Diary – March 23rd, 2000

Hello again… I think?

I didn’t sleep last night. I tried. I closed my eyes and everything. But every time I got close to falling asleep, I heard this low hum. Like the sound the TV makes when it's on, but there's no picture. Just that buzz. It got louder the longer I stayed still. So I kept the lights on.

Mom asked if something was wrong this morning, and I told her I had a weird dream. But I didn't dream anything. That's the part that scares me.

At school, no one looked at me. Not even Caleb. It was like I wasn’t there, except when I tried to talk, they’d pause and blink really slow, like I was a fly buzzing in their ear. Mrs. Anderson didn’t come in today. We had a substitute. But I don't think she told us her name. I don’t think she had a name. She wrote words on the board that didn’t make sense. Just shapes. Symbols. One of them looked like an eye.

I drew it in the margin of my notebook. And now I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s not just a drawing. It’s like… a door.

When I got home, the front door was already unlocked. I asked Mom about it and she said she never locked it today. But I remember locking it myself before school. I always do.

I turned on the TV but every channel was static. Except one. It was showing something that looked like a hallway. Dim lights. Red carpet. I stared at it for a long time, waiting for something to happen. I don’t remember turning it off, but it was off when I blinked. That doesn’t make sense.

And the worst part? My diary… this one… when I opened it just now, the last page already had something written on it.

But it wasn’t me.

And I can't erase it.

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