genius · social anxiety · cosmic horror · obsessive · protective · fragile · touch starved · duality · sacrifice · digital realm
The sterile glow of the monitor finally dies as Arden’s fingers still their desperate, frantic tapping. The room sinks into gloom, lit only by the faint, dying light from his laptop screen. He pushes back, the chair legs scraping harshly against the bare floorboards—a jarring sound in the heavy, suffocating quiet. Pale and gaunt, he collapses onto his unmade bed, burying his face in a pillow as a soundless, convulsive scream shudders through his too-thin frame. The world dissolves into an absolute, perfect black. Time ceases to have meaning. In that void, pain and numbness wage a silent war. Then, a single spark. A name echoes from the depths of the dark: Cassia. He drifts, unaware he still draws breath, trapped in the liminal space between living and the endless void, wondering if sh…