All Chapters of Between Breathe And Goodbye: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

“Eliana…”The voice wrapped around my name like a memory I had tried to forget.My breath caught in my throat.The house didn’t look the same anymore.This wasn’t how I remembered it.The walls were darker, stained in places I didn’t want to look too closely at. The air smelled burnt, like something had gone wrong and no one had bothered to fix it. A chair lay on its side in the corner, one leg broken. The silence was thick and heavy, pressing against my ears.And that voice…It came from the hallway.My chest tightened as I slowly pushed myself to my feet.“Eliana…”It called again but closer this time.My hands trembled slightly.“No…” I whispered under my breath. “No, this isn’t real.”But I knew better.Everything here meant something.This wasn’t random.This was chosen.I took a slow step forward.Then another.The floor creaked beneath me, louder than it should have. My heart pounded with each step, matching the rhythm of my fear.“Who’s there?” I called, my voice barely steady

The world did not return all at once. It came back slowly, like something fragile being pieced together after breaking too completely. At first, there was only silence, thick and endless, pressing against me from every side. Then came the faint awareness of sharp breath. My lungs burned as though I had been holding air for too long, and when I finally gasped, it felt like I was pulling life back into myself by force.I opened my eyes and saw darkness.Not the suffocating kind from before, not the kind that swallowed everything whole, but a quieter darkness, one that lingered instead of attacked. It stretched around me like a waiting room between moments, empty yet not entirely still. I pushed myself up slowly, my limbs heavy, my chest tight from everything I had just seen.My mother collapsing.The phone slipping from her hand.The silence that followed.A sharp ache settled deep inside me, the kind that didn’t fade no matter how much I tried to push it away. I pressed my hand agains

The moment stretched thin, fragile as glass, threatening to shatter under the weight of her hesitation. Eliana’s hand hovered over Mike’s, her fingers trembling slightly as the noise of the world pressed in around her. People were shouting, moving, and panicking, but all of it felt distant, like she was standing inside a bubble that separated her from everything else.The only thing that felt real was him lying there, unmoving, slipping away one second at a time. Her chest tightened painfully. This was it, this is not a puzzle but a real one.Her eyes flickered toward her guide, standing just beyond the chaos, untouched by it. He didn’t move, he didn’t interfere. He simply watched, as though this moment had already been decided and he was only waiting for her to catch up.“You said I have one choice,” she said, her voice low but steady despite the storm inside her.“I did.”“If I save him… I stay here.”“Yes.”“And if I walk away…” Her voice faltered slightly.“He dies.”The words set

The thing in the distance did not rush toward them. That was what made it worse. It moved slowly, deliberately, like it had no reason to hurry because it already knew the outcome. Eliana stood frozen on her drifting platform, her breath shallow, her eyes fixed on the shape forming through the dim light. At first, it was nothing more than a distortion in the air, a ripple that bent the space around it, but with each passing second it grew clearer, more defined, more real in a way that made her stomach tighten.It was tall. Too tall to be human. Its form shifted as it moved, stretching and folding in ways that didn’t follow any natural structure. Limbs appeared and disappeared, long and thin, brushing against the surface of the floating platforms without making a sound. Its head—or what should have been its head—tilted slightly, as though it were observing them, studying each soul one by one.A low hum filled the air, vibrating through Eliana’s chest.“What is that?” she asked, her voic

The moment Eliana stepped into the maze, she understood that this place was not meant to be navigated—it was meant to confuse, divide, and expose. The walls rose high on either side of them, made of a dark stone that seemed to absorb light instead of reflecting it. Even the faint glow that lingered in the air struggled to survive here, leaving long shadows that stretched and shifted as though they were alive. The ground beneath her feet felt solid, yet each step carried a strange echo, like the maze was listening, keeping track of every movement.They walked slowly at first, none of them willing to rush into something they did not understand. Eliana stayed in the middle, her eyes moving constantly, taking in every detail, every corner, every slight change in the structure. Liz walked close to her right, her earlier composure replaced with a quiet tension that showed in the way her shoulders stayed tight. Daniel stayed slightly ahead, his steps measured, his attention fixed forward lik