It was a dark place. Not just dim—empty.
No matter where she looked, there was nothing.
No walls, no sky, no end. Just a vast black stretch, like an unfinished canvas that swallowed everything whole. Even the air felt wrong—cold, still, and heavy against her skin.
Celestine didn't understand.
All she could do was walk.
Her mother moved ahead of her, steady and calm, following a path Celestine couldn't even see, yet somehow knew was there.
So she followed, step after step, the sound of her own footsteps echoing too loudly in the silence.
Where… is this place?
Just this morning, everything had been normal.
The same quiet routine, the same small breakfast, the same ordinary day she'd lived a hundred times before.
Then her mother changed.
It wasn't sudden—not exactly.
But something in her voice had shifted.
It had grown heavier.
Serious. Like she had already decided something long before speaking.
She had told Celestine to come with her.
And Celestine had said yes.
