It's everywhere

It was hard to disregard this anomaly as unrelated to what Altin's friends described. In both cases, objects that should have fallen didn't fall.

"What if more and more things that are supposed to fall didn't fall anymore? François wouldn't be able to play ball games anymore." Altin thought.

A significant number of technologies would, in fact, not work anymore.

The four boys and Mr. and Mme Durand kept watching the TV until the end of the show. They concluded that what was reported had likely happened. However, no one knew why or how. The six then enjoyed a heated discussion on what happened.

Unfortunately, no good result came. So Altin, François, Julien, and Paul headed to their room - a single room with four bunk beds. Altin actually had his own room, but he preferred to sleep in the company of his friends when they were here.

They entered the room.

"Guys, it's pointless to discuss these phenomenons. We'll never know. Might as well play some good games. Deal?" François said.

"Deal." Paul agreed. He loved video games. He only had to move his fingers! He had loved games since he was 5.

Julien simply nodded.

"Well... sure!" Altin hesitated but eventually agreed.

He was still lost in thoughts. Unlike the others, he couldn't let go. He wanted to know. He wanted to understand what happened.

That night, the boys played until midnight. Tired but fulffilled, they went to bed.

---

A cute kid of medium build was in an empty room with grey walls with no window. It was a dark room with a few light bulbs hanging from the naked ceiling.

He turned to his right. There, he saw a friend. He tried to say a few words, but no sound came out;

So he turned to his right again. He saw another friend, but the latter seemed to rise higher and higher in the air until he disappeared from the ceiling.

He turned to his right once more. Yet another friend was standing in front of a large TV screen. On the screen, a video of the sun was being played. The video was weird: the sun darkened and darkened until completely turning dark, not emitting any light anymore. The screen then turned off.

So the kid turned to his right one final time. He saw a 15 y.o. kid dressed in a weird set of clothes. The kid smiled. Right at this moment, the first light bulb went out. Then the second, then the third... and quickly the entire room was plunged into darkness.

The kid was scared.

He pinched his nose and blew.

The air flew.

"I must be dreaming. WAKE UP!" The kid moved his legs with all his willpower. He was terrified of the darkness.

Altin woke up.

He just had a nightmare—a bizarre one, hardly understandable.

"Am I awake ?" Altin wondered. He pinched his nose and did another reality test. This time, he felt the air blocked. He definitively was awoken.

He found his phone under his pillow: it was 7 am. Sunline was already shining through the curtain, but his friends were still sleeping. Altin would usually fall asleep at a moment's notice and be the last to exit the bed, but today, he didn't.

Instead, he considered his dream.

"Two of the anomalies in my dreams happened after the ball, hammer, and teacher anomalies. But no idea about the two others."

"I've never seen three weird oddities occurring soon after the other and being recorded on video. It was even shown on TV. Could it be three paranormal activities? That can't be right. Too many occurred subsequentially. What if it's happening in many places? "

"How to find out if similar people have experienced the same thing? What is happening?"

Still in his bed, Altin opened the phone's browser with his phone on hand. He searched "strange incidents." The search yielded many results, but most were disregarded as scams or reported as paranormal activities. They had always been many stories of ghosts, demons, or witches. That wasn't new. It was hard to distinguish the truth from the false. "Perhaps that isn't a good way to search," He thought.

He then decided to go on Facebook and check the most viral videos posted by students around his age. The result surprised him.

All the videos showed weird incidents during which "gravity" seemed wrong or "sound" was deformed. There were also videos of electronics behaving very weirdly or not working at all. Altin would usually disregard these videos in the past. However, he had personally experienced such one anomaly. So he knew some videos had to be true.

Altin continued searching for strange accidents around the world.

They were many.

Weird phenomena were reported worldwide; some videos were posted in English, some in Chinese, some in German, some in French, some in Japanese...

"Even if facking weird stuff had just become a trend, it must have started from something real." Altin thought.

He kept watching the videos the whole morning.

When François, Julien, and Paul woke up, he then shared what he discovered.

It became hard to deny that "something" was happening.

They talked all morning till mid-afternoon.

--

"It's incredible! Weird stuff happening everywhere and witnesses all around!" Paul exclaimed.

"Yes, I double-checked what Altin sent, and I agree with him. With so many proofs and occurrences, there must be something going on". Julien asserts.

"I knew the ball had really 'bugged' at that time," François confirmed. He stood lazily against the wall with his large build.

"Probably a bug in the matrix." Paul joked. Geek as he was, he was fond of sci-fi movies.

"There are even scientists that are interested in the anomalies. But because they never last, they are unable to measure anything, so there has been no progress." Altin added.

"And what do they say?" Julien asked. He was especially interested in physics. Sciences were his thing.

"They say that nothing makes sense. It was as if the physics laws they knew didn't apply anymore. Since nobody could do appropriate experiments, they said this might be a mass hysteria case. People dreaming." Altin recounted.

"I would agree with them, but we saw it ourselves." Julien immediately disagreed with the explanation proposed.

"Yes, we saw it." Paul was the first to confirm that.

"Yeah." François said.

"Yes," Altin replied, dead serious.

"Ah, I also found another piece of information. Ready?" Julien said: "According to an analyst, the number of searches for urban legends and supernatural events has more than doubled. It has been... multiplied by 10! Something big is happening, and it's everywhere."

"Wow." Everybody was stunned.

A moment of silence.

"Hey, do you think we can maybe explore a location with an anomaly to see for ourselves?" Paul proposed. He looked very excited.

"Not interested." This stuff was scary, so Julien immediately refused.

"I'll let it up to you." François didn't oppose but didn't support either.

"I want to know as well, but how do you suggest we find a good place to go?" Altin's curiosity had the better of him.

"No idea," Paul admitted.

He paused, thought, and then said:

"Actually, I might know. If we follow the Facebook and Instagram groups of our school neighborhood, we'll eventually hear of something interesting, right?"

"That's a plan, yes." Altin agreed. "Stories like these are the first to spread on social media." Altin thought.

"Cool! That's so cool! Then, let's wait and see! I'll go follow a few accounts right now." Paul was excited like a kid being promised a trip to Disneyland.

"Alright, I'll help you look for something. Meanwhile... wanna chill a little?" Français had had enough of this discussion, so he suggested doing something else.

The suggestion was welcomed.

---

Five days later, on Thursday.

It was lunch break.

Altin had just stepped out of the classroom, and he was on his way to the cafeteria, where he would meet with his friends. They would first meet outside the cafeteria, then queue together to avoid boredom. Unfortunately, like in many French middle schools, there were always too many people released at once, so you would always have to queue for 5 to 20 minutes before getting your meal.

Altin arrived in front of the cafeteria, a separate section of the school building located on the ground floor. Standing not far from the queue, he saw Julien and Paul.

Altin immediately felt happiness. He was starving, and he couldn't wait to fill his tummy. It was well-known that those who arrived first would get the best food.

"Guys! Glad you're here! Where's François? Can we join the queue already?" Altin exclaimed. He looked at his friends, expecting a quick and positive reply.

Instead, Paul said: "He's on his way, but WAIT, there's something I need to tell a.s.a.p: I found our spot. I found a place that may have an anomaly not far from the school. We can go anytime."

"I confirm his guess seems solid, there is something peculiar happening there, and it doesn't look like a scam." Julien acquiesced.

"OK, so... what's happening, and where is it?" Altin asked reluctantly. While he was curious to go, he was also afraid. Although the anomalies they heard of didn't seem dangerous, they were still weird enough to scare anyone.

Paul started to tell: "It's on a construction site 25min away from here. A new residential building is being built there. However, the construction has stopped for a while because of a lack of funding. Some students of our school usually go to the site to party or play in privacy. He looked at Altin expectantly.

"People go there every day, and there is never any problem. However, a student claimed that the artificial light kinda stopped working on the building's second-floor yesterday evening. I say "kinda" because the light was still shining from the lamps and the light bulbs, but in one area, the light just "stopped" there, as if something was either blocking or absorbing the light. Ever heard of "black holes"? That's something like it—Pitch black. After making a video, the student stayed a bit with his friends and then left at sunset. They didn't dare to enter the dark area. Then they posted the video on Instagram. Not too many people have seen it already, and considering it was reported just yesterday evening, I don't think anyone has been there again." Paul finished recalling the story.

"So when do you suggest we go? After class this evening?" Altin inquired.

"No, we should go now! We never know how long this anomaly will last, not even if it is one." Paul saw that Altin wasn't exactly convinced.

"Besides, it'll be scary when it gets darker. But, in daylight, it should be alright." He added.

That sold Altin. Like many teens, he was afraid of the dark, so going in broad daylight was a big advantage.

"OK, OK, let's go now. Julien, can you stay here to wait for François and get lunch for us? We'll tell you what we saw when we come back." Altin asked Julien.

"Deal." Julien agreed. Firstly, he was hungry, and secondly, he was not too fond of this adventure. He preferred staying away from the weirdness of all those anomalies.

Grrrr... Altin's stomach complained of this decision.

"This is going to be a long day. This has better to be worth it." Altin thought.

Altin and Paul immediately left the school and walked toward the construction site. During the lunch break, the school staff permitted the students to leave the school's enclosure to buy some take-away food.

25 minutes later.

They arrived in front of a medium-sized construction site, secured by "Keep Out" prefab walls. It was forbidden to intrude into a construction site, but no one had ever been arrested regarding this one. After all, it was deserted. Even if a passerby saw you, they wouldn't think much of you trespassing.

In the middle of the site, there was a three stories building. It looked unfinished: some walls had windows, some didn't. The external facade had never been painted: the concrete walls were in their natural color, grey. The entrance was a gap large enough for two doors: the doors had never been installed.

Paul and Altin found a section of the construction site wall that they could easily escalate. They did just that.

They just entered the building.

Because the windows had never been finished, sunlight shone through the wall's gaps. It was bright enough to see without artificial lighting, except in rooms without windows.

Like the corridor or the staircase; for those, neons had been installed and left on during the construction.

Altin and Paul had no problem finding the staircase.

"Do you think we'll see something ?" Paul asked.

"Maybe, let's see!" Altin replied.

Altin and Paul started to climb the staircase.

"Eh? These walls look familiar..." Altin mused to himself while going up.

A moment later, they reached the second floor.

The staircase led immediately to ample space, yet to be divided into rooms. Instead, the concrete support pillars were laid bare in many places.

But I was dark, and in the middle of the space, there was...

Darkness.

The light shone all around the area. It was very bright, but for no reason at all... pitch-black darkness filled the center of the open space.

It looked like...

...a small black hole.

Altin and Paul gasped.