Kozio woke up with a jolt, his breath coming out in short, uneven gasps. His body ached, and as his eyes blinked open, he was met with an unfamiliar, unsettling darkness. The floor beneath him was cold and hard, sending a shiver up his spine. He pushed himself up slowly, confusion washing over him like a wave. This wasn’t his room. This wasn’t anywhere he recognized.
He glanced around, his gaze darting across the shadows that clung to every corner. The school hallways—the same hallways he had walked through a thousand times before—were barely recognizable, twisted and distorted. The walls were stained with what looked like ink, black streaks seeping downward, creating grotesque patterns that seemed almost alive. The air was heavy, suffocating, carrying a faint metallic scent that made his stomach churn.
Kozio instinctively pulled his grey hoodie tighter around himself, feeling the familiar fabric against his skin. His dark jeans and black shoes were the only normal things in this place—everything else felt like a distorted nightmare, an echo of the reality he knew. The lights overhead flickered sporadically, casting eerie shadows that seemed to stretch and twist as if mocking his disorientation.
His mind raced, trying to piece together what had happened. He remembered going to bed, the calming effect of the pills settling in. But now, he was here—wherever “here” was—and he didn’t know why. Was this another twisted trick of his own mind? Was it the pills? Was he dreaming, or had he slipped into some kind of feverish hallucination?
Kozio stood, his legs shaky as he took a cautious step forward. The cold of the floor seeped through the soles of his shoes, grounding him in this strange reality. He hesitated, listening. The only sound was the distant, slow drip of water echoing through the empty halls. The school felt abandoned, yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched, that there was something lurking just beyond the edge of his vision.
He took another step, each movement filled with uncertainty. The school felt endless, like a maze that had no exit, its familiar layout twisted into a dark, unrecognizable version of itself. A chill settled in the air, and he wrapped his arms around himself, rubbing them for warmth.
“Is this... real?” he muttered, his voice echoing off the empty walls, swallowed by the darkness. He looked down at his hands, still steady, still real. Whatever this place was, it felt too vivid to be a dream. It felt like something had reached into his mind and pulled him into this place, forcing him to confront whatever lay in the shadows.
He walked down the empty hall, the flickering lights casting fleeting glimpses of his shadow that danced alongside him. The darkness pressed in, each step echoing in the silence as if the world around him was holding its breath. His anxiety spiked, thoughts racing, but he pushed them down he had to focus, had to find a way out of this nightmare.
But as he rounded a corner, he saw something that made him stop cold. A set of lockers lined the wall, the doors slightly ajar. Written across them in dark, dripping ink were words he couldn’t quite make out.
His breaths grew rapid, but he forced himself to move forward. There had to be an end to this somewhere. He just had to keep going.
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