Chapter 1: Once again, here we are.
Silence.
Not the comfortable kind, filled with thoughts or heartbeats. It was absolute, crushing silence, the kind that made it seem like nothing had ever existed.
Ethan Blake opened his eyes, or at least, he believed he had. There were no eyelids to move, no body to feel. Only... consciousness. He was there, present, floating in a white vastness without beginning or end.
Many would be confused in such a situation, but not him. He remembered.
The sensation of flames slowly consuming his body.
His lungs filled with smoke and ash.
His family screaming his name.
He tried to look at himself, but saw nothing. No hands, no legs, not even a shadow. Only the absolute white surrounding him.
But even without a body, Ethan felt present. Alive. Waiting.
Ethan tried to move, by instinct, and, curiously, he could. Not with muscles, but with sheer will. With every thought, he glided smoothly.
Then, he felt as if the space around him were trembling.