The Fall

Lessons continued one after another, the teachers’ voices reaching my ears but failing to register in my mind. Words drifted through the air, dissolving into meaningless echoes. My notebook lay open before me, yet I couldn’t even recognize what had been written. My eyes unconsciously followed the clock. Lunch break was approaching, but time itself felt frozen.

I counted the minutes until class ended, my fingers unconsciously tapping against the desk. A strange weight settled in my chest, an inexplicable restlessness creeping up my spine. Gazing at the clouds outside, I tried to focus, but something felt... off. The sky looked different. For a moment, I noticed a shift in their color—or at least I thought I did. Narrowing my eyes, I focused carefully; the hues wavered, the sky seemed to ripple as if bending for a split second. Was it real? Or was it just a trick of my eyes? A sudden jolt ran through me.

A faint hum in my head made me question whether what I saw was real. I turned around, scanning my classmates one by one. No reactions. I glanced at the students in front of me—nothing. Was I the only one seeing this?

My breathing quickened. The unease inside me grew. I sprang up from my chair and rushed to the window, leaning out to get a better view. Outside, students were in the courtyard for their physical education class. The boys played basketball, the girls watched them with admiration, groups of students play volleyball, some laughed as they splashed water at each other. Everything looked normal.

But when I looked up—the sky was trembling.

No, it wasn’t just trembling —it was changing color.

My vision blurred for a moment, the air thickening as if charged with unseen energy. A faint pressure pressed against my temples, making my head feel strangely light yet unbearably heavy at the same time.

Like the surface of water. But above me. As the distortions continued, I felt as if the entire world was shaking along with me. A sudden dizziness seized me, twisting my stomach into knots. My breathing turned erratic.

"Haru! Sit down! Right now!" my teacher’s voice rang out, but the words stretched and distorted, as if submerged in water. The sound disintegrated into an empty echo.

The world was shifting.

Everything around me bent, twisting under an invisible force that pulled me to its center—then threw me outward again. I couldn’t stop looking at the sky. It felt as if I was trapped beneath a collapsing ocean, a wave swallowing me whole. My stomach churned, my lungs strained for air. The ground beneath my feet trembled as if it were undulating beneath me. A crushing weight settled over my body, dragging me downward as though I were sinking into quicksand. My knees buckled. My legs trembled, weakened, no longer able to support me.

I could hear the panicked shouts of my classmates. The voices swirled around me, fading into a muffled, distant hum, like whispers from a place beyond reach. I wanted to move, but my body refused. My arms, my legs… they no longer felt like mine.

Someone was touching me. Warm hands gripped my shoulders, their pressure firm yet desperate. A faint heat seeped through my uniform, grounding me for a fleeting second.

My muscles twitched in response, as if struggling between submission and resistance, but my body remained unresponsive, caught between presence and oblivion.

"Haru!"

My name echoed against the walls of my mind, over and over. The voice was familiar—yet distant. Who was calling me?

"Haru! Look at us!"

"Snap out of it! Haru!"

The voices were fading, as if they were drifting further and further away… or perhaps, I was the one slipping away from them. Reality unraveled at my fingertips, dissolving like a shadow retreating into the darkness.

And then—everything fell silent.

                                                                                    ***

I plunged into emptiness.

The last thing I saw was the sky—that trembling, shifting sky. As if the world was warping into something else, something unknown.

And then… darkness.

A suffocating weight pressed against my chest, as if an unseen hand was crushing me. Air refused to fill my lungs; for a brief moment, my very existence felt as if it had been suspended. A tight knot formed in my throat, and the world collapsed upon me in an unbearable weight.

Then—the fall began.

At first, there was only a light pull, a feather-like descent. But in an instant, everything accelerated. I was plummeting through the void. The wind lashed against my face, yet I felt no cold against my skin. My stomach coiled inward, my insides squeezed by an invisible force that stole my breath away. A storm raged inside my mind, thoughts scattering like fragments in a whirlwind. I was free-falling into an endless abyss.

No ground. No destination.

Just the fall. And the uncertainty.

Fear pulsed through me, a frantic rhythm echoing through my veins. My limbs trembled, cold sweat beading on my skin as my breath came in short, ragged gasps.

My chest tightened, as if an unseen force had wrapped around my ribs, squeezing every last trace of air from my lungs. Where was I falling? I flailed my arms in the empty space, desperate to grab onto something—anything.

But there was nothing.

Only the abyss. I tried to scream, but no sound escaped. My voice was swallowed by the silence, trapping me in my own wordless terror.

And then, the void changed.

The suffocating blackness shifted, merging with streaks of deep violet. The shadows stretched, moving—whispering, as if unseen entities encircled me, reaching out to touch me. I squinted downward. There was something there.

Trees. Roads. Buildings.

But they were hazy, spectral. Their outlines flickered between reality and illusion, struggling to remain tangible.

A sudden pressure pressed against my chest. An invisible force caught me mid-air, suspending me above the surface. I had braced myself for impact, but the crushing force of my descent vanished, leaving me floating in instability. The surface below me rippled, shifting uneasily—like I had landed on a fragile barrier.

The sky above spun wildly, colors blending into a chaotic vortex. The weight inside me grew heavier, my consciousness fading into the thick fog surrounding me. My eyelids drooped, leaden and unmovable. I fought against it—but the struggle was in vain. As I surrendered to the unknown, my thoughts unraveled, reality faded.

Like the last flicker of a candle before its flame died out, my awareness flickered… wavered… and finally, plunged into darkness.

Yet, in that final moment, as the void embraced me, I felt something—an unseen presence, lingering at the edges of perception, watching with intent, waiting as if my fall had been long expected.