The Pieces That Don’t Fit

Kaia's answer settled in the space between them like a ticking bomb.

"I think so."

It was enough. Enough to confirm that Daniel wasn't alone in this. Enough to send his mind spinning with a hundred questions.

But before he could ask any of them, the first-period bell rang, its shrill chime cutting through the halls like a blade.

Kaia exhaled sharply, glancing around as if realizing where they were. Her fingers gripped the edge of her notebook so tightly the paper crinkled.

"We can't talk here," she muttered.

Daniel nodded. "Lunch. The bleachers."

She hesitated for half a second, then gave a short nod before turning toward her class.

Daniel watched her go, a strange knot forming in his stomach.

This was real. She remembered something.

But how much?

And why did he get the feeling that neither of them were supposed to?

*****

Daniel barely made it through the first half of the day.

The more he thought about Kaia remembering, even just fragments, the more restless he became.

Who else had been erased from his mind? How many people had lived and died in his dreams, only to be forgotten the moment he woke up?

And what force was trying to keep it that way?

The missing notebook message was bad enough. But as the hours dragged on, Daniel started noticing other things.

Small things.

Things that felt wrong.

During third period, the school clock flickered—just for a moment. The numbers warped, shifting between 10:27 and 10:28 in an unnatural way, like a skipping frame in a corrupted video.

In the hallway, he passed a window and, for a split second, the outside world beyond the glass didn't match what was supposed to be there. Instead of the school parking lot, he saw an empty road lined with streetlights stretching endlessly into a thick fog.

Then he blinked—

And it was gone.

Normal.

Like nothing had changed.

His stomach twisted.

Something was glitching.

And for the first time, it wasn't just happening in the dreams.

It was happening here.

*****

The moment Daniel stepped outside, he spotted Kaia already waiting by the bleachers.

She sat with one knee pulled up, her notebook balanced on her lap. The wind tugged at a loose strand of her hair, and for a moment, she looked lost in thought.

Or maybe lost in memory.

Daniel approached slowly, trying to keep his pulse steady.

"You're late," she muttered without looking up.

Daniel sat down beside her. "I noticed something weird today."

Kaia finally met his gaze.

"Define weird."

He hesitated. "Reality... glitched."

She went still.

Daniel took a slow breath. "It's not just in the dreams anymore. I saw things-wrong things. Like the world was... shifting."

Kaia's fingers drummed against the edge of her notebook. "It's happening to me too," she admitted.

Daniel's chest tightened.

Kaia exhaled sharply, flipping open her notebook. "After we talked yesterday, I tried to write things down. Just in case. And this morning—" She turned the notebook toward him.

The page was blank.

Just like his.

Just like the message that had vanished from his own notebook.

Something was erasing their attempts to remember.

Kaia pressed her lips together. "It's not just that. I woke up today with this... feeling. Like I lost something important. Like I should know more."

Daniel swallowed hard. "I think we did know more."

Kaia stared at him. "Then why don't we?"

Daniel clenched his fists. "Because something doesn't want us to."

A gust of wind passed between them, carrying the distant echoes of students laughing, chatting, living their normal lives.

But they weren't normal.

Not anymore.

Kaia turned back to her notebook, gripping her pen. "I want to try something."

Daniel leaned in as she scribbled across the page:

REMEMBER THIS. FIND DANIEL.

She pressed the pen down harder than necessary, as if trying to carve the words into the paper.

She let out a slow breath. "If I wake up tomorrow and this is gone..."

Daniel didn't need her to finish the sentence.

They both knew what it meant.

Kaia closed the notebook and met his gaze.

"For now, we act normal."

Daniel hesitated. "And if things don't stay normal?"

Kaia's lips curved into something that wasn't quite a smile.

"Then we find out why."

*****

By the time school ended, Daniel's nerves were shot.

He had barely made it through the day without obsessively checking his surroundings, searching for more glitches.

But there were none.

Whatever force was watching, waiting, it had gone quiet.

And that silence was worse.

As he walked home, he replayed everything in his mind.

Kaia was real.

The dreams were real.

Something was tampering with their memories.

And now, reality itself was starting to show cracks.

Which meant one thing—

They were getting closer to something.

Daniel reached his house and hesitated before stepping inside.

He couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

His house looked the same as always. His mom's car in the driveway. The smell of dinner wafting from the kitchen. The faint sound of Emily's music from her room.

But the air felt... different.

Like the world had shifted an inch to the left.

Daniel took a careful step forward, his senses on high alert.

Then—

A whisper.

Not from the house. Not from a person.

But from inside his own mind.

A single word.

"Run."

Daniel froze.

His pulse thundered in his ears.

The feeling was stronger now, like something unseen was pressing in on all sides.

Watching.

Waiting.

Then, just as suddenly—

The pressure lifted.

The air returned to normal.

Daniel sucked in a breath, his legs unsteady.

His gaze flicked to the mirror in the hallway.

For a second, just a fraction of a heartbeat—

His reflection didn't move.

Then—

It snapped back into sync.

Daniel's blood ran cold.

He stumbled back, gripping the wall, heart hammering against his ribs.

His own reflection had lagged behind reality.

That wasn't just a glitch.

That was something else.

Something he didn't understand.

*****

That night, Daniel sat at his desk, gripping his pen.

The day had been wrong.

And tomorrow might be worse.

He flipped to a fresh page in his notebook.

He wasn't going to let it erase things this time.

He would remember.

He wrote, pressing the words deep into the paper:

THE WORLD IS CHANGING.

WE ARE BEING WATCHED.

IF YOU WAKE UP AND THIS IS GONE, FIGHT BACK.

He set the notebook down, his heartbeat steady now.

As he crawled into bed, his final thought before sleep claimed him was clear.