Of all the things I expected to happen today, my body dissolving into thin air was not one of them.

At first, I thought I was hallucinating due to sleep deprivation or something, considering I've slept maybe only 4-5 hours each night for the past few weeks. As you can imagine, I'm pretty tired.

I'm slumped in my usual corner, tucked away in the back of the theater department's main room. It's a mismatched space—half cluttered with chairs in random places, the other half strewn with theater kids laughing, talking, doing their homework, procrastinating. It's chaotic, but I love it. It's the place I disappear into when the world outside becomes too much.

It's also somewhat of a headquarters for the main cast of characters used for stories by our Writer.

Things are going like they usually do, with everyone spread out across the room, when I start to feel a strange tingling sensation. At first, it's just a faint prickling under my skin, like when your foot falls asleep. But it doesn't fade—it spreads. The tingling shifts into something sharper, something that feels like it's eating away at me from the inside out. I blink, thinking it's just sleep deprivation, but the pain builds, deep and sharp.

I shift and accidentally elbow Jocelyn. She fell asleep leaning on me and it turns out I woke her up. She grumbles under her breath and sits up, rubbing her eyes, before adjusting her position and resting her head on my shoulder again.

It's not unusual for us to be physically close like this. Her girlfriend trusts her, and in any case, I'm aromantic.

"Do you feel that?" Joss's voice sounds thick, like she's just waking up. She shifts uncomfortably beside me.

"Feel what?" My voice cracks, something in me twitching from the cold.

"Pinpricks—everywhere. Like our whole bodies are asleep or something, but somehow different," She frowns, rubbing her arm.

I blink, my thoughts going fuzzy for a second. Wait—

"You feel it too?" Mel spins around from where she's been drawing on the whiteboard. "I thought it was just me."

I blink, trying to focus, but everything feels... wrong. "Wait..."

Lex's voice snaps me back to reality. "Apparently not." He rubs his arms, looking around the room. "And why the hell is it so cold in here all of a sudden?"

I'm wrapped in layers—sweater, jacket, hat—but the cold bites at my skin, nipping at the tips of my fingers and nose, as if it's trying to seep into me.

"Holy SHIT-" Lex swears loudly, his voice laced with alarm. I snap my head up. Everyone else in the room turns to see what's happening.

Lex holds out their arm shakily, brushing his hand over it lightly. Flakes of him are brushed away and fall to the ground, dissolving into thin air.

The rest of us watch in astonishment and horror. Samiyah comes over and takes their arm to see for herself, squinting at it like she isn't wearing her glasses. When she brushes it, it isn't just flakes of Lex that are brushed away, but also flakes of her.

Samiyah and Lex jerk away from each other and others begin to try brushing themselves, ending up with the same result. We panic, not knowing what else to do.

What's happening to us? Are we dying? Disintegrating? Why is this happening? Can we stop it? Why us?

Amidst this chaos, Austin staggers in with his boyfriend Juno, in a condition seemingly similar to ours. The panic intensifies.

We're all talking at once, a cacophony of anxiety and fear. Some sitting, others trying to stay standing but swaying a little, struggling to stay upright as if the ground is shifting beneath us. Nobody knows what's happening and the noise seeps through my ears into my brain, making me want to curl up into a tight little ball.

A lot of us are crowding around Samiyah. Her height makes her hard to miss, towering over us at 6'3. She's usually the one in charge. The one we depend on, who we turn to when things go wrong. When it feels like nothing makes sense, it somehow does to her.

But not this time.

I can tell Samiyah's trying to get everyone to calm down, but I see her panic. Small details, like how she keeps wringing her hands. Her voice is wavering, making her seem not as certain as she's trying to sound. Her face is tight and she looks strained.

Wait.

If not even she has any idea what's happening to us...

Then that must mean something is seriously wrong.

Fuck. 

THisssssssss. fucking chapter. took way too long. writing this authors note at 11pm im exhausted not cuz its late tho fuck my life. actually no sorry thats irrelevant. throwing proper grammar and spelling out the window weeeeee wish my anxiety would do that anygays. 

so urm. jaiden. he is. an oc. yeah. copy paste my personality. im lazy ya I know just let me be this one time. 

I hope you enjoyed this. hope I wrote it well. I think the next chapter will be when the plot properly progresses, idk I haven't started it yet. I know what imma do for it tho trust. 

if you reading this I'd appreciate it if you comment, even if its just once at the end telling me hi and if you liked it. doesn't need to be anything special, it just lets me know you read it. 

almost 3 full pages in google docs and 770 words take that fuckin writers block imma go to sleep now bye. have a good day or night or whatever time it is for u ily my besties. <333

-JJZ