The air was thick and ominous as always in my dream. Despite that, every shadow was as calm as when I slept in the infirmary.

As I walked through the darkness, I expected to be tortured; the chilling shadow would haunt me like always before I could take any step.

But to my surprise, there was nothing. I could only hear the sound of my own footsteps in this void.

This calmness is a relief, but at the same time, it makes me uneasy.

What's more strange is that the shadows that usually held me captive were moving away from me with each step I took.

After a series of aimless walks, I sat in one spot, unsure of what to do.

On the bus, the shadows either show me fragments of my past or make me run the whole time. And in the infirmary, I–

Throb…

Just as I was about to think of it, a sharp pain lanced through my head and interrupted my thought.

Startled, I sprang to my feet. I scanned the darkness for any sign of being tortured by them.

Yet, to my bewilderment, there was nothing but silence.

Then, why did I feel the pain?

A few moments passed as I thought about what had just happened and eventually started talking to the shadows.

"Why are you guys so calm today?"

I was hoping for a response. However, nothing came. With a resigned sigh, I sank back into my seat.

The riddle of my surroundings deepened with each passing moment.

At some point, I started to hope that I could sleep or see the fragments of my memories that the shadows showed me sometimes.

Yet, when met with silence once more, I couldn't help but chuckle.

“Is this the calm before the storm?”

I pondered it half-jokingly. I hoped that I might get a response this time. But my assumptions went wrong again.

After some time, frustration overcame me.

"AT LEAST SHOW ME SOME MEMORY FRAGMENTS."

I knew I wouldn't get any response, so I resigned myself to the inevitable silence, rose from my seat, and prepared to resume my aimless walking.

However, as my foot touched the ground to take that next step, the shadows around me began to glitch.

I was shocked and looked around. The shadows flickered like a malfunctioning projection.

All of a sudden, I felt intense pain in my heart. The pain was so severe that it caused me to stumble to the ground.

I clutched my chest and started to cry because of the throbbing ache. The pain and suffering were far more harrowing than I had ever experienced here.

{Hnnn}

Before I could compose myself, I heard another sound of crying: a heartbreaking wail that echoed through this place.

{Ugh}

Confusion and fear intertwined as I realized that the anguished cries and pain were not mine.

Yet they resonated within me with a haunting familiarity, as if they were my own suffering but coming from a different source.

But I don't remember this. 

It's not mine. 

It's unfamiliar. 

Who is crying? 

Thousands of questions were running through my mind as my body petrified in one spot.

I have never heard anyone's voice other than mine in this place. As I mustered the courage to look up to see.

{Ahhhhh… No, don't do it… No, no… please, noooo.}

A plea echoed through this darkness with a raw and agonizing intensity.

Each plea, each cry is a dagger of pain and sorrow that pierces my very soul.

The sadness and wails pressed down on me with an unbearable heaviness.

With my trembling hand, I tried to cover my ears from despair.

However, overwhelmed by the sheer depth of despair, my own emotions started to combine with them.

Overwhelmed with grief, I could no longer contain my sorrow and kept weeping.

“STOP … STOP … PLEASE STOP THIS, whatever it is, stop this... STOOOOOOP …”

I raised my voice. However, with those agonizing sounds, my desperate plea also echoed through this place.

Nothing stopped. The wails of agony continued piercing my heart.

A chilling realization dawned on me when I looked up to see what or whose memory the shadows wanted me to see.

Yet, my terrified stare met nothing at all—just chaotic, glitched shadows.

What's happening?

I frantically scanned the surroundings for any sign of the source of this pain, plea, or any glimpse of a fragment, a clue—anything that could explain the turmoil engulfing me.

However, all I could see were distorted and glitching shadows with no answers, just an unsettling sense of chaos.

At some point, the shadows started to come closer to me. The cries also grew louder and more piercing.

I got up and started running, desperately wanting to escape the overwhelming anguish.

The shadows loomed ominously with every step I took. No matter how fast I ran, it seemed to draw closer to me and didn’t want me to leave.

The sound of my footsteps echoed hollowly around me, and the pain in my chest made me realize that no matter how much I ran, the shadows were always at my heels.

"Please, please let me wake up. Please, let this end.”

I prayed desperately under my breath for escape from this menacing dream.

I repeated the same thing constantly with a trembling voice, filled with fear and urgency.

Just as the shadows seemed on the verge of consuming me completely, a sudden unseen force seized me, wrenching me from their grasp.

With a tug, I was torn down through a vortex of swirling shadows and agonizing sounds.

Gaasp…

My eyes snapped open. I was abruptly flung back into reality.

My breath was ragged, and my heart was pounding. I looked around my surroundings and realized I was back in my room.

“I…I can't sleep now. I have to get out of my room.”

With urgency, I attempted to rise from the bed because a heavy shroud of those wails was still weighing me down.

But as I pushed myself upright, a searing pain surged in my head. I clutched my temples. Tears welled up in my eyes, trailing down my cheeks.

The intensity of the pain was overwhelming; it reminded me of the sounds of crying, pain, and agony that I felt in my dreams.

Confusion clouded my thoughts as I struggled to think.

W..w..what is going on r..right now?

No matter how much I suffer in the dream, it never continues in reality.

The lines between dream and reality are starting to become blurred; it's leaving me trapped in a liminal space of anguish and uncertainty.

Desperate to escape from this intense pain, I reached out with a trembling hand to hold something—anything.

Yet, as the pain increased unbearably, my grasp faltered, and consciousness slipped away.