Warped Reality | Little Nightmares

06 | Coalesce

Heyyyy, sorry for the lack of updates. I barely had any time to work on anything at all. The school was fairly stressful for me; I had a ton of assignments and homework to do huhu. Enjoy the chapter.

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     The chime of the bell reached 12. It rang as the sound echoed throughout the city. I felt my body tingle from it. I opened my heavy eyelids and sighed. I attempted to stand, but my body was sore; I couldn't move a single muscle. There I lay in the streets, with what appeared to be a TV in a state of static beside me as I rested on it.

     The city around me remained eerily silent. The only sound present was the distant, haunting echoes of the bell's chime fading into the void. My attempts to move felt like pushing against an invisible force, each motion agonizingly slow. As I strained, my eyes scanned the desolate surroundings—once familiar, now foreboding.

     Buildings loomed overhead, their windows dark and empty, akin to the hollow eyes of forgotten giants. The streets were abandoned, coated in a thin layer of dust that seemed to muffle even the slightest sound. I managed to drag myself a few inches forward, the effort leaving me breathless.

     With renewed determination, I pushed on, struggling against the heavy chains of my own body, desperate to be free. I had no idea why this was happening to me; I theorized and brainstormed countless reasons why this happened, yet my best guess was that the timeline didn't recognize me and tried to eject me.

     Now in my normal and current state, I ventured through the streets, hoping to find any clues about where Six was and if she was okay. Conveniently, I still had the TV I had rested on. If I could somehow manipulate it as a mode of transportation, it would have drastically helped me.

     I held out my hand as my skin brushed the TV. The sound of static filled the streets, slightly irritating me. I fine-tuned the TV to be compatible with me and then used it. Everything warped for a second, and before I knew it, I was back in the familiar hallway. "This guy again," I thought. All I had to do was not open the door, and I would be safe.

     I was greeted by a panel full of numbers and cameras. I assumed it was a numbering system for the TVs scattered throughout the city. "The school, number 51," I thought to myself, was a somewhat decent choice since it was close to other structures. I hovered my finger over the option, shaking from my nervousness.

     I tapped on the option shortly before the screen I was using switched off and flickered a bit. "What the—" The screen presented a slight flicker before the hallway could be seen moving around. "A-Am I... Hallucinating?" I stumbled and fell to the floor, whispers filled my mind as it reverberated. I felt my sins crawling on my back.

     It wasn't long before some sort of portal was evoked into the room, sucking everything in its path. The walls crumbled into pieces, the door remained shut and locked as it too, was scooped by the instance. I was perplexed by this, for I had not felt any sort of tingling or force that indicated I would be sucked in too.

     Time elapsed as I floated through space, feeling interminable, much like the multiverse hopping I had done before. Upon witnessing this, pieces of the school's playground formed erratically. It was hard to resist the urge to vomit from this; it was simply too hard for me to comprehend what I had just done.

     I was then shoved onto the playground; the portal closing right behind me. The sounds of the seesaw remained as the pale gust of wind breezed throughout the place. Memories flushed into my mind; remembering the past, as it merged with the present. I thought to myself that maybe if I could apply the concept of Determinism, I might be able to manipulate the future.

     I entered the school through the entrance from my past memory. I was then greeted by the familiar, ominous painting of the teacher, "God, I hated that thing." I ventured deeper into the school as my eyes darted through the hallways, scanning for clues on Six. I was more than desperate to merely just find a sign that she was fine.