bbfind /bsomething–banything /bbto /bbgrasp/bb. /bbBut /bbthe /bbwater /bbwas /bbendless /bbpulling /bbme /bbdown/bb, /btwisting around me in a way that made it impossible bto /bbknow /bbwhich /bbdirection /bwas ollibup/bb. /b/li/ol

bI /bcouldn’t breatheb. /bI couldn’t think. I kicked my legs, trying to break free of the bcrushing /bbweight /bbof /bbthe /bwater, but it only dragged me deeper. The voice called to me againb, /bdistant yet closeb, /bbechoing /bbin /bthe depths like a phantom, drawing me in.

“Aurora…”

bChapter /bbComments /b

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