Broken Reality

Connor woke up in a cold sweat, the sound of pounding on glass ringing through his ears. He knew he shouldn't, but something inside of him was urging him to investigate. He slowly sat up in bed. His heart pounding in his chest and his breathe catching in his throat. He took a few deep breathes to calm himself down and realized he may not be alone.

He listened intently, and suddenly, the banging sound ceased. Connor let out a long sigh of relief, starting to feel safe once again. He slowly lied down again, his blue eyes fluttering closed as he began to give back in to the temptation of sleep.

But just as he was about to fall asleep, he heard the noise again. Connor decided to investigate, leaving the safety of his bed and making his way to the bathroom down the hall, in the direction of the noise. As soon as he turned on the light, he knew that something was wrong.

It was his reflection. He noticed it when he moved his hand away from the light switch, and the reflection did not do the same. Instead, it banged its fists against the glass, its wavy brown hair matted to its face with sweat. This was the source of the noise. The reflection started screaming, only no noise came out other than the sound of fists hitting glass.

Connor cried out in fear as he sprinted away from the bathroom, down the stairs and out of his house. Not knowing what else to do, he ran towards his best friend Alex's house. Their house wasn't that far from his, but this time, it felt like a thousand miles away.

Once he got there, Connor started pounding on their door, silently begging them to come answer it, but no one did. Frustrated, he decided to walk around to the side of the house, approaching Alex's bedroom window.

This wasn't the first time that Connor had thrown rocks at their window to get them to come out and talk, and sure enough, after a few rocks hit their window, Alex opened it and poked their head out.

"What the hell?! I'm trying to sleep!" Alex whisper shouted down to Connor, but after they saw the look on his face, their tone of voice changed, "Wait, did something happen? Are you okay, Con?"

"We need to talk," Was all that Connor could manage for a reply.

"Okay, just give me a second," Alex called down as they carefully opened their window a bit wider, climbed out onto the roof and slid down the short distance to the ground, "What's wrong?"

"I-I saw something, in my mirror. There was something wrong with my reflection, it was like it was trying to esca-"

"Shut up! Are you trying to get us both killed?!" Alex interrupted him, "Just follow me inside and we can talk there,"

Connor was speechless as Alex pulled him inside of the house through the back door.

"We really aren't supposed to be talking about this, so be quick in case my dad wakes up," Alex explained hastily.

"Alex, you're scaring me,"

"Do a quick perimeter check of the room,"

"Why?"

"Just trust me, Con, do it,"

Connor reluctantly agreed, spinning on his heels and looking around the room. Everything looked normal until he stopped, that was when the room transformed into a barren, abandoned structure. The wall paper was rolling off of the wall, floorboards stuck up at odd angles, and the couch was torn to shreds. He was about to scream, but just as suddenly as it had started, everything went back to normal again once Alex placed a hand on his shoulder.

"It happened, didn't it?" Alex asked, their brown eyes flashing a look of concern and worry.

"Y-yeah, what was that?" Connor asked quietly, his voice shaking.

"A glitch,"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, it was a glitch. I've been seeing them too, and I doubt that we're the only ones noticing them, because my dad is putting a lot of effort into hiding them and keeping people quiet,"

"Why? He's the mayor, shouldn't he be listening to us?"

"I don't know," Alex sighed, pushing a stray strand of their long dark hair out of their face, "But I think I know where we can find answers; his office,"

"That sounds like a bad idea, so I'm in," Connor smirked as Alex led him into the small office room, he needed answers, and he didn't care how he got them.

"Look for a file marked 'classified information', that should be it," Alex instructed as they began to search the small room.

After about ten minutes of frantically searching, Alex stopped in her tracks and motioned for Connor to do so as well. He didn't hear it at first, but after Alex pointed to the ceiling, Connor noticed it; the sound of footsteps.

"It's my dad! Quick, hide!" Alex whispered hurriedly, looking for a hiding spot.

"What about over here?" Connor asked as he pointed at a small door half concealed by a bookcase.

With a quick nod of agreement, Alex carefully opened the door, letting Connor in first before joining him and leaving the door closed behind them. The two friends descended a staircase into a dimly lit room, and after their eyes adjusted, they were met with an unimaginable horror.

There were about a dozen other people down there, all of them lying in hospital beds, each person having wires connecting their head to a machine.

"Oh my god...," Connor gasped.

"C-Connor, is that-?" Alex began, but was interrupted by Connor's exclamation

"EVAN!" Connor yelled as he ran to his boyfriend's side, "Evan can you hear me?! Don't worry, I'll get you out of here,"

"ALEX!" Alex's dad roared from the top of the stairs, and suddenly both them and Connor felt hands restraining them.

"What are you doing?! I'm gay this is a hate crime!" Connor yelled.

"You two should have stayed out of my office," Alex's dad said solemnly as syringes were injected into Alex and Connor's arms.

Before either of them could protest, they both fell to the ground, unconscious.

When Connor woke up, he was met with the abnormal smell that can only be described as a hospital room. He looked around, and sure enough, there was Alex in the bed next to him.

"Connor?" Asked a boy Connor's age in a striped blue polo shirt.

"Who are you?" Connor replied, confused.

"You don't remember me? I'm your boyfriend, Evan,"

"Well, lucky me,"

"I'm serious, Con. Do you remember anything?"

Connor thought for a second before answering, "I remember darkness,"