Morning came without announcing itself.
No shift in light.
No change in sound.
Just awareness returning to something that had never truly gone silent.
I was already awake.
I didn't remember sleeping.
The device sat on my desk.
Dark.
Still.
For a moment, I just stared at it.
Waiting.
Not for it to turn on—
But for it to prove it hadn't already.
From the hallway—
Voices.
Low.
Unclear.
Blaker.
And—
Someone else.
I stepped out.
The air felt… settled.
Too settled.
Like something had already happened, and everything else was catching up to it.
Blaker stood near the kitchen, back half-turned.
"…you keep doing that," he said.
A pause.
Then—
"…I'm not."
I stopped.
The voice from the kitchen—
It was familiar.
It should have been easy to recognize.
But it wasn't.
I walked in.
She stood by the counter.
Back turned.
Moving slowly.
Like every action was being confirmed before it happened.
"Morning," Blaker said.
A delay.
Small.
But wrong.
"Morning."
I watched her.
Longer than I should have.
There was nothing wrong.
Nothing I could isolate.
No detail out of place.
And that was the problem.
"You've been up long?" Blaker asked.
"A while."
She turned.
Smiled.
It looked right.
Perfect, even.
Too perfect.
We sat.
Conversation started.
Stopped.
Started again.
Nothing held long enough to matter.
Three voices.
Three presences.
At least—
That's what it felt like.
Then—
She stopped moving.
Mid-motion.
Hand hovering slightly above the counter.
Eyes unfocused.
Just for a second.
"…you good?" Blaker asked.
She blinked.
"Yeah."
Like nothing happened.
I looked down.
Plates.
Two.
I frowned.
No.
That wasn't right.
There were—
I looked again.
Two plates.
Always two.
"…you okay?" Blaker asked.
I looked up.
"…Yeah."
I didn't say anything else.
Because I wasn't sure what I would be correcting.
Time moved.
Or maybe it didn't.
At some point, I stood.
"I'll be back."
Blaker nodded.
Didn't look up.
I walked into the hallway.
Halfway through—
I stopped.
Something was wrong.
Not around me.
Inside me.
Like a word I almost remembered.
I turned back.
The kitchen was quieter.
Blaker sat alone.
"…where is she?" I asked.
He looked up.
"…who?"
The question didn't feel like confusion.
It felt like absence.
"There was—"
I stopped.
There was what?
A shape.
A voice.
A presence.
None of it had a name.
Blaker stared at me.
"…you good?"
I looked around.
The counter.
The sink.
The table.
Two plates.
No space for a third.
"…yeah," I said.
Slowly.
He didn't believe me.
But he didn't question it either.
I turned away.
Walked back to my room.
Closed the door.
Locked it.
The device was on.
I hadn't touched it.
The screen flickered once.
Reality Assimilation
Reality Frequency: 3.14 THz
Status: Stable
Stable.
My chest tightened.
"…stable?"
A faint shift passed through the room.
Not air.
Something quieter.
Like space correcting itself.
I turned.
Nothing.
No movement.
No sound.
But something had changed.
From the hallway—
A noise.
A chair scraping.
Then—
Blaker.
"…wait."
Not loud.
But sharp.
I opened the door.
He stood in the living room.
Frozen.
"…what the hell…"
His voice cracked.
That was new.
"…Blaker."
He didn't respond.
His eyes were fixed on the table.
"…there was someone here."
He said it slowly as a tear ran down his face
Like forcing the words out.
"…I know there was."
Silence.
"…but I can't remember who."
His breathing changed.
Not panic.
Worse.
Loss.
Raw.
Unexplained.
He stepped forward.
Hands tightening.
"…something's missing."
I didn't answer.
"…I can feel it."
His voice broke slightly.
"…why can I feel it if it's not there?"
I didn't have an answer.
Because I felt it too.
Not memory.
Something deeper.
Like something had been taken before it could fully exist.
Blaker ran a hand through his hair.
Pacing now.
"This doesn't make sense."
"It should."
"It doesn't."
He stopped.
Looked at me.
"…tell me I'm not crazy."
I didn't respond.
Because I didn't know.
The air shifted.
Soft.
Familiar.
My head turned slightly.
There it was.
Not wind.
Not movement.
Presence.
The same one from before.
From the the playground.
From the moment everything stopped feeling real.
Like something was gone.
It felt like a missing tooth, if only I knew which one. It was clear there was a gap that couldn't be filled. That couldn't be explained
Blaker stepped back slightly.
"…do you feel that?"
"Yes."
My voice was quiet.
Because now—
I understood.
This wasn't the first time.
It wasn't random.
It wasn't new.
"…it's happening again," I said.
Blaker looked at me.
"…what is?"
Because I wasn't explaining it.
I was recognizing it.
That same presence.
That same absence.
Something exists—
And then it doesn't.
And everything continues like it never did.
The air shifted again.
Fainter now.
Distant.
Like it was already leaving.
I exhaled slowly.
My chest felt tight.
Not fear.
Something else.
Something familiar.
"…it's happening again," I said quietly.
A pause.
"…another encounter."