Time snapped back.
Dad blinked.
Mom flipped a pancake.
Ivy giggled.
Like nothing happened.
But something had changed.
Dad was holding the fork differently.
Like he didn't remember how hands worked.
Mom's head jerked slightly every few seconds.
Like she was buffering.
And Ivy…
Ivy was staring at me.
Unblinking.
All day.
School was worse.
Teachers repeated sentences.
Students glitched mid-walk.
Like mannequins trying to mimic life.
And then it happened.
In the hallway.
"You okay, Leo?" he asked.
Normal.
Human.
Real.
I felt relief that in this strange situation someone is still normal to look at.. But..
Then his face… opened...Not slplit.. It opened
His skin began to peel back from the center, as if something inside was clawing its way out. A sudden spray of blood painted the lockers crimson. I could see the raw gore beneath the surface—a sight so horrific it made my stomach flip. I felt the bile rise in my throat, desperate to be sick
Thick. Hot. Far too much of it.
His jaw tore free, hitting the floor with a wet, heavy crack. But there was no scream—because what emerged wasn't lungs. It was limbs. Black, spindly limbs. Dozens of them.
They pierced his chest, shredding him from the inside out. Bone snapped like dry wood. Meat tore like wet paper. Organs hit the linoleum in heavy, sickening slaps.
You wanted escalation? There it is.
And the others in the hallway? They didn't run. They froze. They just watched.
And they smiled.
And all their eyes—
Shifted to me.
No.
Not me.
You.
"You are accelerating it," the layered voice whispered again.
Carter's remains twitched.
Then stilled.
And I was covered in blood.
Real blood.
Warm.
Human.
I didn't move.
Because I finally understood something.
It's not haunting my family.
It's reacting to awareness.
To observation.
To you reading this.
The more you continue…
The worse it gets.
But I know you won't stop.
You never do.