Turning point

"The world isn't real, it's just a stage with painted walls and empty air. The truth is hidden beneath the mask, and I've learned to see beyond the illusions.....It's FAKE

FAKE

FAKE"

He wakes up.. And trudged out of bed, the familiar weight of another day ahead already pressing down on his young shoulders. He mechanically went through the motions of getting ready for school, his mind a blur of disconnected thoughts and impressions. The faces of neighbors, usually so vibrant and distinct, swam before him like indistinct blurs. Colors melded into grays and the chatter of voices blended into a cacophonous hum.

He exited the house, stepping into a world that felt simultaneously real and fake, like a poorly rendered simulation. Time seemed to warp and stretch around him as he walked to the bus stop, the seconds and minutes blurring into an indistinct stream. The other children on the sidewalk were little more than fleeting specters, their features obscured behind a veil of static.

As He boarded the bus, he plopped down into a seat and stared out the window at the cityscape rushing by. The buildings and trees melded into a dizzying abstraction, the lines blurring and warping until it looked like a surreal landscape painting come to life. Hansel felt a flicker of unease as he realized he couldn't remember the names of the streets they were passing by.

Lost in thought, he barely registered the bus stopping at his school. A girl with straight long brown hair with a recognizeable bunny hairpin and red eyes shook him gently. "Hey Kei, are you okay? You look really out of it," she said with obvious concern.

He? snapped back to reality, blinking rapidly. "I'm fine," he muttered, grabbing his backpack. "Thanks, Akari."

He shuffled off the bus and into the crowded school halls, trying to ignore the way the fluorescent lights flickered ominously and the distant whispers of the other students sounded like they were speaking a foreign language. Kei trudged into his first period classroom and slumped down behind a desk, wondering how he would make it through another mundane day in a world that suddenly felt hollow and artificial. Something was very wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. All he knew was that everything felt grotesquely distorted and surreal, like talking to ghost and objects?

they were ugly and smelly!

Why did I have to talk to them, why the hell were they speaking to me!?

He just had to endure it until the day was over.

Later that night.

Kei snapped out of it

Kei found himself alone in his room, his mind unraveling. Something was terribly wrong, and it wasn't just the odd behavior he'd been seeing in Akari...it wasn't also him, It wasn't just the distance between them. He could feel it, something deeper, darker lurking in the corners of his mind. And then, the world around him began to shift again?

Akari—though not the Akari he knew. Her face was twisted, her features distorted, eyes wide and bleeding, hands curled unnaturally, her moves is rather unnaturally jerkish and her hair tangled and messy.

As she moved, she made a series of choking, gurgling repulsive noises deep in her throat, Her limbs jerked and spasmed, as if controlled by unseen strings, and her head lolled to the side at an unnatural angle. She was a nightmarish, not only that she really smelled like a rotten corpse.

W-What the...this smells to be even fake, What is going on!? Kei panicly thoughts, wishing it to only be a nightmare no matter the very proof right in front him, as her smell spreads around the room

"Kei," she whispered, her voice too soft, too calm. "It's time. You need to accept it."Kei's throat tightened, fear choking him as he stepped backward, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from her.

"No. You're not her." His fists clenched, voice trembling. "What is this? What's happening?"

"Shh," she whispered, stepping closer. Her twisted smile stretched wider, her words dripping with something dark. "You've always known, Kei. You never wanted to face it, but it's real. I'm not real anymore. We're not real."

"What the hell are you saying!? Step back don't go near me!!!" Kei trembles in fear, he felt the headboard in his back as he had nowhere to stepback. The grotesque Akari's fingers tightened around Kei's throat, her nails digging into his skin as she leaned in closer, her putrid breath hot against his disgusted face.

He could feel the headboard of the bed pressing against his back, trapping him, leaving him with no room to escape her relentless assault. And he hated it, he doesn't wanna die, Panic surged through his veins as his lungs screamed for air, his vision starting to blur at the edges.In a desperate, frenzied movement, his hand scrabbled for the lamp on the nightstand beside the bed.

His fingers closed around the cool metal base, and with a grunt of effort, he swung it towards the girl's head with all the force he could muster. There was a sickening crunch as the heavy base connected with her skull, once, twice, three times. Blood spattered his face and the sheets beneath him, but still, she didn't stop.

She was like a machine, a brainless destructive zombie, driven on by a single-minded hunger for Kei's pain. Kei felt his consciousness fading, his grip on the lamp slackening as spots danced before his eyes. With a final, gargled scream, he slammed the lamp against her head one last time, just as his lungs gave out and darkness claimed him. Kei's head exploded in a burst of blinding pain, his skull fracturing under the force of the impact, bone and blood and brain matter splattering the walls. She kept squeezing, even as his body went limp and head nothing more than a ruined, misshapen mass of flesh and sinew. The lamp clattered to the floor, still clutched in Kei's lifeless hand. his eyes stared sightlessly at the blood-soaked ceiling, seeing nothing, understanding nothing. He was gone. Dead.

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