***
{Inside The Projection}
Just like that, the world was gone again.
No more thumps, no more blood, no more warmth from Mahdi's cane, no more... just no more...
All of it was wiped away, swept under the rug of memory.
When Malik opened his eyes, he was back in the void.
Endless, dark, quiet—but not empty.
Not this time.
He blinked once.
Twice.
Thrice
'Hm.'
He wasn't seeing things.
They were actually there.
On one side of the void, there was existence.
A slice of the world had been carved out and pasted into that nothingness.
It was completely bizarre.
There was light. Sand. Laughter. Fire.
A scene of his first dream, only bigger... real.
People.
He saw them too.
Sinbad was running around, entertaining Jasmine, who was hanging off his arm while dragging him and Yusuf around like a queen on a desert shopping spree.
She kicked at the sand, laughing at something no one else understood, her voice bright and warm and so damn alive.
