Chapter Two: [Empty Study]

"There was light. It wasn't the sun, but something warmer. I felt nostalgic, yet this was no memory of mine. It called to me, and I stepped toward it. I wondered where it would take me, but I didn't ask. I never do. It enveloped me. And then-

They awoke on the floor. It was dark, though they didn't seem shaken. Rising slowly to their feet, they welcomed a breeze — refreshing, though there were no gusts of wind to stir the air.

Beside them stood a statue, long since rusted. They paused, eyes resting on its figure. Perhaps they were wondering about its age, or perhaps remembering it as it once was — unbroken, beautiful. Could it be a relic from their forgotten era?

They walked on. At first, it seemed they were unsure where to place their feet in the darkness that painted the floor — yet they moved forward, as if the path had been carved into their legs and into the steps they made before. Each step released the faintest of sounds, echoing their pace.

A door greeted them — tall, wooden, colorless. Their fingers traced its surface, catching on something sharp — a nail. They flinched, inspecting their hand. No blood.

They opened it. Silence met them on the other side, deep and heavy. It didn't disturb them; it may be that silence filled both sides of that door. A warm air brought on a strange, yet comforting sensation.

They wandered down an empty hall, and though the room was wide and the walls far out of reach, they moved with quiet certainty, as if drawn by something unseen.

At its center, a staircase rose before them. They placed a hand on the railing — hesitating. Perhaps fear had taken curiosity's place. Even so, they climbed.

They arrived at a library. Dust coated every surface, and books leaned heavily on their shelves. The silence broke — books tumbled down, startling them. This time, curiosity demanded attention.

Another figure, smaller and more delicate, was reaching for a book on the top of a shelf. Noticing another presence, the shadows froze, meeting each other's gazes. Had there been eyes visible on their faces, it may have been an intimate stare.

The first approached slowly, reaching their hand over to the book the second seemed to want, and handed it to them. They paused and stared at one another again, the past silence deafened the world once more. They did not speak, but something between them was understood. Perhaps they were happy to see another like them.

The second grabbed the first's hand. This time, the first didn't flinch.

Could it be that they welcomed the warmth?

The second led them out the door and back where the first came from.

Perhaps they didn't welcome another.

They stopped at another door, one that was wide open. There was no light to reveal what lay in the interior of the room, but they entered, hand in hand. The first paused and examined the room. Books and crumpled notes took the majority of space under the low ceiling.

The second took a seat, and began to flip through the pages of the book. They were doing something… they sat in the comfort of the empty study, waiting for one to fill the empty seat.

The first sat down, desk in front and window to their rear. The two sat quietly, as if they accepted the world's silence. They froze in place. Did they accept the silence, or had they become it — etched into the world like pages in a book. Returned to something long lost — something too cherished to fade yet too quiet to speak."