Ericka: "It's not hell. It's not purgatory. It's something more primordial. It's the womb where our universe was born, but it's a womb that devours its children. And the worst... the worst is that sometimes, when I stare too long at the shadows in the corners of my laboratory, I can feel it staring back." (The recording ends with sudden, absolute silence.) [Sound Design Notes: The hum should gradually build tension throughout the recording, and the silence at the end should feel oppressive and unnatural. The scientist's voice should maintain its academic tone but with subtle hints of growing unease.]

(The sound of pages being turned.) Ericka: "Our universe expands from the Big Bang, but into what does it expand? Not into void. It expands into something older. Something that was already there, waiting. A space that wasn't created, but always existed. A place where the laws of physics aren't broken... they simply never existed at all." (A deep hum begins to grow in the background.)

Ericka: "Emotions have weight there. Despair, fear, pain... they aren't responses to stimuli, they're raw material. They're the very substance of that place. And what's most disturbing is that place... is hungry." (The hum briefly intensifies before disappearing completely.)