"Maya!!!"

Diana. Finally.

I sighed, but that wasn't it—it was like releasing the last fragile thread of life I had been holding onto, clinging to hope against hope.

The sound of my sister's voice had been a balm and a wound at the same time. Relief had broken through me for a fleeting heartbeat, but the very act of relaxing, of allowing myself to believe I was saved, had snapped something inside me.

I felt myself plunge into deep darkness.

The fall was instant, merciless. Darkness surged up like a sea, an endless black tide swallowing me whole. It was not emptiness but substance, thick and suffocating, a liquid void...