The First Time She Felt Fear

'Where am I?'

Emir, who seemed to have remained asleep, met the darkness—the void he was so familiar with. 

'Huh, I'm here again… but why?'

Thump.

He suddenly felt a tug, as if someone, something was calling him.

And slowly, when he accepted that 'call,' this void around him began to grow color.

As if it were being painted, shades of bloodied red and pure gray made their way onto the black canvas that was once called the void.

This place... It reminded him of the illusion he put himself in a year or so ago.

'Wait… It's real?'

He reached that conclusion quickly because he could easily feel the difference between what he was experiencing now and the illusion from before.

And it wasn't just that; he subconsciously knew that this place was his mindscape.

No, not his mind, but his spirit, his soul.