Act 0

My life is bland.

I wake up.

I wash my face and brush my teeth.

I take a morning shower.

I prepare my breakfast.

I eat it.

I do the dishes.

I carry my backpack and walk to school.

I go to classes and write down what's important.

I have lunch.

I go to classes and write down what's important.

I walk home.

I prepare my dinner.

I eat it.

I do the dishes.

I go to my room.

I take an evening shower.

I do my homework.

I go to sleep.

.... . ....

...At least, until today. I hear the notification bell from my phone. I grab it from my desk and turn it on. I see a message from an anonymous sender....

...(What a waste of time.)...

I delete the notification without a second thought, and lie on my bed. I can't sleep, either because of boredom or lack of fatigue. After all, my body has grown accustomed to this routine, and it is clear how unsatisfied it is.

...(How inconvenient.)...

I weigh my options, and decide to reach for my phone again. I turn it on, enter the home screen using my face ID and tap on the icon of the Messages app. I tap on the mysterious message, reading the words...

...Welcome to the Literature Club....

I am slightly intrigued and extremely flabbergasted. There's no reason for a random school club to even know my phone number. But since there is no information about the club's whereabouts, I might have to assume that it is in the same school as the one I study at. I reply...

...I am not a member of any club, I'm afraid you've gotten the wrong person....

As if expecting my response, the mysterious person sends a reply right after mine was received.

...You are going to join our club in the following afternoon....

I'm surprised, really. How is this person so confident that I am going to do something I don't even intend to? What a baseless assumption. Honestly, I should've just ignored the message for a second time. But I should at least have the minimum decency to leave a final message. So I do exactly that.

...Sorry, I'm not interested in being a part of any club at the moment....

I close the application, turn my phone off, charge it and fall asleep.

.... . ....

I can feel myself floating from one point to another, then to the next and so on. A meaningless, mindless drift... I feel as if hours had passed, but this is a dream, so I can't possibly know. With that in mind, I stop myself from moving and rest on top of whatever ground there is in the middle of nowhere. I clear my mind and focus on nothing... Until something enters my sight. A light from above, softly descending into my hand... Is this some sort of salvation from heaven? I move my hands around the shape, feeling every part of this godsent present... It feels like a rope, how peculiar. But I keep feeling the shape of the object with each touch of my hands, until I reach a knot. At that moment, I understand: This thing is a noose. Upon realization, I immediately throw it away, cursing myself for even having such a weird dream. I run away from that point as far as I can, never turning back... I slip.

...(Who would slip at a moment like this!?!)...

I fall facefirst onto the ground. It hurts... But I pull myself back up and work off the pain. I look at my hands... I see red. Not in the meaning that I am mad or anything, but my hands are actually covered in a red liquid that resembles blood... It is. I turn around to look at where I slipped earlier... There's a puddle of blood. I walk forward, trying to forget and ignore the scene... There is blood everywhere I go, like a scarlet river... Literally. And this vermillion stream is accompanied with knives floating on it. I have to be extra careful just to avoid accidentally getting hit by them. Luckily for me, the abundance of blood is no more after a few minutes of walking through it, alongside the disappearance of sharp blades. I feel calmer now... Maybe this place isn't too bad—

.... . ....

Without a warning, I feel myself glitching in and out, as if this was all a game. I know it's my dream, but I don't even have control over this. Binary codes in green... "0"s and "1"s fill my eyesight, and I can't even maintain my sleep. But before I wake up, I can at least make out a face... That of ￭￭￭￭￭￭.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***