But it didn't.
I don't know how long I laid there.
Time didn't matter anymore.
Not when the world was inside me.
But something changed.
Somewhere in the chaos, I found it.
A sound.
Soft. Gentle. Familiar.
My breath.
My own.
I latched onto it.
Focused on it.
Inhale. Exhale.
Deep. Slow.
The noise didn't disappear.
But I made it quieter.
The bacteria on my hands? Still there.
The filth in the water? Still there.
But I pushed it away.
Filtered it.
Dulled the edges.
I wasn't drowning anymore.
I was floating.
And for the first time since waking up—
I could breathe.
———
I woke up to the sound of silence.
Real silence.
Not the overwhelming, suffocating kind from yesterday.
Just... normal.
I let out a slow breath.
And then I saw my phone.
17 missed calls.
I sat up so fast my vision blurred.
My mother had called me. Three times.
A few from my classmate.
One from my friend.
And a number I didn't recognize.
I swiped through the notifications, my heart pounding. I had a dozen texts too. Some asking where I was, others just reminders about deadlines.
Nothing urgent.
Nothing... weird.
Like yesterday never happened.
I wasn't sure how I felt about that.
I forced myself out of bed. I still felt off, but at least I wasn't falling apart. A shower. That's what I needed. To feel normal.
The steam clung to my skin as I wiped the fog from the mirror.
And then I just... stared.
At myself.
At my own reflection.
I looked the same.
Same brown eyes, same slightly uneven eyebrows, same damp hair sticking to my shoulders.
Same plain, forgettable face.
But I wasn't the same.
I didn't feel real.
Like the person staring back at me wasn't actually me.
I gripped the counter. Breathed in. Out.
I just needed to shake this feeling.
Then—
A voice.
Muffled, just outside the door.
Someone was in the dorm.
My heart stuttered. I turned my head, listening.
At first, it was just noise.
And then…
I focused.
And I understood.
"God, I hope she's okay. She hasn't answered me all day."
I stiffened.
That wasn't a conversation.
It was a thought.
Not mine.
Someone else's.
My breath hitched. I reached for my phone on instinct, my hands shaking.
Another voice.
"Ugh, I forgot my password again. What was it... Oh, right—5-7-2-3—"
A number appeared in my mind before they even finished the thought.
And I knew what it was.
Her Reddit passcode.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
No way.
No freaking way.
I looked at my phone. At the app.
My fingers hovered over the screen.
This was crazy.
Insane.
And yet…
I typed in her username, which I somehow just knew, and the passcode.
5-7-2-3-6-8-1-0.
I pressed Enter.
And the account logged in.
I stared.
A chill crept up my spine.
What the hell?
I shouldn't have been able to do that.
I didn't even know whose account this was. But now... I had access.
I swallowed hard.
My eyes flicked up.
My own reflection stared back at me.
Unblinking.
A thought crept into my mind.
What else could I access?
I held my phone tighter.
And then, I picked a name at random.
A student. Someone I barely knew.
I closed my eyes. Focused. Searched.
And then…
There it was.
Their password.
Like a whispered secret, curling into my brain.
My stomach flipped, but my fingers moved anyway.
I logged in. It worked.
A strange, cold thrill shot through me.
I felt like I was holding a loaded gun.
Shaking, I locked the phone.
This wasn't real. It couldn't be.
But what if it was?
And what if I took it further?
The idea hit me so fast, I barely had time to consider it.
A trader.
Someone rich.
Someone I had no business knowing.
I thought of his name.
And immediately, I knew.
His password.
His account details.
His crypto wallet.
And exactly how much was inside.
I sucked in a breath.
Then, before I could stop myself, I opened the wallet.
And I saw it.
The number.
Six. Freaking. Figures.
My fingers trembled over the screen.
I could take some of it.
Not all. Just a little.
Just to see if I could.
I hesitated.
What if they catch me?
And then, just as always…
I knew the answer.
They wouldn't.
I knew exactly how to do this. How to erase my tracks. How to slip away unnoticed.
I bit my lip.
Then…
I did it.
A few thousand at first. Just enough to test.
I transferred it, cleared my trail, and closed the app.
My heart pounded.
It was done.
I checked the new balance.
There. In my own hidden account.
Mine.
A slow, thrilled smile curled on my lips.
Maybe...
Maybe this wasn't a curse after all.
Maybe this was…
But then, just as the thought settled, I felt it.
Something.
A wrongness.
Like a shift in the air.
Like I had tipped something off-balance.
I knew something was about to go wrong.
I didn't know what.
But I knew it was coming.
And I wasn't ready for it.