Chapter 1: Prologue:
My mind, heavy and foggy, fell into an unpleasant confusion. I swore, I cursed the incessant din around me. The noises of the neighbours, these familiar yet unbearable, resounded in my head, preventing me from finding even the slightest respite. After two sleepless nights, I had resigned myself to give up all hope of sleep, despite overwhelming fatigue. Then, all of a sudden, the air and the tumult stopped. Only a soft, soothing voice remained in silence.
It was definitely my lucky day, I thought, as I let myself be bewitched by this voice that seemed to rock me in a calm and insidious abyss.
Gradually, a metallic smell invaded my nostrils, an iron smell, heavy and persistent. Too exhausted to care, I let my thoughts escape in the darkness of sleep.
A few minutes passed, but a strange sensation grew in me. Why does this iron smell, heavy and persistent, persist, making its way into my senses, encrusted with an insistence that irritated me? Why did this voice, monotonous and yet strangely soothing, seem so close, when I should not have been surrounded by my loneliness? A shiver ran through me. But the fatigue, unavoidably, pushed me once more into unconsciousness.
Then, a light of unbearable intensity plucked me from my sleep. My eyes opened, and at once a flurry of pain passed through me. In an instant, a cold terror came to replace the pain and fatigue. A supernatural cold crept into my veins, paralyzing me. My thoughts collided with each other in a chaotic whirlwind. Had I seen a silhouette, a movement? Why did the voice seem so close, as if it were touching me, when I should not have been surrounded by my loneliness? Was it a dream turned nightmare?
Panic suffocated me. My heart was beating so fast I could feel it in my throat. I had to open my eyes again. Understand. Everything would become clear if I did this simple gesture.
My anxious nature faded. Frozen, unable to move, my mind was drowned under an avalanche of hypotheses, thoughts that collided and dispersed without logic. I could not hear the voice. It had been silent, absorbed in the unknown. I knew that it was enough to open my eyes, just a second. A fraction of a second, and all would be revealed.