The moment I woke up, I knew something wasn’t right.
The room was shrouded in darkness, the air heavy with a sense of foreboding. I could feel it in the pit of my stomach, a gnawing unease that refused to be ignored.
As I sat up in bed, my eyes adjusting to the dim light filtering in through the curtains, I realized what it was that had unsettled me.
The silence.
There was no sound of birdsong outside my window, no distant hum of traffic from the street below. Even the gentle tick-tock of the clock on my bedside table seemed to have fallen silent.
I glanced at my phone, expecting to see the familiar glow of its screen, but it remained stubbornly dark. No notifications, no messages, no sign of life at all.
A sense of dread washed over me as I stumbled out of bed and made my way to the window. I drew back the curtains and peered outside, but all I saw was darkness stretching as far as the eye could see.
It was as if the world had vanished overnight, leaving behind only an eerie emptiness.
Panic began to rise within me, threatening to overwhelm my senses. What had happened? Where was everyone?
But then, amidst the fear and confusion, a glimmer of hope flickered to life within me.
Perhaps this was just a dream, I thought. Perhaps I would wake up any moment now, safe and sound in my own bed, with the sun shining outside my window and the world bustling with life.
With that thought in mind, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, willing myself to wake up from this strange and unsettling nightmare.
But as I opened my eyes once more, the darkness remained, unyielding and absolute.
And in that moment, I knew with a sinking certainty that this was no dream.
This was reality. And it was far stranger and more terrifying than anything I could have ever imagined.