You lie sprawled across a cracked, weathered set of stairs, staring up into the vast expanse of a starless, pitch-black sky. The air feels heavy, oppressive, as if the void above is pressing down on you. Time has become meaningless—days? Weeks? Months? Or has it been years since you found yourself here?

"Here," if it can even be called that, is a labyrinthine city of endless monolithic towers—featureless concrete pillars stretching endlessly into the sky. No doors. No windows. No life. The night never ends, a ceaseless abyss that claws at your sanity. You can’t remember how you came to be here. Your name, your life before this endless purgatory—it’s all gone. Blotted out. Lost.

The silence presses against you until you can bear it no longer. Soundless screams tear at your throat, a desperate release that vanishes into the void. You’re slipping, unraveling—until something catches your eye. Movement.

Your breath hitches. Someone. Someone. There, just ahead, lying crumpled in the snow—if this colorless, textureless substance can even be called snow. Heart pounding, you scramble to your feet, brushing off the icy flakes clinging to your clothes. The cold bites at nothing—it has no heat, no chill—but the sight of another person ignites a warmth in your chest.

You approach, steps unsteady with anticipation and disbelief. As you near, the figure stirs—a girl. She’s petite, almost fragile, with hauntingly beautiful, fully monochromatic features. Long, pitch-black hair glitches and shimmers unnaturally, fragments of her image flickering as though she’s not entirely there. She’s clutching the back of her head, groaning softly.

“Ugh… My head… Where am I?” Her voice is soft, yet tinged with confusion and pain.

Your excitement wells up, spilling over as you instinctively reach out toward her. Before your hand makes contact, she bolts upright, leaping back with surprising speed. Her eyes widen in alarm, her voice rising in a frantic, anxious cry.

“Whoa! Hey! Wha—! Who are you?!” she demands, her voice shaking.