Samael's eyelids fluttered open with a jolt, his body soaked in cold sweat and his breath came in frantic gasps as he struggled to regain his bearings.
The vivid nightmare still clung to him, each detail searing and digging deeper into his consciousness like a brand.
His mother.....her lifeless face, eyes wide with a pain he could never fathom, her last breath stolen by the cruel fate that had torn her away from him.
It was always the same dream. It's always the same unbearable end.
He was a failure.
He couldn't save her.
His chest tightened as though something invisible was squeezing the air from his lungs. He had been here before, in the abyss, where there was no escape from the crushing reality of his helplessness.
The crash.
The fire.
The twisted metal and broken glass.
The horrible, sickening sound of the world around him crumbled as his mother's life bled away.
His mind reeled, unable to process it all.
It wasn't just the crash that haunted him—it was the helplessness, the way he had stood there, frozen, unable to save her, unable to do anything as her life slipped through his fingers like sand.
The helplessness was suffocating. And now, it felt like it had seeped into his very bones, making every breath an effort.
The weight of it pushed down on him, smothering him until he thought he might drown in it.
Throbbb!
A sharp pain lanced through his skull, pulling him further into the nightmarish haze.
His vision blurred while his pulse thundered in his ears. The images flashed in rapid succession and struck him with the force of a hammer, each one worse than the last.
His mother's face was bloodied and pale with her mouth moving as though trying to say something, but her voice was lost in the chaos. The darkness closed in around him, suffocating him.
Throbbb!
The pressure in his head grew unbearable.
He couldn't think.
He couldn't breathe.
It was as though the world had stopped moving, leaving him suspended in this horrific moment.
He felt himself slipping, drowning in the weight of his grief.
His chest constricted, and Samael reached out for anything with a desperate, ragged breath.
But there was nothing.
No ground.
No walls.
Just a vast, endless expanse of nothingness, stretching out into infinity.
The Abyss.
His mind screamed for release, for him to escape waking, but his voice was trapped within him, giving a silent echo in the void.
He was lost....completely, utterly lost.
No one could hear him and no one could save him.
His heart hammered in his chest, each beat louder than the last as he felt his grip on reality slips away.
A cold, bone-deep emptiness surrounded him, consuming him whole.
It felt as though he was floating, drifting aimlessly in this endless void that appeared to be untethered from everything he had ever known.
The abyss was complete darkness and in it, he ceased to exist.
His very sense of self seemed to evaporate while his soul shook as though it had never been whole to begin with.
But then, something shifted. A presence...a warmth which faint but undeniable reached for him.
It wasn't physical.
It was a feeling.
A whisper of something familiar, a voice he knew well, but could not grasp.
"Samael..."
His mother's voice. Soft. Desperate. Faint, yet somehow louder than anything else.
He knew it wasn't real for some reason he just knew that but still, he couldn't deny the warmth he felt that wasn't real.
It was there, calling to him from somewhere deep within the dark, from the depths of the abyss.
It reached for him like a hand in the dark, pulling him toward something.
Toward her.
He tried to move toward it, tried to reach her, but it was as though his body refused to obey.
No matter how much he willed himself to act, to speak, to move, he remained frozen.
His body felt like stone.
His limbs were heavy which weighed down by the gravity of his own despair.
No... he thought. Not again.
But the darkness wouldn't let him escape. It was suffocating, dragging him deeper into its inescapable depths.
"Samael..."
The voice was clearer now, more distinct, but still distant as though drifting away. It was a plea. An invitation. A promise.
His chest tightened as though a cold lump of fear lodged in his throat.
With every ounce of strength left within him, he willed himself to follow the voice, to grasp whatever thread of life it represented.
But the more he fought, the further it seemed to slip away, like a mirage fading into the distance.
He reached out again, desperate now, only for the abyss to swallow him whole.
Nothing.
The world went dark.
And then, without warning, the silence shattered.
A dark light darker than the Abyss itself came into his view.
Faint at first, but it grew stronger, pulling at him.
A force greater than the void.
Samael's breath hitched.
The dark light.
It was calling him back.
It felt like warmth.
Like life. Like a dark part of himself. It was his.
He wasn't sure how, but instinctively, he reached toward it, stretching his hand out onto the sphere.
The sphere grew bigger and it swallowed the whole being of Samael.
The weight that had pressed on him for what felt like an eternity lifted, replaced by a rush of air as it felt like the sensation of something real.
The dark light enveloped him like a blanket of warmth remaining steady and warm.
And as it grew, so did his own awareness. His chest rose and fell with each breath, more grounded now, more real.
Even though it was dark Samael felt somehow familiar with it.
The suffocating emptiness receded. And for a brief moment, Samael felt... peace.
But peace was fleeting.
*********
At the edge of a strange dark room that felt like a prison cell, with dust and thick aur closing in it.
The floor of the room was cold stone, rough and uneven. The only light came from a tiny crack near the ceiling, where the faintest sliver of moonlight barely touched the ground.
The room or more accurately cell, smelled of dampness and decay as if it hadn't seen sunlight in years.
In the corner of the room, a boy lay curled up on the floor, his body tense and still, his breath shallow and rapid.
He slept fitfully, as though even in sleep, something inside him couldn't find peace.
Suddenly, without warning, he jerked awake.
His eyes shot open wide, pupils darting in every direction as if something unseen had just brushed past him.
He gasped the air as his lungs catching the breaths.
The coldness of the stone seemed to seep into his bones as he pushed himself upright, his hands trembling as they reached for the wall to steady himself.
He sat there, wide-eyed, frozen for a moment.
However, in the midst of it, faint light coming from the outside of the cell marked the boy's body, casting a fragile glow on it.
Due to the light, his features came into view as his frail body appeared to be devoid of proper food not given to him for weeks causing his skin to become pale and drawn tight over the bones.
Coming to his facial features, he had the face of a boy who could've been handsome—if he was given enough care. His obsidian-black hair hung messily past his ears, a wild tangle as if no hands had touched it for days.
But it wasn't the state of his appearance that drew attention—it was his eyes.
Those dark pools that just held a sharp, lively gleam were now losing their depth, slowly changing.
The shift was subtle at first, almost unnoticeable, but as he sat there frozen, a strange energy seemed to pulse through him.
His black eyes morphed, lightening until they were a pale and then turned into an uncertain grey.
A sharp, piercing pain shot through his mind, causing his eyes to snap shut. He winced, biting his lip to hold back the cry that threatened to escape.
The sensation lingered for a heartbeat, then slowly faded, leaving behind only the eerie calm of the new grey that now filled his gaze.
He blinked twice, dazed, as if waking from a deep sleep. His gaze swept around the dim cell, uncertainty written across his face. It was as though he was seeing the world for the first time__doubtful of everything, even his own eyes.
However, a few moments later his young yet crisp voice echoed in the cell.
"Where Am I?"