Leila stepped into the street, expecting to find the familiar rhythm of life that greeted her every morning. But as soon as her feet hit the pavement, her eyes were met with something she could scarcely believe. The streets were submerged in an unnerving, thick darkness, as though the night itself had decided to stretch on endlessly. There was no sign of life: no people wandering about, no cars driving by, no voices breaking the eerie silence. The city stood still, as though the people had vanished without a trace, leaving behind nothing but a frozen world, as if time itself had come to a standstill.

The faint glow of the moon and stars tried to seep through the thick clouds gathered in the sky, as though they were fighting back the overpowering darkness. But their light was weak, barely able to pierce the dense veil of night that enveloped the city. The darkness pressed down on everything, smothering the familiar, leaving it unrecognizable. In the midst of this silence, the only sound that pierced through was the wind, a whisper that seemed to deepen the mystery surrounding her. The air was cold—unnervingly cold, as though time itself had frozen.

Leila’s steps were heavy, each footfall seemingly sinking into the earth, as if the ground itself were holding her back. With every passing moment, her heart raced faster, terror rising within her with each breath. She looked around in confusion, searching desperately for something to bring her a sense of security, but all she found was more questions. “Is this a dream? Am I in another world?” she wondered, but no answer came. The stillness was so profound that even breathing felt laborious, as though the air had thickened, making it difficult to draw in.

She hurried towards the neighbor's door, hoping to find comfort in a familiar place. She knocked firmly, her determination seeming to overpower the fear creeping in, but no one answered. She knocked again. And again. And a third time, but the result was always the same: silence. The door was shut tight, as though an invisible force kept her from reaching it. She paused, thinking for a moment, “Maybe they’re all asleep?” But the question grew stranger with each passing second. There was no sign of life around her—only silent walls and closed doors.

Taking a deep breath, Leila made a decision not to stay rooted in place. She rushed to her phone, desperate to call her friends, hoping for some answer, or at least to learn what was happening. But once again, she was met with a shock—no network connection. She tried again and again, but nothing. It was as though her attempts to reach out were cries swallowed by the void, like she was trying to speak to someone in a far-off world, unreachable. She flipped through apps, dialed numbers, toggled between networks—but the only thing that greeted her was the black screen, void of any signs of life.

It dawned on Leila then: the world had completely cut itself off from her, as if it had flipped upside down. No calls, no people, no signs of life. Nothing was alive around her. She had been abandoned in a deserted world. Everything around her seemed to breathe the darkness, and the streets appeared unnaturally empty, as though they were created for nothing but an ominous silence. Her heart began to race faster, a rhythm her mind couldn’t comprehend, unable to make sense of what was happening.

It was like a dream, but she was sure she wasn’t asleep. She walked through the streets of her city, but everything was wrong. The more she moved forward, the more questions swirled in her mind, “What is happening here? Why this silence?” It seemed as if the city had lost its soul, as if everything had frozen in time. Only shadows remained—dragged along by the wind, creeping between dark corners, watching her, following her every step.