Chapter 4: The Hollow Night

The hospital room was quiet—eerily so. The sterile white walls reflected the pale light of the moon filtering through the narrow window. Machines beeped in steady rhythm, and the soft hum of fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. Rin Takeda lay alone, his body still but his mind restless. The brief visit from Akari earlier that day had brought him comfort, but as night took hold, a strange unease settled in his chest like a coiled snake.

Eventually, sleep claimed him.

But it was not peaceful.

Rin found himself standing in an endless void. There was no floor beneath his feet, yet he did not fall. No sky above him, yet something loomed over him like a weight. Darkness extended in every direction—dense, oppressive, and absolute. It was not the natural darkness of night, but something deeper, like the absence of reality itself.

“Where… am I?” he whispered.

His voice echoed unnaturally, distorted like it was being pulled apart and scattered through the void. He turned in circles, searching for something—anything—but there was nothing. No light. No wind. No ground. No sound, aside from the faint thudding of his heartbeat in his ears.

“Is this a dream?” he asked himself, louder this time.

Still nothing.

Panic began to claw at his chest. His breath quickened as he stumbled through the emptiness, each step meaningless. He couldn’t tell if he was moving or standing still. He tried to scream, but no sound came out. His throat moved, but the darkness swallowed everything before it could leave his lips.

Then—just as the silence became unbearable—he heard it.

A whisper.

At first, it was too soft to understand. Then it came again. A voice—not his own—low and rough, speaking words that didn’t make sense but felt familiar, like a forgotten memory scraping the edge of his mind.

“Do you seek the path… or flee from it…?”

Rin froze.

“Who’s there?” he shouted, his voice trembling.

The whisper did not answer. Instead, it echoed once more, slower this time.

“Awaken… or remain lost…”

Suddenly, the darkness surged around him. It wasn’t just emptiness anymore—it was alive. It pressed against him, suffocating, choking, pulling him down.

And then—

He snapped awake.

Rin sat bolt upright in bed, his chest heaving. The hospital room swam into view, dimly lit by the moon outside. Cold sweat drenched his back, and his hands clutched the sheets with white knuckles. His breath came in short, sharp gasps, like he’d just surfaced from deep underwater.

It was still night—just past midnight, according to the red digital clock glowing beside him.

He wiped his face with a trembling hand and tried to calm his breathing, but his heart continued to race. The sensation of the dream—the void, the voice—it hadn’t faded. It clung to him like smoke, its weight lingering in his bones.

He lay back down, staring at the ceiling, hoping sleep would return.

But it didn’t.

The silence of the room was now unbearable. Every tick of the clock sounded like thunder in his ears. Rin turned on his side, then his back, then his other side. He closed his eyes. Opened them. Tried again.

Nothing worked.

That dream… that voice…

“Awaken or remain lost…”

The words echoed in his mind, repeating like a curse.

And so he stayed awake, eyes open in the dark, haunted by a question he didn’t yet understand.

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To be continued.....

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