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.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzk6hHpJPex
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Or maybe they do and I just don’t hear it.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI6xzabvky7
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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.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoZCuztZLX9
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Instead, I heard… pages turning.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3IQZ2jg1ZF
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPerb3P1gw7
Soft. Steady. Like someone was flipping through a book just behind me.
When I turned around, the town was gone.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKDNTbwg3wZ
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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.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNtAp6Zfv6P
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtZzRtm2NAD
I followed the sound of a laugh — but it was Zayan’s.
And then I saw her.
Arya.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDQust5wdjw
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡznJweTvXfZ
Sitting on a bench made of torn book covers, smiling.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5n8utGqzUD
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmlEZAec181
> “You made it,” she said, softly.
> “What is this place?”
> “This is where you left off,” she said. “The page where you stopped reading.”342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0NzsqkkOXJ
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXByrAIJFUf
She stood up, held out her hand.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPJYOkBxDo5
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkBZrwmd28z
> “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.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwpo9Q2wDLl
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO473s2LiUK
> “None of this is real,” I whispered.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsp2C00NFyq
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3ftAxro9xJ
She didn’t argue. She just kept smiling.
> “Neither is your world anymore.”342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYQWzh01QUZ
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I turned back. Tried to run.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV0Pg9EDtxJ
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsFNdEHU9lx
But the town was gone. The forest was gone.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFvweegwDAr
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQaD6zJb0s1
Even the fog was gone.
Just blankness.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡagMM4XufOL
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBlUmEhzp6u
Like a page never written.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1UfHit1rsO
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---
I sat down.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5AfEQqnKcs
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I don’t know for how long.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN4sPOv0kwk
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---342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjeiwfnO0ki
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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.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcuMimN1U2m
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdgJZncX8QE
I’m with her.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdvJOsOzGRv
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Where the fog ends.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbUIotspyDn
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---
I haven’t heard my father’s voice in two days.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ13oGjHizMQ
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOG8orwTPNZ
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.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbAfOTbToOz
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But I’m not.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVZa7boCMQ6
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---342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLpvqcPEOTx
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Arya visits every day now.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxZpzkrJE7l
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKPixvrojrf
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.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUU9sD9vInt
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXYMrMN8gpY
She doesn’t have to.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Zw5lol8ZD
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---
The room looks different now.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7qss6ODnja
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Like it’s dissolving.
The desk is gone.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnsoeAzKJST
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The floor is soft.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzHdkqOVuha
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The air smells like paper and old ink.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCLPbw0rWjB
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I don’t sleep anymore. I just rest in between worlds.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyitdzKiFj7
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---
I found Through the Pale Veil again.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2wujFu0w3A
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9rveiZCxKh
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.”342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCyZbyScWBd
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---342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkpnBKprlqm
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This morning — if it was morning — I stood at the door.
My real door. The wooden one. Still locked.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR1HnmwF2P4
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxVW2OHpGR0
I placed my hand on the handle.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Q4HGUw3uL
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRaqrkRKY9N
I heard my father’s voice on the other side.
He was crying. Saying my name. Over and over.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzWdq8rMm8U
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDdkAWi4Ga6
Begging.
I didn’t open it.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3SEuALaGCW
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Not because I didn’t want to.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0ZZA7FEDds
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But because I couldn’t remember how.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv3WYCAcARc
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---
I turned around.
Arya was waiting.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvFqxbg6zSM
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqAHcN5b8ev
The fog was behind her.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb3IVAItm4S
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBuzitEmNgC
She reached out.
And I followed.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlR3IxJ4N8G
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---
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGxt2WUxCG2
✍️ Author’s Note
We all have fictional characters we get attached to. Sometimes, they help us escape.342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6i9HXaE9Zs
342Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjpmknotG9Z
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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