After school, you didn't go home right away.
You wandered toward the upper levels, past the music wing, past the faculty floor, up to the rooftop access stairwell. The door was always locked, but the hallway before it had a bench and a window that looked out across town.
You sat there often. Not because it was special… but because it wasn't.
Today, the sun dipped in gold through streaks of low clouds, casting angled shadows across the floor. Your reflection hovered faintly in the window, layered over the silhouette of the school and the sky.
And for a second, you wondered something.
If I vanished tomorrow, would anything in this scene look different?
It wasn't a morbid thought. It didn't feel that way anyhow. Just… curious.
You closed your eyes and tried to still your mind.
And you felt something.
Like… a pressure. Not from outside. From within.
Like something bracing in your ribs, some internal instrument warming up to play a note that hadn't been written yet.
Then, just like that, it passed.
You stood up, quietly.
Walked the halls again.
Didn't mention it to anyone.