2. The Last Hope

"Rain... Rain, please wake up!"

The voice echoed through the darkness, trembling with desperation. It tugged at the edges of my consciousness, a lifeline trying to pull me out of the suffocating void. I wanted to respond, to open my eyes, but an invisible force weighed me down.

"Don't leave me... not like Mom and Dad. Please, Rain..."

The boy's voice cracked, filled with emotion. A sharp pain pierced through the fog in my mind. It felt like his words carried a weight that went beyond sound, cutting through the haze to reach something deep within me.

'Who are you? Don't cry, please...I am here...' I wanted to respond, but my lips wouldn't move.

My body felt unresponsive as if I were trapped in my own skin. I struggled against the heaviness, desperate to reassure him that I was still here, but it was like trying to swim through thick, dark water.

'Why does this voice feel so familiar?' The thought haunted me, touched with confusion and a strange sense of loss. I knew I had never heard this voice before, yet it resonated with something buried deep in my soul, something I couldn't quite grasp.

"Rain, please..." The boy's voice wavered, thick with tears. "Don't leave me too..."

'I'm here... I'm trying...' My thoughts screamed into the void, but no sound emerged. It was like shouting into a vacuum, the words bouncing back at me, useless and unheard.

Helplessness enveloped me, frustration bubbling up as I tried to fight against the darkness pulling me under.

The more I tried to focus, the more everything seemed to slip away. I wanted to reach out, to comfort the boy whose voice felt so achingly familiar. But the darkness was relentless, dragging me further away from the sound of his cries.

'What is going on?' The question reverberated in my mind, but no answers came.

Time lost all meaning in that void. I felt like I was floating, weightless, and lost.

'Is this some kind of dream?' The thought flitted through my mind, but even that seemed too tangible for this empty, endless blackness.

'Maybe I am in a coma? My brain is making up stories to keep me entertained. I should stop reading too many comics and novels...' ,I tried to console myself.

But then, the darkness began to change. It lightened, and I found myself floating in an endless white space. There was no up or down, no sense of where I was. It felt like the edge of a dream, that strange in-between state where nothing feels quite real.

'Where am I? Is this mysterious system space or space of god from where I would be sent to another world?' My mind was filled with endless questions.

'Am I becoming crazy?', I asked myself.

And then I heard them—voices, soft and distant, yet unmistakably present. They were speaking to each other, unaware—or perhaps unconcerned—that I could hear them.

"Everything must be returned to its rightful place," A voice that felt too ancient said, calm and measured. It carried a tone of authority, the kind that commanded attention.

'Rightful place? What are they talking about?' my thoughts turned messy. All I want to hear is exactly what they were talking about.

"She is the key to changing destiny even a bit, so she must be sent back before everything will be out of control," another voice responded, softer, almost hesitant. There was a note of concern in their tone, as if they were unsure of something.

"She seemed to hear us. This is kinda unexpected!" Another playful voice chuckled.

A chill ran down my spine. 'They know I'm here. They know I can hear them.'

I tried to speak, to ask them what was happening, but no sound came out. 'Who are you? What do you want from me?'

"Oh, dear child, you will know soon. Don't be afraid...", A kind voice touched my soul, like a lullaby. It was soothing, coaxing me into a sense of calm.

"She must be put back to sleep," the manly voice said firmly. "Erase her memories else she would be in trouble. We can not take that risk as the future of the world rests in her hands."

"She is our last hope," the kind voice whispered, sorrowful. 'Last hope? What do they mean?'

'What am I the key to? What do they expect me to do?' My thoughts raced, trying to piece together the fragments of their conversation. But the answers remained just out of reach, far and far away...

Before I could grasp the meaning of their words, a wave of exhaustion hit me. The white space around me blurred, the voices fading into the distance. 'No, wait—please, tell me what's going on!' But it was too late. I was being pulled back into the darkness.

"Do not disappoint us," was the last thing I heard before everything went dark once more.

But this time, I didn't slip into a dreamless void. Instead, fragmented images began to form in the darkness, flickering like old film reels. The faces of people I didn't recognize, places I had never been, yet felt oddly familiar. 'Is this... is this her life?'

A young girl, crying in a desolate room. The sound of laughter, was cold and cruel. A pair of golden-red eyes, filled with determination, stared back at me from a shattered mirror. 'Who... who is she?'

The images swirled around me, pulling me deeper into the memory. I felt her emotions—fear, anger, loneliness—seeping into me, blending with my own. 'Is this who I'm supposed to be?'

And then, just as suddenly as it began, the images stopped. The white space returned, empty and silent. 'What was that? Was it a memory? A warning?'

Before I could dwell on it further, the exhaustion became too much to fight. The last thought that crossed my mind before everything went black again was a whisper in the void: 'What am I supposed to do now?'