When Leila lost all hope of finding an answer, a final idea came to her. She decided to head to her closest neighbors' house, her friend’s family, who had always treated her like a sister. Maybe something there would offer her some reassurance—perhaps her friend would have an explanation for what was happening, or at the very least, she would be there to share in this unsettling silence that seemed to cloak everything. She moved toward the house with heavy steps, each one making her heart beat faster, as though she were racing against time, which felt as though it had completely stopped around her.

She entered the house in heavy silence, the doors left ajar as if the owners had never closed them. But everything inside seemed empty, submerged in a strange, unnerving stillness. She walked through the familiar hallways, her feet dragging, until she reached the living room. The lights were off, and the atmosphere was sluggish, as though everyone had fallen into a deep, irreversible slumber. Shadows from the faint streetlight clung to the corners of the room, stretching long across the walls, but there was no movement. Time appeared frozen in those corners, as though the house reflected everything happening outside. As she drew closer, she realized that her friend's family, like her own parents, were lost in sleep—immobile and unaware.

Leila stood there for a moment, paralyzed, trying to figure out how she might save herself from this trap that seemed to surround the entire world. She was enveloped by an indescribable silence, as if every breath had been stilled in the house, as though time itself had completely abandoned it. Slowly, despair began to creep in, and she came to realize something far larger than she had understood before: what was happening transcended logic. Everything—everywhere—confronted her with the same silence, the same absence of life, as if existence itself had vanished. She felt as though she were drifting in a hollow world, without form, without direction.

With steps laden with anxiety, she ascended the stairs, hoping to find her friend there, at least awake, to explain what was happening. She entered her friend’s room quietly, but when she looked inside, she was shocked. Her friend wasn’t there. The bed was empty, the pillows neatly arranged as though no one had ever lain upon them. There were no clothes scattered about, no books left open—nothing that reminded her of her friend’s presence. The room felt as though no one had ever passed through it.

She stood there, her eyes scanning the room, searching for any sign of life, any clue that might bring her back to reality. But everything seemed empty, vacant, just like the rest of the house. A deep chill crept through her body, as if the air had turned unnaturally cold, and her heart began to pound faster. This moment felt like it was pulling her deep into herself, allowing the true terror to set in. Everything around her seemed to spiral into an endless nightmare.

She took a step back, her eyes still scanning every detail of the room, but there was nothing—nothing at all—that could explain what was happening. She was alone, surrounded by the darkness that seemed to swallow everything around her. Questions raced in her mind, colliding with one another, unanswered, unexplained. There was something in this world that her mind simply could not grasp, something she couldn’t begin to understand. And she still didn’t know what would come after this moment—would this be the end of the nightmare that had started the moment she woke up, or was something even worse waiting for her ahead?