Missing Time
I woke up to the sound of my phone buzzing on the nightstand. It was still dark outside, and my head felt heavy, like I hadn’t slept at all. I rubbed my eyes and glanced at the clock. It was 8:30 AM, but I had no idea where the time had gone. I couldn’t remember anything from the last 24 hours.
Confused, I sat up and looked around my room. Everything seemed normal, but there was a strange feeling in the air. I stood up, trying to shake off the fog in my mind. As I walked through the house, I noticed small things that seemed out of place. A chair was moved from the kitchen table, and the blanket on the couch was bunched up like someone had been sitting there. But I hadn’t seen anyone in the house since the night before.
I grabbed my phone and checked for messages. The screen lit up with several texts, but as I scrolled through, something felt wrong. Some of the messages weren’t from people I knew, and there were replies that I didn’t remember sending. My hands trembled as I read through the texts.
One message stood out. It was from an unknown number:
"I know what you did last night. You can't hide from it."
I froze. What did that mean? What had I done?
Suddenly, I heard a knock on the door. I wasn’t expecting anyone, so I hesitated before opening it. When I did, I found my neighbor, Mrs. Green, standing there. She looked concerned.
“Are you alright?” she asked, her voice soft. “I saw you leave last night around midnight. You didn’t look like yourself.”
I stared at her, confused. “What do you mean? I didn’t leave last night. I was here all evening.”
She shook her head. “No, I saw you. You looked... different. Like you were in a hurry. You didn’t even wave or say anything.”
I tried to remember, but the last thing I recalled was sitting on the couch watching TV. My mind was a blank. I had no memory of leaving the house.
Mrs. Green’s words echoed in my mind as I tried to make sense of it all. Something wasn’t right. I went back inside and began searching through my house, hoping to find some clue to explain what had happened. That’s when I noticed something else.
The front door was slightly ajar. I never left the door open. I locked it every night. I could feel my heart racing as I slowly closed the door and locked it again.
I went back to my phone and scrolled through the messages again. The last one sent was from my number, but I couldn’t remember typing it. It said, “I’ll meet you at the usual spot.”
The usual spot? What was that? My mind raced as I tried to piece together the fragments of memory, but it was like trying to hold onto sand slipping through my fingers.
I decided to leave the apartment and walk around the neighborhood, hoping it would jog my memory. As I walked, I noticed a few more things that didn’t add up. I found a torn piece of paper in the street with my handwriting on it. It had an address written on it, but I didn’t recognize it.
When I reached the park near my apartment, I felt like I was being watched. I turned around and saw a figure standing in the distance, but when I blinked, they were gone. My heart pounded in my chest.
I had to know what happened. I went to the address on the paper. It led me to an old, abandoned building on the edge of town. The door was slightly open, as if waiting for me. My instincts told me to turn back, but I couldn’t. I had to find out what I had done.
Inside the building, I found old photographs, files, and documents scattered across the floor. And then I saw something that made my blood run cold—a picture of me. But it wasn’t from any time I remembered. The photo was from last night, and I was standing with a man I didn’t recognize.
Suddenly, I heard a voice behind me. “You should have never come here.”
I turned around, my breath caught in my throat. Standing in the doorway was a man I had never seen before. He smiled, but it wasn’t a friendly smile. It was a smile that sent chills down my spine.
“You don’t remember, do you?” he asked. “You were part of something much bigger than you realized. And now, you’ve got to pay the price.”
The pieces finally clicked into place. The missing time, the strange messages, the man in the photo—it was all connected. I had been involved in something dangerous, something I had blocked out of my mind. But now, the past was catching up to me, and there was no way to escape it.
Credits
Posters : Photoshop, Meta AI, Canva. Designed by Jessi Hemanth
Music : Power Music Factory