Chapter 1: “The Bridge of Silence”

This is Sam…a seemingly normal high school kid.Although, if I’m being honest, “normal” is way too big a word for him.In reality, Sam has a special ability:he can think about a hundred things at once…and do none of them.Sam woke up that morning to his alarm ringing for the fifth time in a row.Not because he didn’t hear it,but because his brain decided to have an existential debate about whether life on a Monday was really worth it.“Five more minutes and I’ll get up,” he mumbled —which, as every human knows,is the most famous lie on the planet.His room was an organized disaster:papers everywhere, half-open notebooks, a remote with no batteries,and a pile of clothes so old it probably had squatter rights.On the wall, a crooked family photo stared down at him in quiet disappointment.According to Sam, life is like an old TV:sometimes you get signal, sometimes just static,and sometimes… something shows up that really shouldn’t be there.(Yes, he actually said that once.And yes, his friends laughed for twenty straight minutes.)While putting on his uniform, Sam glanced out the window.The sky was cloudy,as if the day itself hadn’t decided whether it wanted to rain or not.Everything outside looked ordinary…until he noticed something strange:a woman crossing the bridge in the distance,holding something wrapped in a blanket.She was walking slowly. Very slowly.And then… she vanished into the fog.“Must be another one of my breakfast hallucinations,”he joked to himself, shrugging.Without giving it much thought, he grabbed his backpack and left.The morning air hit his face,and for a second, he actually felt alive.He didn’t know it yet,but that bridge he’d just seen would soon become the center of everything.But hold on—we’re not at the ghost part yet.First, we have to endure the scariest thing of all:high school.Hoshin Academy stood like a perfectly boring cube,with walls that practically screamed, “extra homework.”Sam arrived just as the bell rang,slipping into his seat like a ninja trying not to be noticed.(Which, by the way, never works.There’s always a teacher with radar for students who show up a second late.)The teacher started his monotone lecture,and the atmosphere was so dull you could probably fall asleep standing up.Next to him, Riko was doodling in her notebook,and Kenji was already planning his next prank.Everything seemed normal…until a voice in the classroom broke the routine.“Hey, did you guys hear about the bridge?”asked a girl with curly hair.“They say a woman died there last week.”And that’s when everything started.The murmurs spread, rumors tangled,and for the first time that day, Sam stopped staring out the window.Because deep down,he’d already seen that bridge that very morning.And he didn’t know it yet,but that simple curiosity would be his one-way ticketto a world where the impossible was just waiting to be noticed. To be continued In part two of the same chapter...