I found myself walking around in the dream. The air was thick and ominous as always. Despite that, everything was as calm as when I was in the infirmary.

As I walked through the darkness, I expected to be tortured; the chilling shadow would haunt me like always before I could take any step.

But to my surprise, there was nothing. I could only hear the sound of my own footsteps in this void.

This calmness is both a relief and a source of apprehension within me. The darkness usually held me captive.

What's more strange is that with each step, the darkness seems to move away from me.

After a series of aimless walks, I sat in one spot. I'm unsure of what to do.

On the bus, the darkness either shows me fragments of my past or makes me run the whole time. And in the infirmary, I–

…I just lay down. 

I somehow felt confused when I thought of the infirmary. It's like I overlooked something.

Just as I was about to think of it, a sharp pain lanced through my head and interrupted my thought.

I became startled and sprang to my feet. I scanned the darkness for any sign of being tortured by them.

Yet, to my bewilderment, there was nothing but silence.

Why did my head hurt, then? 

I think about what happened just now. A few moments passed, and I eventually broke the silence around me.

"Why are you guys so calm today?"

I was hoping for a response. However, nothing came. With a resigned sigh, I sank back into my seat.

The riddle of my surroundings deepened with each passing moment.

At some point, I started to hope that I could sleep or see the fragments of my memories that the darkness showed me sometimes.

Yet, when met with silence once more, I couldn't help but chuckle.

“Is this the calm before the storm?”

I pondered it half-jokingly. I hoped for a response this time. My assumptions went wrong again.

After some time, I became frustrated.

"At least show me some memory fragments.”

I know I won't get any response, so I resigned myself to the inevitable silence. I rose from my seat and prepared to resume my aimless walking.

However, as my foot touched the ground to take that next step, the darkness that surrounded me began to glitch.

I was shocked, looked around, and saw it flicker like a malfunctioning projection.

All of a sudden, I felt intense pain in my heart. The pain was so great that it caused me to stumble and clutch my chest.

I started to cry because of the throbbing ache. The pain and suffering were far more harrowing than I had ever experienced here.

Hnnn...

Before I could compose myself, I heard another sound of crying: a heartbreaking wail that echoed through this place.

Ugh...

Confusion and fear intertwined as I realized that the anguished cries and pain were not mine.

Yet they resonated within me with a haunting familiarity, as if it were my own suffering but coming from a different source.

But I don't recognize this voice. 

It's not mine. 

It's unfamiliar. 

Who is this? 

Who is crying? 

I became terrified and petrified. Thousands of questions are running through my mind. 

I have never heard anyone's voice other than mine in this place. As I mustered the courage to look up to see.

“Please... Please...Ahhhhh…”  

A plea echoed through this darkness with a raw and agonizing intensity.

Each plea, each cry is a dagger of pain and sorrow that I feel pierces my very soul.

The wails weighed me down with profound sadness. They pressed me down with an unbearable heaviness.

With my trembling hand, I tried to shield myself from the overwhelming despair.

However, overwhelmed by the sheer depth of despair in those haunting cries, my own emotions started to combine with them.

I felt horrified and couldn't bear this any longer. I raised my voice.

“Stop… Stop… Please stop this, whatever it is, stop this... stoooooop…”

With those agonizing sounds, my desperate plea also echoed through this place.

However, nothing stopped. The wails of agony continued piercing my heart. A chilling realization dawned on me when I looked up to see what or whose memory fragments this darkness was letting me see.

Yet, all that met my desperate stare was nothing at all, just a chaotic, glitched darkness.

What's happening?

I frantically scan the glitching darkness for any sign of the source of this pain, plea, or any glimpse of a fragment, a clue—anything that could explain the turmoil engulfing me. 

However, all I can see is distorted and glitching darkness with no answers, just an unsettling sense of chaos.

At some point, the glitching darkness started to come closer to me. The cries also grew louder and more piercing. 

I got up and started running, desperately wanting to escape the overwhelming anguish.

The darkness loomed ominously with every step I took. No matter how fast I ran, it seemed to draw closer to me and didn’t want me to leave. 

The sound of my footsteps echoed hollowly around me, and the pain in my chest made me realize that no matter how much I ran, the darkness was always at my heels.

I prayed desperately under my breath for escape from this menacing dream.

"Please, let me wake up. Please, let this end.”

I repeated the same thing constantly with a trembling voice, filled with fear and urgency.

Just as the darkness seemed on the verge of consuming me completely, a sudden unseen force seized me, wrenching me from its grasp.

With a tug, I was torn down through a vortex of swirling shadows and agonizing sounds.

Gaasp…

My eyes snapped open. I was abruptly flung back into reality.

My breath was ragged, and my heart was still pounding. I looked around my surroundings and realized I was back in my room.

With a groan, I attempted to rise from the bed. It felt like a profound sense of being astray clinging to me like a cover.

But as I pushed myself upright, a searing pain erupted in my head. Clutching my temples, I winced. Tears welled up in my eyes, trailing down my cheeks.

The intensity of the pain was overwhelming; it reminded me of the sound of crying, pain, and agony that I heard in my dreams.

Confusion clouded my thoughts as I struggled to think.

"W..w..what is going on r..right now?" 

I was having trouble speaking.

No matter how much I suffer in the dream, it never continues in reality.

The lines between dream and reality are starting to become blurred; it's leaving me trapped in a liminal space of anguish and uncertainty.

Desperate to escape from this intense pain, I reached out with a trembling hand to hold something—anything.

Yet, as the pain increased unbearably, my grasp faltered, and consciousness slipped away.