Awareness didn’t return all at once. It came in fragments—thin, delicate, as if the slightest movement might shatter everything. So I stayed still, suspended in that fragile space, and listened.A steady beeping pulled me upward through the darkness. Slow. Rhythmic. Insistent.My body felt distant, like it no longer belonged to me. I tried to move—nothing. My eyelids refused to open, my voice wouldn’t come. But I was there. Awake. Trapped inside silence.

