BZZZT.

My eyes snapped open.

Shit.

The world around me was—wrong.

Too bright. Too blurry. Like someone had cranked up the contrast on reality itself. Everything bled together—colors swirling, stretching, twisting into vague, shifting shapes. My headpounded,a sharp, relentless throb behind my skull, like a drill boring into my brain.

And thesounds.

Not just one. Not just two.

Hundreds.

Voices. No—whispers. Shouts. Static. A mess of noise crashing through my head like a fucking train wreck. They weren't coming from the room. They weren't coming from outside.

They wereinsideme.

Like my own thoughts had been invaded by a thousand foreign echoes, all overlapping, all speaking in tongues I couldn't understand.

'What... thefuck...?'

I clenched my teeth, squeezing my eyes shut again, trying to drown it all out. But it wouldn't stop. It wouldn't let me breathe.

And then—

[System Error: Connection Unstable.]

The voice cut through everything.

Cold. Robotic.

It wasn't coming from the whispers. It wasn't coming from the chaos.

It was coming fromeverywhere.

Like it was part of the world itself.

I drifted.

Through nothing.

Througheverything.

There was no ground beneath me. No weight to my body. No sense of up, down, left, or right.

Iexisted.

And yet—

I didn't.

I couldn't feel anything, yet I couldsenseit all. A paradox of being, stretched thin across something infinite, somethingunreal.

Was I floating? Falling? Standing still?

I didn't know.

Because there was no reference, no beginning or end. Just endless, swirling black.

A vastcosmosof shifting colors, of twisting nebulas bleeding into one another, their hues bending and folding like ink spilled across water.

Stars flickered—bright, sharp, alive—and then vanished in the next breath, snuffed out like they had never been there at all.

I tried to move.

Nothing.

I tried to breathe.

I had no lungs.

'Where... thefuckam I?'

And then—

[System Error: Connection Unstable.]

The voice came again.

That same cold, robotic monotone. The only anchor in this endless void.

But this time—

Somethingelsefollowed.

Apulse.

Soft. Distant. Like space itself had trembled at the sound of the system's voice.

Then another.

And another.

A slow, rhythmic vibration, not felt through skin—because I had none—but sensed in some deeper, more alien way.

Thrum.

It was faint.

Almost too faint to notice.

Yet, it was there.

Somewhere beyond the emptiness.

Like the cosmos itself wasbreathing.

Like something vast and unseen was stirring beneath the fabric of this strange, unreal place.

Like amelody.

'A melody...?'

The thought came unbidden, slipping through the tangled mess of my consciousness.

Was that what this was?

No. Not a song. Not music in any normal sense.

But something close.

A rhythm. A pattern. A structure beneath the chaos.

A whisper ofmeaningin a place where nothing should make sense.

I strained to focus, to grasp onto the sound, to makesenseof it.

But just as it started to come together—

[System Error: Connection Unstable.]

The pulse wavered.

The cosmosshuddered.

And everything around me began to shift.

The worldswirled.

Not like spinning. Not like falling.

Like everything—existence itself—was twisting in on itself, folding and unfolding, stretching and collapsing in ways that defied logic.

Ifeltit, but I didn't. I was beingpulled—but there was no direction. I wastrapped—but there were no walls.

It was like being yanked through an unseen force, like the veryfabric of realitywas wrapping around me, tightening, gripping—

And then—

SWOOSH!

Blinding lightexplodedinto my vision.

White-hot, searing, piercing through my skull like a thousand daggers.

I clenched my nonexistent eyes—if I even had any—but it did nothing. The brightnessconsumedeverything, swallowing me whole, drowning me in its overwhelming glow.

Then—

THUMP!

A steady, rhythmic pounding echoed through my being.

My senses—muted, sluggish—began to stir.

Sound.

Distant. Muffled. But there.

And then—

"Yooo... this song is a banger!"

A voice.

Casual. Cheerful. Completelyout of place.

'What... thefuck?'

I wanted to speak. I wanted to move. But I couldn't.

I wasthere, but I wasn't.

Trapped inside something.

Someone.

The world around me was still unclear, like looking through a fogged-up mirror, shapes shifting, sounds bleeding together.

But slowly—slowly—reality started to take form.

A space. Aroom?

Thepounding bassof music thrummed in the air, vibrations crawling through my nonexistent skin.

The scent of something artificial—cheap cologne, stale chips, plastic.

A screen in front of me, flashing colors....

And then—

[System Connection: Unable to bridge contact.]

The scene sharpened.

Colors bled into form, edges solidifying, sounds turning crisp.

And thebass.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A heavy, relentless thud shaking the air, vibrating through the body I was trapped in.

Flashing lights. Neon strobes. Sweat and perfume clogging the air.

Aclub.

'What the fuck...?'

I washere, but not. Seeing, but not controlling. Feeling, but not acting.

And then—

"Yeah... pour another drink!"

A voice.

High-pitched. Slightly whiny. Too smooth.

Asoyboyishvoice.

My head—no,hishead—turned at the sound.

"Come here, babe! Pour a drink for us."

A woman stepped into view.

A short, open blouse. Cleavage on full display. Skirt so high it barely qualified as clothing.

She swayed toward him—towardme—a playful smirk curling her lips.

"Uhm..."

A soft, sensual moan slipped from her mouth, her voice dripping with sweetness.

But—

Her eyes.

Even from this distance, even through this borrowed sight, Ifeltit.

Cold.

Empty.

Fake.

The way her lips curved, the way she tilted her head—it was rehearsed. Mechanical.

Not real.

But whoever the fuck I was inside of?

He didn't see it.

Didn'tsenseit.

Because the moment she leaned in, his heartbeat spiked.

Ifeltit.

Thump-thump-thump-thump!

Racing.

Excited.

Hooked.

Like a dog drooling over a bone dangled in front of his face.

'Oh, this guy's a fucking idiot.'

And yet—

Something was wrong.

Not just withhim.Not just with this scene.

Withme.

Because as I watched, as Ifeltthrough his body, an unsettling thought slid into my mind.

'Why does this feel familiar?'

The music. The neon lights. The perfume-soaked air. The voice, the scene, themoment.

This wasn't new.

This wasn't the first time.

Déjà vu.

A memory that didn't belong to me.

Or maybe—

It did.

And that thought alone sent a slow, creeping chill through my borrowed skin.

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