"Don't take me... please... whatever god there is... have mercy."

  My voice echoed in the darkness, thinner than I remembered it sounding before.

  I didn't know where I was.

  I was sitting upright, but I couldn't feel a floor beneath me the way I should have. There were no walls I could see, no corners, no shape to the space around me. Just endless bck.

  Above me, a single white light glowed.

  Not harsh. Not warm either.

  Just there.

  I stared at it, my eyes stinging from how bright it looked against everything else.

  "Please... just this one favor," I whispered, my throat tight. "Let me live."

  The words didn't feel dramatic. They felt small. Fragile.

  I didn't know if I was praying. Begging. Dreaming.

  My body didn't hurt anymore. That terrified me more than pain would have. The absence of sensation made everything feel unreal, like I was suspended between something and nothing.

  "I don't want to go," I said quietly.

  Faces fshed in my mind — Car's tears, the way she held me. The neckce against my chest. The concrete room. The warehouse hallway.

  All of it felt distant now, like memories that didn't fully belong to me anymore.

  "I'm not done," I murmured. "I'm not ready."

  The white light didn't change. It didn't grow closer. It didn't move away.

  It just waited.

  I lowered my head slightly, hands curling into themselves.

  "If there's someone listening," I said, my voice barely steady, "I've been through enough. Just let me stay. Let me go back."

  The darkness remained silent.

  But I stayed there, staring up at that light, clinging to the smallest thread of hope that this wasn't the end.

  Tears came before I could stop them.

  They spilled over, hot and relentless, blurring the white light above me until it fractured into streaks. My chest tightened with every breath, each inhale shaky, each exhale breaking apart into another sob.

  "Please..." I choked out. "Just let me be with Car."

  My voice echoed faintly into the endless dark, sounding smaller each time it came back to me.

  I didn't care about anything else in that moment. Not fear. Not pride. Not everything that had happened before.

  Just her.

  The way she held me. The way she said my name like it mattered. The warmth of her hands.

  I curled forward slightly, wrapping my arms around myself because there was nothing else to hold onto. The emptiness around me felt infinite, like I could fall backward forever if I leaned too far.

  "I don't want to leave her," I whispered, my words dissolving into sobs.

  The crying became uncontrolble. My chest burned. My throat felt raw. It hurt to breathe, hurt to beg, hurt to exist in that space between something and nothing.

  "Please..." I repeated again and again, though the word started losing shape.

  Eventually the sobs grew quieter, not because the pain was gone, but because I was running out of strength. All that came out were broken sounds—low, exhausted moans pulled from somewhere deep inside me.

  I felt small.

  So small.

  Suspended in darkness beneath that unchanging white light, clinging to one simple wish:

  To go back.

  To live.

  To stay with her.

  "..."

  "..."

  "..."

  "..."

  "..."

  "..."

  "..."

  "..."

  "Please..."

  "..."

  "..."

  "..."

  "..."

  "..."

  "..."

  "..."

  "I've showed you too much to take you... you're not done, Miguel..."

  The voice didn't echo the way mine had.

  It didn't feel distant.

  It felt everywhere.

  Deep. Steady. Not angry. Not gentle either—just certain.

  I lifted my head slowly, tears still clinging to my shes. My heart pounded in confusion as I tried to find where the sound was coming from, but there was still nothing around me but endless bck and that white light above.

  "The pain you've been through..." the voice continued, calmer now, "I could never take you this early."

  My breathing hitched.

  Was this real?

  Was this my mind trying to comfort itself?

  "I'm so tired..." I whispered hoarsely.

  "I know."

  The answer came instantly.

  "But tired is not finished," the voice said. "Broken is not ended. You are not meant to end here."

  The white light seemed warmer now. Not brighter—just less cold.

  Images flickered at the edges of my thoughts. Car's face. The way she looked at me when she thought I wasn't paying attention. The way she held me like I mattered.

  "Live your life now, Miguel," the voice said. "Live it happily."

  Happily.

  The word felt foreign after everything.

  "What if it hurts again?" I asked, my voice small.

  "Life will hurt no matter what," the voice replied. "But you are stronger than you believe. You have survived what should have ended you."

  My tears slowed.

  The darkness didn't feel as endless as it had a moment ago.

  "You asked for mercy," the voice continued. "This is it."

  A warmth spread through my chest—faint at first, then stronger. Not pain. Not emptiness.

  Something pulling.

  Something grounding.

  "Go back," the voice said softly now. "You are loved."

  The white light grew rger, filling my vision until there was nothing else to see.

  And then—

  ——