Something was wrong.
More than the crash. More than the pain.
Leon could feel it now—something slipping. Like sand pouring through his fingers.
His breaths were short, shallow. Each one felt further away, like he was no longer breathing for himself, but merely out of habit.
They're close… I heard them. They'll find me.
He tried to believe that. Clung to it like a lifeline. But his vision was starting to flicker again, and this time, it wasn't from panic.
It was from loss.
Loss of blood. Loss of time.
Loss of everything.
He could feel it now—the warmth draining from his limbs. The numbness creeping inward from his fingers and toes. His body was giving up.
No… not yet. I still… I still have so much to do.
His thoughts were slow, like wading through water. He tried to hold on. Tried to picture
something—his laptop, his family, his future.
But the images slipped away like mist.
Tears welled up in his eyes. Not from pain. Not anymore.
From knowing.
Knowing that they wouldn't make it in time.
That no one would reach him.
He stared at the twisted metal above him. His own blood, still warm, pooled beneath his back. The cold had reached his chest now. Breathing was harder. Slower.
He wanted to scream, to fight—but there was nothing left to fight with.
A small, broken sound escaped his throat. A half-breath. A half-sob.
I don't want to die.
But part of him knew…
I already am.
He let his head fall back. The noise around him faded—the sirens, the shouting, even the sound of his own breath.
For a moment, there was nothing.
No more fear.
Just… stillness.
And as he felt the last flicker of consciousness slip away, Leon closed his eyes.
***
Darkness wrapped itself around him, thick and absolute. There was no up, no down. No breath, no heartbeat. No floor beneath him. Just… nothing.
He floated.
Am I dying? Or… did I already?
He couldn't see. Couldn't hear. Couldn't feel. It was as though his very existence had been erased, like he'd become a thought untethered from flesh.
Time slipped by—if time still existed. He didn't know. He wasn't sure of anything anymore.
Then, without warning, something shifted.
A flicker of sensation. A warmth on his skin. The whisper of a breeze.
And then—
***