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.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLWh4mw1RwH
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Or maybe they do and I just don’t hear it.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9WgzT6pCHX
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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.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgaYWQebwfO
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Instead, I heard… pages turning.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX0StHZGUTw
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Soft. Steady. Like someone was flipping through a book just behind me.
When I turned around, the town was gone.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3GCpxwvcPB
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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.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvKFpD6qpYd
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I followed the sound of a laugh — but it was Zayan’s.
And then I saw her.
Arya.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1xuRc4ppoq
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Sitting on a bench made of torn book covers, smiling.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvFvKNoSZc2
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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.”12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPlyGzFgs5N
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She stood up, held out her hand.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdN64b4x4Qn
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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.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvAKZOJQy91
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> “None of this is real,” I whispered.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz4sIuKa1vk
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She didn’t argue. She just kept smiling.
> “Neither is your world anymore.”12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmYZJP54q0N
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I turned back. Tried to run.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVtbaTHeRBn
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But the town was gone. The forest was gone.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ85lyBppUnW
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Even the fog was gone.
Just blankness.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi77Yqcqd9U
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Like a page never written.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6wHdRzGjrY
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I sat down.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMpRIGAdxQ6
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I don’t know for how long.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeH12B8wOOA
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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.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ17dSjkkX8t
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I’m with her.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLjQLzN0Rxw
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Where the fog ends.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKwDavxsKvu
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I haven’t heard my father’s voice in two days.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5uQgKCCCGy
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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.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx2lrdvQU6g
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But I’m not.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLtynnJ3OWR
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Arya visits every day now.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf5g0zMPf7Q
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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.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1XkZz0u2HV
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She doesn’t have to.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeUGNKnkYXH
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The room looks different now.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8m66eauX2C
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Like it’s dissolving.
The desk is gone.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeKiWzaolas
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The floor is soft.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbY9wtqeXMa
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The air smells like paper and old ink.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTLeLFU0cd2
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I don’t sleep anymore. I just rest in between worlds.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP1rmLiBUzc
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I found Through the Pale Veil again.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡccv0nucG19
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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.”12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGsyvgsxMjl
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This morning — if it was morning — I stood at the door.
My real door. The wooden one. Still locked.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ74aoVvxWGr
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I placed my hand on the handle.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH3XXw2lqIV
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I heard my father’s voice on the other side.
He was crying. Saying my name. Over and over.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZdBacfYbRL
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Begging.
I didn’t open it.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvZOvPpy62m
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Not because I didn’t want to.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGNDNm7Wpak
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But because I couldn’t remember how.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9SwED6zztC
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I turned around.
Arya was waiting.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLG1dJYqy9F
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The fog was behind her.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZFvzh8uqaa
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She reached out.
And I followed.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwqCXQDyJmA
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✍️ Author’s Note
We all have fictional characters we get attached to. Sometimes, they help us escape.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmDVqO0Tz7g
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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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