Elias sprinted down the hallway, but the girl had already vanished, as if she had never existed at all.
No matter how fast he ran, he couldn't find her.
All that remained were the stares.
Everyone turned to look at him.
Their gazes weren't curious, they were judgmental, almost wary.
He could see it in their eyes: the same silent conclusion they always seemed to reach.
What a weirdo.
As his footsteps echoed against the polished floor, Elias slowly began to realize:
he didn't belong here.
Not in this academy.
Not in this life.
Not even in the ones before.
It had always been the same.
In every life, he was the outsider.
The boy who didn't quite fit.
The fool everyone avoided.
Somewhere between one heartbeat and the next, as he ran, a heavy, aching truth settled inside his chest:
He was alone.
He had always been alone.
And deep down, maybe a part of him had known it all along.
There was a girl, a girl who had once acknowledged him.
But, he couldn't remember who it was. He couldn't remember her face,
Or her voice,
Not even her smile.
He tried to grasp the memory, but it slipped through his fingers like mist.
His memory showed no signs of the girl.
Only a feeling of her existing.
He stumbled to a stop
A guy walked up to him.
He was the arrogant looking handsome blondie.
"Look, if you want to fit in then atleast try."
The guy looked at him with pity.
Elias was silent, only his breath heard.
"No response? How about I ask you a question."
"What is your name?"
Elias looked at him with a cold stare, still breathing heavily.
He finally moves his lips, but a cold voice is heard from his mouth
"Elias, my name is Elias."
The guy finally took the pitiful look of his face.
"I see, my name is Fate. Nice to meet you Elias."
Moments ago the guy looked at and talked to him like hes a creep, but now he is introducing himself.
Elias though, didn't respond he kept his cold stare against Fate.
Fate looked at him with interest now, but it wasn't a condescending gaze. Just… curious.
He studied Elias like someone might study a puzzle piece that didn't fit.
"You're not like the others," he said after a moment, shrugging. "But then again, neither am I."
Elias didn't respond. The breath in his lungs still burned, and the echo of that vanishing girl still haunted him.
Fate didn't seem to notice or if he did, he didn't press.
He stuck his hands in his pockets and tilted his head.
"Look, I wasn't trying to start something earlier. You just looked like you were about to collapse or snap, or both." He smirked.
"Thought maybe saying something would stop everyone else from treating you like a ghost."
Elias raised an eyebrow.
"Why would you care?"
Fate shrugged again. "I don't, really. But I hate when things feel too scripted. You ever get that feeling?"
He turned, walking a few steps ahead, then glanced back.
"Like everyone's just… reading from a script they didn't write."
Elias didn't know how to respond to that. Because, somewhere deep down, he had felt it. Not just today, but ever since he woke up in this life.
The world felt off. Too symmetrical. Too silent when it mattered.
Like it was hollow in the places that should be full.
"I've seen you before," Fate said suddenly. "First day of orientation. You didn't talk to anyone."
"You watched me?"
"Not in a creepy way," he said quickly. "Just… noticed. People like you stand out."
"People like me?"
"The ones who look like they're pretending to be here."
That line hit too close to home.
Fate didn't say anything after that. He gave Elias one last nod, then walked off down the hall, whistling an old tune that didn't belong in a place like this.
It sounded like something from a different time.
Elias watched him disappear around the corner.
There was nothing magical about him. No aura, no energy, no revelation. Just a guy with too much confidence and too many questions. And yet, for some reason, he lingered in Elias's mind longer than the lectures, the students, or even the girl.
Maybe because he was the first person who didn't look through him.
That night, Elias didn't sleep.
His thoughts were racing, racing toward gaps. Toward blanks he couldn't fill.
The girl was gone. Not just in body, but in mind.
Even trying to remember her gave him a headache now. Like his brain was actively resisting.
Who was she?
And why did her disappearance feel so normal?
Like it had happened before.
Again and again.
He stared at the ceiling until sunrise, eyes dry, his chest tight with something he couldn't name.
The next day, the sky was overcast.
The academy's pristine walls seemed duller now, and the students moved in clean, practiced lines like cogs in a machine.
Elias kept his hood up.
He didn't want to be seen. Not because he was ashamed, but because he was tired.
Tired of the stares.
Tired of pretending he was part of this academy.
He wandered until his feet took him to a quiet corner of campus, a stone walkway that led behind the old bell tower, where ivy crawled along the bricks and the noise of the academy was distant.
To his surprise, Fate was there again, sitting on the railing, legs swinging freely.
He looked over without surprise, as if he'd been expecting Elias.
"Couldn't sleep either?"
Elias didn't answer.
Fate patted the stone beside him.
Elias hesitated… then sat.
The silence between them was surprisingly comfortable.
Fate pulled a coin from his pocket and started flipping it.
"Crazy place, huh?" he said casually. "Feels more like a trap than a school."
Elias glanced at him. "You think that too?"
Fate nodded. "Yeah. But maybe that's just how everything feels when you don't belong."
The words mirrored Elias's own thoughts too closely.
Fate flipped the coin again. This time, it didn't land.
It vanished mid-air.
He blinked, checked his hand.
Then laughed. "Huh. Guess the wind took it."
Elias didn't smile.
"You're not normal either, are you?"
Fate didn't deny it.
"I don't remember anything before coming here," he said. "Like I just woke up one day and this was my life. Weird, right?"
Elias turned toward him, finally interested.
"You too?"
Fate nodded slowly. "Yeah. Everyone else has stories, family, connections. I've got… nothing. Just a name and a uniform."
"What's your real name?"
Fate smiled.
"That is my name. Or at least, it's what I was told to write down."
Elias stared at him for a moment.
There was no smugness now. No arrogance.
Just someone lost in a place that didn't quite make sense.
Like him.
"I thought you were just another one of them," Elias said quietly.
Fate scoffed. "God, no. I hate crowds. I hate being watched."
His eyes drifted toward the sky.
"Don't you feel it?" he asked. "Like something's keeping an eye on this place."
Elias stiffened.
That same pulse. That presence. He'd felt it too.
But neither of them knew what it was.
Just a feeling.
Just a silence that had teeth.
Fate jumped down from the railing and stretched.
"Well, I should get going before I miss class and get another demerit. That'd be three in a row."
He paused and looked back.
"You ever figure out who she was? The girl you were chasing?"
Elias's throat tightened.
He shook his head.
Fate looked at him for a second, then nodded.
"Yeah. I figured as much. Let me know if you remember."
Then he walked off.
Elias stood there, frozen.
Let me know if you remember.
He hadn't told Fate about the girl.