Ninety-Three

93

Athena

When I opened my eyes, grogginess clung to me. I couldn't move, but my silence was soon replaced by utter confusion.

I couldn’t make sense of where I was. This place was beyond anything words could capture. Unnatural and unsettling silence wrapped around me like a thick blanket, pressing in from all sides.

The earth I knew never held silence like this, never without the hum of life, the rustle of leaves, or distant calls of creatures.

Here, there wasn’t a trace of an animal or human. Every object around me pulsed, as though it had a soul, especially the light that seemed soft but somehow divine, illuminating without blinding.

Colors blazed from every direction, vibrant beyond any spectrum I’d ever seen, and far surpassing the limits of human sight.

“What the hell?” I muttered, barely recognizing my own voice.

The stillness was overwhelming. My eyes scanned the endless expanse until they landed on a huge mountain ahead that reached toward the sky. Its slopes gleamed with p