🌊 The Aftermath 🌊

🌊 A Nightmare of Reminders 🌊

Ever since Nya disappeared, Ry's nights were filled with dreams of her and Nya together that, in an instant, turned into a nightmare, every one having a few things in common: painful flashbacks, Nya merging with the sea, and the little voices in her head that made all Ry's survivor's guilt flood over her like one big wave.

"H-Hello...?!" Ry shakily called out into the empty hallway. She had no idea where she was or how she got there, yet there was something vaguely familiar about this particular place.

Cautiously, Ry walked towards the middle of the hallway, her footsteps being the only thing that broke the eerie silence. It was so extremely quiet that Ry could hear her shaky breath as she looked around.

Her heart raced anxiously, not knowing what was happening or what could happen. She just continued to wander cluelessly down the hall.

It wasn't until she got closer to the middle, that Ry noticed two dark red wooden double doors across from each other, one on either side of the hallway.

A hope rushed through her as she sprinted for the door on the left side.

Immediately gripping the handles of the double doors, Ry twisted and tugged them as hard as she could, but the doors wouldn't open.

"Ugh! Come on you stupid door!" she shouted in frustration while using her full strength to tug on the door knobs.

However after a few seconds, it still wouldn't budge, so Ry turned around to try the other double doors.

Her heart pounded anxiously as she reached for the handles, hoping that these weren't locked and to her surprise, they opened very easily.

As soon as she opened the doors, Ry rushed inside, frantically scanning the room for any clues as to where she could be.

The first thing she noticed were the three tall rectangular windows separated by blue pieces of stone in the wall.

Slowly, Ry approached the windows, placing her palms against the glass as she looked outside. The only thing she could see were lots of tall buildings and the rising sun far off into the distance.

"So... I must be in the city then... But how?" Ry thought out loud, now recognizing some of the buildings in the distance.

With that possibly confirmed, she turned around to scan the rest of the room.

In the right corner of the room next to the window, there was a small palm tree planted in a dark blue vase. Next to that was a long dark brown bench, a TV mounted on the wall above it.

In front of the benches were two long dark brown rectangular tables a few feet apart from each other.

Shifting her gaze to the other side of the room, Ry noticed a dark gray couch against the left wall just a few feet away from the red doors. Between it and the corner by the door were two tall black spotlights that were turned off. On its other side a few feet down the wall next to the window was a bluish gray filing cabinet.

While looking around the room, Ry got a sense of deja vu... a sense of familiarity. Almost as if she had been in this very room before.

Wanting to figure out why it felt so familiar, Ry continued to look around, practically pacing the room in circles.

After a few minutes of still not being able to figure it out, Ry sighed defeatedly while walking over to sit down on the couch.

Just as she was approaching the couch, only a few inches away from it, that's when realization hit her like a train.

Immediately, the sound of Jay's shallow breaths filled her mind as the memory of him struggling to breathe right there on the couch, Nya by his side desperately clinging to him, flashed through her mind for a split second.