Chapter 105.

After a bit of girl talk related to their favorite foods, they left the room. With them gone, the only thing depicted in the video was an empty bedroom. It was a simply designed bedroom, similar to mine, but the bedroom was filled with unopened boxes that needed to be unpacked. There was a table with a chair on the opposite side that faced the hole in the wall, a dresser in a corner beside the closet, and the bed where they were in that rather precarious position earlier.

I didn't see much point in watching any further as it seemed nothing interesting would happen; however, the moment my finger lowered to the screen to close out the video, a screech resounded in the room. I missed what happened because I looked away for an instant when I'd lost interest. I replayed the scene and discovered the origin of the screech. The chair behind the desk had been mysteriously pulled out... seemingly, by nobody. It was unnerving to witness such an occurrence, but I still scrutinized the recording closely to verify whether there was a string tied to it somewhere. No matter how many times I rewatched that scene to uncover the truth, I found nothing particularly out of place with the chair.

It truly appeared to be a perfectly normal chair with no gimmicks or hidden tricks. Curious, I let the video play on. I felt certain Val was surely messing with me again. By now, I could totally see her doing so. With her overly playful and spontaneous personality which she kept hidden most of the time, I was certain it had to be her pulling the strings behind the scenes just to mess with my head.

What kind of tricks were used in the video left me slightly intrigued; so with detective-like eyes of a hawk, I scrutinized everything from then on with utmost determination to demystify it. At some point, I'd completely forgotten about my initial objective, the mysterious eyes from before. I subconsciously cursed my short attention span.

After the video played for several more minutes, there was a sudden change. With effects on the level of big-budget movie production, a teacup atop a small saucer mystically fazed into existence on the table.

Baffled by its sudden appearance, I questioned whether the video really had been edited after all. Had Val gotten ahold of my phone during the period of time where there was a lapse in my memories? Though things didn't end at just that. If it did, everything could still be explained as some sort of prank.

The teacup rattled on top of the saucer for a second before it was lifted… no… more specifically... it floated up into the air on its own. There was no one there to lift it.

In a human-like fashion, it tilted slightly in the air as if someone had just taken a small sip.

Not blinking, in fear of missing a thing, I realized the seat of the chair where I expected to find someone seated was now slightly distorted. Only, just ever so slightly. Initially, I assumed it was a green screen effect. Barely visible in the rippling space was the slight outline of a strangely ethereal figure. I couldn't see any sort of facial features, but the shape of the slight distortions in space felt somewhat... feminine, in a way I couldn't quite describe. My sixth sense as I watched the video told me whatever it was, it had locked onto the camera. It seemed it was fully aware it was secretly being monitored.

Without any warning, the teacup shattered in the air and the fragmented pieces evaporated. Left behind in its place was a trail of smoke with droplets of a crimson, blood-like substance frozen in the region of space where the teacup once hovered in place. I thought it was over, but a blue flame surrounded the frozen in time crimson globules of liquid. I watched on as they disintegrated in a rather peculiar manner, similar to how an old fashioned film burned up on a projector.

Throughout the entire process, I'd observed everything without blinking even once to avoid missing a single detail. When it appeared everything settled down in the video, I felt a sudden striking pain in my head and I reflexively shut my eyes tightly. When I reopened them next, I discovered, without a single sound, the chair which was previously pulled out was back in its original position, almost as if it had never moved an inch from the start of the video.

I nervously rewound the video to see what happened, I was afraid of a repeat of the last time something similar to this happened. I soon discovered the events I'd just witnessed in the video… there were no traces of what I'd recalled from only moments before. Not a single shred of evidence that suggested what I'd seen was real remained.

What happened to me? Nothing made sense anymore. Was there really no way for me to distinguish between reality anymore? The doctor said there was nothing wrong with my body and even my brain appeared to be fine to them, but how could there be nothing wrong when stuff like this continually happened all the time?

It was driving me to madness. I even contrived various different conspiracy theories with regard to my present situation. Was I in the matrix? There was no way that was really possible. Even if I was, why would they torment a random nobody like me? Why use unscientific things like ghosts? It made little to no sense. Merely postulating or entertaining such a ludicrous idea proved how far off the deep end I already was.

Ugh. Another migraine.

I winced from the pain and my face warped slightly. In that instant I saw the world distorted, it flickered and skewed at a weird angle momentarily in the limited view between my squinted eyes. I simultaneously heard a strange, high pitched, electric static noise in the instant it occurred then a voice followed.

"Mr. Genovese, you're up? It's about time, you really kept me waiting."

Out of nowhere, I found Val by the door with her arms crossed. I was certain she wasn't there just moments before this.

"Since when have you been here?"

"What are you talking about? I've been here the entire time."

"Where?"

"I've been standing right here since you sat up on the bed."

"Really?" Another discrepancy.

"Of course."

The world was crazy. No... I'm crazy. I'm definitely the one who's lost his mind.

"Are you okay? You seem pretty spaced out."

"Uh. Yeah. Sorry. I'm fine." Just what the hell was wrong with me?