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.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp0JTxvOUfa
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Or maybe they do and I just don’t hear it.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIufY8ROxON
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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.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy5UR5tejwe
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Instead, I heard… pages turning.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj0UBdSAYFi
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Soft. Steady. Like someone was flipping through a book just behind me.
When I turned around, the town was gone.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡalXyuG2z1j
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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.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyynSXHBSch
337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3eWB8ARvEi
I followed the sound of a laugh — but it was Zayan’s.
And then I saw her.
Arya.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw5d15INCNO
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Sitting on a bench made of torn book covers, smiling.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPSELWsKigb
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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.”337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Hogpymtzh
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She stood up, held out her hand.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ17nFWhFpOX
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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.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDSE2a0vec5
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> “None of this is real,” I whispered.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJABNhCRc05
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She didn’t argue. She just kept smiling.
> “Neither is your world anymore.”337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcMFUoZ6lKV
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I turned back. Tried to run.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo2d1zZYorN
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But the town was gone. The forest was gone.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuLHZwRrp45
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Even the fog was gone.
Just blankness.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9UlvNmVYLk
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Like a page never written.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoC4DNwG6VN
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---
I sat down.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP7uABguxOb
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I don’t know for how long.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwGZwugS0Lo
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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.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqNXDZIWpcr
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I’m with her.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa1M1hafulp
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Where the fog ends.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8GRBs9PYzn
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---
I haven’t heard my father’s voice in two days.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNkYsGRhhtf
337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZaqO5WTseC
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.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrvqjU6sfbT
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But I’m not.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzmceJsqNRh
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Arya visits every day now.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP54beRojp2
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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.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQVZtuXtpLp
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She doesn’t have to.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8m6m0K3GXR
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---
The room looks different now.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNgZDBSKBTQ
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Like it’s dissolving.
The desk is gone.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqucbz3TGuV
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The floor is soft.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRhgqSNryul
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The air smells like paper and old ink.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVrUZS8Oagk
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I don’t sleep anymore. I just rest in between worlds.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu9lZxtz20g
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---
I found Through the Pale Veil again.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1wO38g06Ii
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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.”337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7iaOYNHIzm
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This morning — if it was morning — I stood at the door.
My real door. The wooden one. Still locked.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCm5LqedxKh
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I placed my hand on the handle.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJQhn2C4QaN
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I heard my father’s voice on the other side.
He was crying. Saying my name. Over and over.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfCFD7TDnT4
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Begging.
I didn’t open it.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyV8nqtt8fF
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Not because I didn’t want to.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCae45Wqbkr
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But because I couldn’t remember how.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlwZLP5Cj1s
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---
I turned around.
Arya was waiting.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPkZivCrga4
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The fog was behind her.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWoyarq4Okd
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She reached out.
And I followed.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMHOKgYgYLN
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---
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✍️ Author’s Note
We all have fictional characters we get attached to. Sometimes, they help us escape.337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYmGqSmTgRY
337Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvimcPd9GOE
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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