It’s getting harder to tell what day it is.
Sometimes I wake up in my bed. Sometimes I wake up at my desk. Sometimes I don’t remember falling asleep at all. The sun rises and sets like it’s on fast-forward. I think I’ve stopped eating.
No one knocks on my door anymore.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJjOBBPxo7w
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Or maybe they do and I just don’t hear it.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡflDIfktAso
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Today I went outside.
The streets were quiet. No cars. No voices. Just the sound of my own footsteps and the wet hiss of fog curling over the pavement.
I walked to the school — the one Arya and I “went to.” I say it like that because… it’s not there anymore. Just bricks. Crumbled walls. Like something halfway demolished and then forgotten.
I stood in front of the ruins and waited. For her. For a sound. For anything.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsDVeD6gHyf
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Instead, I heard… pages turning.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSPtTID2as3
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Soft. Steady. Like someone was flipping through a book just behind me.
When I turned around, the town was gone.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDYZWStg6hs
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I walked further into the fog.
At first it looked like the forest again — familiar trees, familiar grass. But when I stepped through it, things changed.
The trees were paper-thin. Their bark looked like faded ink. The sky was pale and blank, like an unpainted canvas.
I followed the sound of footsteps — but they were mine.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9GZczsI0I2
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I followed the sound of a laugh — but it was Zayan’s.
And then I saw her.
Arya.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9J6xIaoc2f
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Sitting on a bench made of torn book covers, smiling.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuHynTU1Zwu
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> “You made it,” she said, softly.
> “What is this place?”
> “This is where you left off,” she said. “The page where you stopped reading.”381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyXJpvRqprD
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She stood up, held out her hand.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0TAN7yq8fO
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> “But I remembered you. That’s why I came back.”
I took a step toward her, but something felt wrong. Like the ground wasn’t solid. Like I was sinking into memory.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo10eusMgoA
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> “None of this is real,” I whispered.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYotKNlKN37
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She didn’t argue. She just kept smiling.
> “Neither is your world anymore.”381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyZuCX0TC2c
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I turned back. Tried to run.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzizBggkZYf
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But the town was gone. The forest was gone.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYXBxecsZ23
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Even the fog was gone.
Just blankness.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHFQNUkUKzC
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Like a page never written.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4hWPYrrMV9
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I sat down.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMBnza3u10O
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I don’t know for how long.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCL5pDchGzE
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Back in my room — the real room — the wallpaper is peeling. The air smells old. I think I heard my father crying last night. He keeps calling my name. But I don’t open the door. I don’t speak.
Because in my mind… I’m not there anymore.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuObB47ukd4
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I’m with her.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJIvnh6vk8l
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Where the fog ends.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEdF7HVR03L
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I haven’t heard my father’s voice in two days.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxAIvmU0Y7y
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Or maybe it’s been a week. I don’t know.
I hear sounds outside my door sometimes — soft knocks, low murmurs, the sound of plates clinking — but they feel far away. Like echoes through water.
I think he’s still there. Waiting.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡefK5dtO4tw
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But I’m not.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn711YLHthV
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Arya visits every day now.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNzumk3GyWv
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We don’t talk much. We just sit. Sometimes she hums a melody I barely remember — something Zayan used to play on his phone when we studied after school. Sometimes she just stares at the fog through the window and smiles like it’s beautiful.
She’s never once asked me to follow her.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAC50X8rBy4
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She doesn’t have to.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQhpCiYLBMx
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The room looks different now.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpZWWclzena
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Like it’s dissolving.
The desk is gone.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2RCRQvyCV5
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The floor is soft.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHmgj776dsp
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The air smells like paper and old ink.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtoDjXOieCz
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I don’t sleep anymore. I just rest in between worlds.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVYKzU2psre
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---
I found Through the Pale Veil again.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7orHLsCj7g
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The book is torn, brittle. Its pages curl like they’re alive.
There’s no ending.
Just a sentence I don’t remember reading before, scribbled in the margin like it wasn’t meant to be seen.
> “He stayed because the real world never called him back.”381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjOknAEXNgU
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This morning — if it was morning — I stood at the door.
My real door. The wooden one. Still locked.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgYozPtEAhl
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I placed my hand on the handle.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn873IlPPUb
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I heard my father’s voice on the other side.
He was crying. Saying my name. Over and over.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgPuNgb5Aov
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Begging.
I didn’t open it.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz1Sx5qQLmg
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Not because I didn’t want to.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlcQiD1lbA5
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But because I couldn’t remember how.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHAlKnZ3bdw
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I turned around.
Arya was waiting.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXHxH4lkbMc
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The fog was behind her.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmV6Sit0zIq
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She reached out.
And I followed.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRJx2WU2uCi
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✍️ Author’s Note
We all have fictional characters we get attached to. Sometimes, they help us escape.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg5daBg0tkw
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But what if… they didn’t want us to leave?
What if they got obsessed with us too?
The line between fiction and reality blurs when we forget to come back.
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