Another day. Another round of the same nothingness.
I do not rush. I do not even care. The hallway blurs around me, just a sea of meaningless faces, none of them holding any weight in my world. People move past me, chatting, laughing, living as if they are truly alive, while I drift among them like a ghost. A shadow, barely clinging to a world that never seemed to want me.
The voices never stop. They never leave me alone. They follow me like a haunting melody, a low hum beneath every sound, a cruel reminder that I do not belong, that I am not needed, that I am merely... existing.
"Why are you even bothering?" one of the voices whispers from the depths of my mind. "Just leave. It is easier that way."
I try to ignore it, to shove it back into the corners of my mind where it belongs. But it is impossible. Each word strikes deeper than the last, as if it knows me better than I know myself. As if it has lived in my head forever. It is right, is it not? No one truly cares about me. No one would even notice if I disappeared. If I simply stopped existing, it would not change a thing.
My feet shuffle across the cold, uncaring floor, dragging me forward without purpose. I do not know where I am headed. I do not even care. The bell had rung earlier, but it was little more than a faint sound, a distant ripple in the sea of my apathy. I am moving. Moving, but going nowhere.
The voices grow louder, pressing against the fragile walls of my mind. I pass a group of students, their laughter slicing through the air, but none of them see me. I am invisible. I have always been invisible. And I always will be. They are too busy living, too absorbed in their own vibrant lives to even glance my way.
"You are nothing," the voice breathes into my ear. "No one notices you. No one ever will."
I do not want to listen. I do not want these words clawing into me. But they are there. They are always there. And deep down, I know they are true. Pretending otherwise would be a lie too exhausting to maintain.
I reach the stairwell. The voices rise to a deafening choir. They surround me now, enveloping me in a cold, dark embrace, dragging me deeper into their suffocating world.
"You do not belong here," they chant. "You are not part of this world."
I cannot stop them. I do not even try. What would be the point?
The hallway stretches before me, a tunnel of endless faces and meaningless noise. To everyone else, it might be a place of life and chaos. But to me, it is hollow. The voices are the only thing I hear. The sound of a teacher speaking floats from a nearby classroom, her words nothing but meaningless noise, a background hum to the storm raging in my mind.
I do not care.
I glance sideways. There is a girl standing there. She is laughing, surrounded by her friends, her smile so bright it cuts through the fog for a moment. She looks... normal. She looks happy. It is like she holds some secret I could never understand. Like she knows how to live. I am not her. I will never be her.
"Why even bother?" the voice snarls. "They are all better than you. They always will be."
I lower my head, staring at the ground. I do not look at anyone. They do not see me, and I do not want them to. I am not here. I am just a passing ghost.
Another classroom passes by. Another teacher, another lesson, another moment lost to the void. No one listens. No one cares. Least of all me.
The bell rings again, a hollow sound that barely registers in my mind. The wave of bodies pushes forward, but I remain stuck in place, trapped between staying and leaving. Neither option feels right. I do not want to stay. I do not want to go. I just want to vanish.
The hallway grows longer. The walls seem to lean in, inch by inch, like they are trying to crush me. Every step, every breath, is heavy. The air itself presses against my chest, thick and suffocating. I can barely breathe. I can barely move.
"You will never escape," the voice hisses, wrapping around my soul like chains. "You will always be trapped here. This is all you deserve."
I tighten my grip on my bag until my knuckles turn white. The voices drown everything else. I can hear nothing beyond their twisted, venomous chorus. But even if I wanted to scream, no sound would come. Even if I wanted to fight, my strength is long gone.
I shuffle past more classrooms. Teachers' voices echo behind thin walls, meaningless, fading into nothingness. It is all the same. It has always been the same. No one cares. No one ever sees me.
I turn a corner and enter a different hallway. And somehow... it feels different. The lights flicker weakly, casting long, jagged shadows. The walls seem to stretch farther apart, pulling me into some deeper part of this endless maze. The crowd's noise dims until it is just a whisper in the distance, leaving only the relentless murmur of the voices.
The air grows colder. The colors around me twist ever so slightly, too sharp, too dark, like the world itself is becoming... wrong.
"You do not belong here," the voice repeats, merciless and cold. "You are invisible. You do not matter."
It is true. I have never mattered.
My steps slow. The hallway feels endless. The walls lean closer, tighter, like they are squeezing the life out of me. I want to stop. I want to collapse and let the darkness take me. But I do not. I just keep walking, because moving feels easier than standing still.
A group of students passes by, laughing and teasing each other, bright and full of life. They do not notice the broken thing walking past them. They have dreams. They have places to be. They have lives. I envy them. I ache to be like them, but that world is not mine. It never will be.
"You will never be happy," the voice whispers with cruel finality. "You will never find peace. Just end it. It will be easier."
The words claw at my mind, digging deep, finding every hidden wound and tearing it open. I feel crushed under the weight of it all, a thousand invisible hands dragging me into the abyss. I want to scream, but my voice is lost. I want to cry, but there are no tears left. The well has long since run dry.
Crying never solved anything anyway. It only made the emptiness louder.
The voices press closer, their whispers turning into desperate, hateful screams. They urge me forward, toward the abyss I can no longer deny. I want to close my eyes. I want to let go. I want to disappear.
The hallway stretches on endlessly, a cruel mockery of hope. The noise of the world fades into nothing. Only the voice remains, my sole companion.
I reach another door. Students stand clustered around it, their chatter light and meaningless. They do not see me. They never have.
I stop.
Frozen in place, my heart pounding, the weight of existence crashing down around me.
The air turns heavy, as if the world is holding its breath, waiting. Waiting for me to fall. Waiting for me to give in. The voices swirl around me in a fevered storm, louder than ever, desperate for me to make the choice they whisper about.
And just when the darkness is about to devour me whole...
A sound shatters through it.
A voice, loud and sharp, slicing the despair.
"EXCUSE ME!!"
And then
BOOM.
A flash of white, blinding and absolute.