My friend was walking with me in the hallway at school when she suddenly just ran away. I was confused at first, she just left out of nowhere. I looked at the hallway in front of me and it looked darker than before. It was also extremely silent there, I felt a bit ill when I was about to walk closer to it. Something about it didn't feel right, it's just a normal hallway... but something about it felt morally wrong. I was going to walk forward but my legs wouldn't move. My mother then called me, which resulted me into leaving the hallway. That hallway... it feels like I just experienced Deja Vu.

- Twoni, K.

Surely you knew that there are these reality warpers in Psychic High. Yes, don't call me foolish, I just learned that fact now. I was a little lost in where I should've been going and I'm a little bit too shy to even ask for help. I was walking to the hallway adjacent to a (presumably) classroom until it looked like as if my vision has some sort of vignette that just gradually kept getting darker and darker as I walked. I was scared to have my vision completely blacked out (which would just hinder me from even reaching my destination, and probably get marked as tardy) and bump into random walls or structures. You don't want to accidentally screw your first day up, right? That, for me, would be more embarrassing than funny. As I backed away, I grew a hollow feeling in my stomach and felt a lightheaded... What's happening? That's what I thought. Vague images that I had in my dream not so long ago flashed in my mind, it felt vaguely similar to the hallway. I don't know how to describe the feeling with words, but I just felt some sort of 'hollow anxiety'. I ran back further from the hallway and everything still seemed weird and off, I was already at the entrance, I wanted to leave - it was a strong urge, but I'd make my parents disappointed with that decision. You know what? I just tried to calm myself down. I should be accustomed to the mysterious happenstances here any time now, it'll become a normalcy for me... Right now, I'm still figuring out where to go.

I would always walk around the school with my classmates. I never pay attention to my surroundings and just laugh with them as we walk. However, there was this one hallway that always gave me this off feeling. I'm not sure why. There were also times when I would go out of school later than others, but one of my friends would wait for me. One day, it was getting late and I was alone. All of my friends have already left since they had plans after school. After I packed up my stuff, I passed by the same hallway that gave me this off feeling. Since I was alone, I started to realize that it felt like I had been there before, before I even enrolled. There was nothing to be scared of, but I was scared for some reason. It felt like there was someone who didn't want me to be there. So I immediately left. To this day, I never pass that same hallway alone.

This was the same experience I’ve had. I just documented it in my last journal.

I stumbled across the same hallway again, and I was curious to find out about this certain area of the campus. I still remembered how intense it was, but it seems that I am not the only one who experienced this as well. I hadn’t realized that there were other people like me who somehow came across these kinds of situations.

This did not happen only in this one hallway but in a few others as well. There must be something connected to all of this, like a root perhaps.

It's break time and I decided to write about my experience about the hallway again. Earlier, whilst returning to the main campus from the dormitory, I just stumbled across the same hallway again. I didn't think about it that much, perhaps because I was too preoccupied about not being marked as tardy...

My vision started to darken slowly and everything looked hazy. I felt as if I was... clouded. A cloudy sensation. I started feeling light - as in, my body felt light at weight. I stopped for a moment trying to grasp everything that's happening, it felt unreal. I was in a state of severe derealization and delirium. An apparition appeared in front of me, it looked dim and blurry. It was a familiar figure standing in front of me, of my eyes! Uncanny it was for me, for it felt like I knew the figure.

And I was right - I knew who the apparition was! It was my childhood friend, Barbara. She's a Polish girl I befriended years ago. Bashka, her nickname - let me call her that!

The dim and blurry Bashka waved at me, she's all grown up now. I've lost contact with her ever since I moved cities. I knew it was her - the apparition shared the same forget-me-not eyes and that sharp nose. Her hair's all grown now. It was quite nostalgic. This felt like the perfect time to reminisce, but I can't get the thought of being tardy in class, so I tried to make this quick as possible.


"Veli!" she waved in glee, stepping forward.

"Oh, Bashka..." I muttered.


She smiled and ran towards me as if she was about to hug me, but the closer she got, she just dissipated like mist to be evaporated.

I felt my heart sink and my chest heavy. I shouldn't be that sentimental in school, I thought, but then my vision started to warp across multiple dimensions. My mouth ran dry and I dropped to the floor, speechless, in confusion and astonishment. I felt like crying, but, I just realized how embarrassing that would be for my first day in school, and people would probably just think I'm a lunatic and mock me.

Man up
Stand up
Go to class using the other hallway

And there. I think that's a good stopping point. It was really quick, but I feel even glad knowing that I wasn't late. In fact I was 4 minutes early.

I know that hallway too. Ever since I was disconnected from the Red String, it has been too easy to fall into a feeling of hollow absence, especially when passing through particular hallways (or is it always the same one?) between classes. Though the feelings it gives me always drives me away, I keep seeking it out, feeling for the raw edge where my emptiness begins, but where someone else is just out of reach. Because I want to make that connection.

I have one particularly long piece of the Red String left. I've tied a small fishing weight to one end, and I hurl it into the despair, hoping to land it on the other side.

THUNK

There -- it's landed once again.

I wait to feel the tug of someone on the other end of the line.