There was no light.
There was no visible floor, no ceiling, no walls. Only a uniform darkness that was not threatening, merely empty.
Somehow, Ophélia was standing in that space.
She clearly remembered what had happened before arriving here.
She had left school alone, since the route was short and nothing had happened for several days. She had thought that doing it once would not change anything.
Three people had intercepted her two blocks from the sanctuary. They had given her no time to react. One of them had applied something directly to her neck before she could do anything, and the world had disappeared immediately afterward.
'I went alone once.'
She remained still in the void for a length of time she could not measure.
There was no way to know how much time had passed since the ambush, whether anyone knew where she was, whether the sanctuary priest had warned anyone, or whether that warning had reached the right people in time.
She thought of Takeshi.
