Suddenly, the walls of his room dissolved into a flurry of white. The hardwood floor beneath his chair vanished, replaced by the crunch of deep, crystalline snow. Elias stood up, panic rising, but he wasn't in his apartment anymore. He was standing in the middle of a vast, pine-choked forest under a moonless sky.
The silence was absolute, save for the rhythmic crunch-crunch of his own boots. Behind him, there were no tracks—only a smooth, undisturbed white sheet. Ahead, a single lantern flickered in the distance, casting a sickly yellow glow against the falling flakes.
The screen didn't just turn black; it became an abyss. Then, a single line of white text appeared, shimmering like frost: “How far will you walk to find what you lost?”
Elias began to walk toward the light. Every step felt heavier, the snow rising to his knees, then his waist. The cold wasn't just on his skin; it was in his thoughts, numbing the memory of his car keys, his job, his name.