DANTE'S POV
The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the white ceiling of the hospital room.
Blinking against the harsh brightness, I felt a strange, disoriented fog clouding my mind. It was as though I had been asleep for a long time, so long that the silence around me seemed almost unnatural, like an endless ringing in my ears.
Was this… the afterlife? Was I… dead?
A sense of unease crept over me, and as my senses slowly returned, I started to realize that I was very much alive.
The quiet in my head gradually faded, and I began to hear voices coming from outside the door, as though a crowd was gathered.
I couldn’t catch every word, but there was one voice that stood out among the rest, sharper and louder than the others.
It was my mother's.
As the memory hit me, I flinched
