( PH 2 ) (back to current time)
The room was completely dark.
Only the weak city lights entering through the rain-covered window moved across the walls silently.
Everything else remained still quiet heavy.
Anie sat on the floor beside her bed.
Samantha's diary remained open near her trembling hands.she couldn't continue reading anymore.
not after those pages, not after realizing how long Sam had been suffering alone.
The words inside the diary still echoed through her mind like wounds refusing to close.
"I think something is wrong with me."
"Sometimes it feels like the world stops breathing."
"Someone is watching me."
Anie covered her mouth tightly.
but it didn't stop the tears her shoulders shook violently in the darkness.
"…I should've listened…"
The words broke apart the moment they left her mouth.
Outside,
rain continued hitting the glass softly.
The distant sounds of Astra City barely reached her apartment anymore.
Even the neon lights outside felt colder tonight.
Anie lowered her head slowly every memory hurt now.every laugh,every conversation, every moment she ignored.
She remembered Sam trying to speak.
Trying to explain something that fear in her eyes that hesitation.and anie…
had walked away from it.
"…why didn't I notice…"
The guilt inside her chest felt unbearable.not sharp,not loud aorse
heavy.
Like something slowly crushing her from inside.
Minutes passed maybe hours anie didn't know anymore.
The room remained silent except for the rain.
Then her phone vibrated suddenly anie flinched violently.The sound felt unnatural inside the darkness.she slowly looked toward the screen lying beside the bed.unknown number,her heartbeat slowed uneasily.
For a moment she didn't touch it.then finally she picked up the phone one message,only one.
If you want answers about ,,come alone.
The old building. Midnight...
Anie stared at the screen silently.
cold air moved through the room that building.the same place,the woman from before.her fingers tightened around the phone slowly.
Every instinct told her this was wrong.
dangerous but another feeling was stronger now.she needed answers because the more she read Sam's diary
the more she realized something terrifying.sam had not been imagining things.anie slowly stood up.
The apartment felt strangely unfamiliar now.like the darkness itself had changed shape while she was reading.
She grabbed her coat quietly then stepped outside.the hallway lights flickered weakly overhead.
"bzzt ",,,,
For less than a second everything went silent.too silent anie stopped walking immediately.that feeling again like the world had paused for something she couldn't understand.
Then the sound returned normally rain.
electric hum,distant traffic anie slowly looked down at her hand it was trembling again.
"…what's happening to me…"
no answer came outside Astra City looked different at midnight.
The streets below glowed beneath endless rain.neon advertisements reflected across flooded roads like broken colors bleeding into water.
Tall buildings disappeared into dark fog above the city skyline.
Even the air felt heavier tonight.
Anie walked silently through the nearly empty streets.most stores were already closed.only a few cafés and convenience shops still remained open beneath the rain.
Their lights looked small against the endless darkness surrounding the city.
The deeper she walked the quieter everything became.until finally she saw it.the old building standing between abandoned structures near the edge of the district.
Its upper windows were broken.dark stains covered the concrete walls.
Parts of the building looked burned.
no lights, no movement.Just darkness
rainwater dripped slowly from the shattered entrance.anie stopped several feet away.something about the building felt wrong.not dangerous,worse, unnatural.like the place itself didn't belong completely inside reality.The pressure inside her chest slowly returned.that strange invisible tension her breathing became slower.for a moment she almost turned back.
Then she remembered sam again and stepped forward.the entrance door moved slightly on its own.
"creeeeak "
The sound echoed through the darkness.inside the air smelled old wet concrete dust,rust.
Anie walked carefully through the abandoned corridor.water dripped somewhere deeper inside the building.
every footstep echoed unnaturally loud.
the flashlight from her phone barely illuminated the hallway ahead.
Broken furniture remained scattered across the floor.some doors hung partially open others looked forced apart violently.
Then she noticed something strange.
the deeper she walked the quieter the rain became.until eventually she couldn't hear the outside world at all anymore.only silence remained a deep silence that felt alive anie stopped walking.
"…hello…?"
no answer but she felt it immediately.
someone was there not far away.
The pressure inside her head worsened slightly.and suddenly the lights overhead flickered violently.
"BZZT !"
For less than a second anie saw something impossible.the corridor ahead looked distorted.bent unnaturally like reality itself had warped sideways for a brief moment.
Then everything returned to normal instantly.anie stepped backward breathing harder.
"…what was that…"
A voice answered calmly from the darkness ahead.
"You're beginning to notice it."
anie froze immediately,slow footsteps echoed softly through the corridor.
Then the woman appeared from the shadows.long black coat silver strands of hair moving slightly in the cold air.
dark gloves,sharp eyes.she looked exactly the same.almost untouched by time itself.the woman stopped beneath the flickering lights quietly.
"You came alone."
Anie stared at her carefully,
"…who are you?"
The woman ignored the question,
Instead her gaze slowly shifted toward Samantha's diary still held tightly against Anie's chest.
"You finished reading it."
Anie's expression tightened immediately.
"…you knew about this diary?"
"Of course."The woman stepped closer slowly.the hallway lights flickered again.
"Because Samantha started noticing fractures before you did." air suddenly felt colder anie's heartbeat slowed uneasily.
"…fractures…"
The woman looked toward the dark corridor behind them.then slowly raised her hand toward the broken ceiling above.
"Most people think reality is solid."
Her voice echoed softly through the abandoned hallway.
"Stable."
"Predictable."
"Permanent."
A pause.
"But reality is exhausted."
The flickering light above them buzzed again weakly.
"There are moments where it hesitates."
"Tiny gaps."
"Small fractures hidden underneath normal existence."Anie stared at her silently.trying to understand failing.
"…I don't get it."
"You're not supposed to yet."
The woman slowly lowered her hand.
"Humans survive because their minds ignore instability."
"They continue living without questioning what they see."
"But some people…" her eyes shifted toward Anie.
"…start noticing the pauses."anie's chest tightened slightly.
"The moments that feel wrong."
"The silence before something happens."
"The feeling that the world stopped moving for less than a second."
Every word felt uncomfortably familiar.
Anie remembered:
the hallway earlier,the frozen silence,
the strange pressure inside her head,
the moments where reality itself felt delayed
"…what does that have to do with me?"
The woman stared at her quietly for a few seconds.then finally she answered.
"After Samantha died…"anie froze immediately.
"…you broke."Silence filled the corridor.
heavy unavoidable .
"You blamed yourself constantly."
"You replayed her fear over and over inside your mind."
"You questioned everything."
"Why she died."
"Why nobody noticed."
"Why you ignored her."
Anie looked away immediately pain crossed her face silently.
"…stop…"
"But you never escaped it."the woman's voice remained calm.almost emotionless.
"Your guilt became obsession."
"And slowly…"
"…your mind started reaching toward the fractures."the pressure inside Anie's chest worsened.
"You were not chosen because you were special."
..
"The fractures responded because you kept questioning reality itself."
Anie's breathing became uneven.
"…so I became this because I couldn't move on…"
"No."
The woman answered immediately.
"You became aware."
"Awareness always comes first."lights flickered again.
"Power comes later."Anie slowly looked at her trembling hands.
"…then what am I becoming…"
The woman stayed silent for a moment.
then quietly said,,
"A Called."
word echoed through the corridor softly.not powerful,not heroic,just terrifyingly real.Anie's heartbeat slowed uneasily.
"…Sam was one too… wasn't she…"
For the first time the woman didn't answer immediately.
Instead,she looked toward the darkness deeper inside the building.
then finally,
"She began noticing the fractures before you."
The corridor suddenly felt colder sam's fear.her paranoia,her exhaustion,the feeling of being watched.
Suddenly—
none of it felt imaginary anymore anie lowered her head slowly.
"…I really didn't know anything…"
woman stepped closer quietly.
"No." a pause,
"But now you're starting to."
Then,
the lights above them flickered violently once again.
"BZZZZT !"
and this time anie saw it clearly for less than a second the air itself cracked.
Like invisible glass splitting silently through the darkness.then everything returned to normal.anie stepped backward immediately.breathing harder
eyes shaking.
"…what… was that…"
The woman looked directly into her eyes and softly said,
"Reality hesitating."....