As I made my decision, as my weight imperceptibly shifted forward, as my thoughts began to dissolve into that strange idea of a soft end, a silent and irreversible fall, something changed behind me. At first, just a sensation, a slight shift in the air, a presence that didn't impose itself but insinuated, with an almost respectful slowness. Little by little, a light emerged, faint but distinct, as if space itself had decided to take form again.
It wasn't a bright light. Nothing brutal. Nothing transcendent. It wasn't the revelation one dreads or hopes for at the edge of the cliff. It didn't really illuminate. It existed. Just there. Stable. Inexplicably present. A timid pulse in the shadow.
I turned around, slowly, still panting, my eyes aching from having stared too long into the void, and I turned my gaze away from the abyss, from the heartbeat, from the nothingness. Back to the void, I discovered what had broken the balance. It wasn't a shape. Not a voice. Not a silhouette.
