Anomaly

I couldn't say the day ended particularly well. Besides the fact that we still hadn't figured out the true cause of the constant headaches Charlotte had been suffering from, there were now also two parents consumed by worry, completely at a loss, with no idea what they could possibly do to help their own daughter. As if that weren't enough, every answer we failed to find only made the situation even more agonizing.

That being said, as I lay on the bed inside my cabin, staring up at the wooden ceiling, my eyes glowing like burning candles in the dimly lit room, my mind kept circling around a single question. Selyra. It was almost certain that she was behind Charlotte's headaches. Every clue seemed to point in that direction.

But... why? That was the one question that simply refused to leave my mind. No matter how much I went over everything I knew about her, I couldn't imagine the very embodiment of hope making Charlotte suffer without a reason. It didn't make sense. If Selyra truly was responsible, then there had to be some hidden purpose behind all of this.

In the end, I let out a long sigh of pure frustration. I'd spent hours thinking about it, turning over every possibility and trying to come up with even the slightest satisfactory explanation, but I'd gotten nowhere. It was like trying to put together a puzzle using pieces from completely different boxes.

My sisters were about as useful as asking a tree for answers... Actually, the more I thought about it, the more I had the strange feeling that a tree would probably make much better company than any of my little sisters. At least it would stay quiet without making it seem like it was deliberately hiding something from me.

Not that I didn't understand this whole business about keeping secrets because of the promise they'd made. I really did. If they'd given their word, it was only natural that they'd keep it. Even so, understanding their reasons didn't make the situation any less irritating. At the end of the day, I simply couldn't stop finding the whole thing incredibly frustrating.

No longer willing to keep racking my brain over it, I lazily rolled from one side of the bed to the other, sinking slightly into the mattress as I felt the softness of the blankets glide across my body. Even though I couldn't feel either cold or heat, the texture was still surprisingly pleasant.

The gentle weight of the fabric, its soft touch against my skin... somehow, it still carried a strange sense of comfort. I let out another sigh, this one far more weary, before slowly closing my eyes. Outside the cabin, darkness had completely claimed the landscape.

The moon's silvery light quietly bathed the forest, outlining the trees and casting soft shadows across the ground. Apparently, it was nighttime outside the facility as well. I'd confirmed that several days ago.

Whatever anomaly was responsible for simulating this entire environment seemed to reproduce the outside world's day-and-night cycle with absolute perfection. If the sun was up out there, it was up in here as well.

And if it was night, the moon would rise in the sky too, illuminating everything with the same tranquil glow... Anomalies really were bizarre when you stopped to seriously think about them. But there was no point in dwelling on it any longer. Tomorrow would be another day.

With that final thought, I decided it was time to rest. Not that I actually needed to. Lately, though, I'd gotten into the habit of simply relaxing like this. It had become surprisingly pleasant, almost like a quiet routine that helped organize my thoughts. Truth be told, I don't actually sleep, at least, not the way humans understand the concept.

Even when I close my eyes, I can technically still see through my true "Vision." And even when I try to "close my eyes" through that other form of perception, it's still practically impossible to achieve anything remotely resembling human sleep. Believe me, I've tried more than once.

Whatever the truth behind my anomalous body may be, it simply doesn't seem to require rest in order to recover energy. There's no sense of fatigue gradually building over time, nor any biological need for sleep just to keep functioning. My body remains exactly the same, hour after hour, day after day.

Even so, closing all of my eyes and deliberately suppressing my senses creates a feeling that's strangely similar to resting. It's not sleep, but it's the closest thing I'm capable of experiencing. My mind slows down, my thoughts become lighter, and time itself seems to pass differently.

The only difference, and perhaps the biggest one, is that, even in that state, I remain fully conscious. I can still perceive everything around me, sense any change in my surroundings, and detect even the faintest presence.

It's like remaining awake inside absolute silence, incapable of ever truly shutting off my own consciousness. Even so, to my surprise, some time after closing my eyes and completely suppressing all of my senses... I realized I was floating within a strange cosmic void.

There were... lights? No. Maybe calling them lights wasn't quite the right word. I simply couldn't tell what those countless glowing points actually were. They shimmered silently in the distance, scattered throughout an absolute darkness that seemed to stretch on forever.

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As for me, I was standing, or perhaps floating, right at the center of it all, surrounded by nothing but the void and those tiny stars... or whatever their true nature might have been.

"Hmm... where, exactly, am I...?" I murmured involuntarily. My own voice seemed to be swallowed by the emptiness, producing neither an echo nor the slightest reaction.

My golden eyes, glowing like twin burning candles, carefully scanned every corner of that place. Even so... There was absolutely nothing to see besides those distant points of light. And considering just how extraordinary my eyesight was, that spoke volumes.

I frowned slightly: "Come to think of it... just a few moments ago, wasn't I lying comfortably in my cabin's bed?" My gaze drifted from one bright point to another, as if I expected to find some hidden answer buried within the silent expanse: "How the hell did I end up here? Even if I were sleepwalking... this would still be a bit much, even by my standards" The frustration in my voice was unmistakable as my eyes narrowed and my expression subtly hardened.

Well, I definitely wasn't going to lose my mind over this... at least not yet. Falling asleep and waking up in the middle of absolute nothingness? Ha! That's child's play compared to everything else I've been through. As long as I didn't panic, everything would be fine... right? Right... I just needed to not panic.

Surrounded by the endless cosmic darkness stretching in every direction, my thoughts were abruptly interrupted when a voice, both excited and utterly shocked, echoed from somewhere not too far away.

I blinked as I recognized the strangely... familiar voice. The moment I turned toward it, I found Charlotte floating freely through the void. She slowly spun in place, completely oblivious to the fact that she was literally lost in space.

Her mouth hung wide open, and her eyes sparkled with pure excitement as she stared at the endless cosmos: "Oh my God! I'm in outer space!"

She looked around in every direction like a child who had just stepped into an amusement park. I honestly couldn't tell whether Charlotte was thrilled... or whether the situation had finally driven her insane.

"Wait... I'm breathing?" She placed both hands against her chest before taking a deep breath to make sure: "Holy crap! This is way cooler than those weird dreams I have about walking on water!"

She let out a completely genuine laugh as she continued drifting through space, paddling her arms and legs as though she were trying to swim through the vacuum itself. Yeah... She definitely looked far more excited than terrified. Maybe a little too excited for someone who had just woken up in the middle of nowhere.

Watching the scene unfold, I barely managed to contain my surprise before the words slipped out: "Charlotte? What the hell are you doing here? More importantly... how the hell did you get here?"

The instant she heard my voice, Charlotte spun around almost immediately. The look of surprise on her face lasted only a second before melting into a bright, genuine smile. Her eyes practically lit up the moment she recognized me.

"Hey! You're here too!" she exclaimed, waving enthusiastically in a tone that was far more casual than the situation warranted: "Look! We're in space! Isn't this awesome?"

She paused for a moment, glancing around like a kid fascinated by a brand-new toy: "But... wait a second..." Her excitement gave way to confusion: "How are we even able to hear each other if sound can't travel through space?" Her eyes widened: "Oh! And more importantly... how are we breathing?!"

She instinctively reached for her throat and inhaled deeply several times, as if trying to convince herself that her lungs were actually working. The expression on her face shifted back and forth between mild panic and overwhelming curiosity every few seconds. It was as though half of her was worried she might suddenly suffocate... while the other half was completely fascinated by the mystery surrounding this place.

I couldn't answer a single one of Charlotte's questions. Truth be told, I was even more confused than she was. So, in the end, we were both completely clueless. My mind was a mess. No matter how hard I tried, I simply couldn't remember how I'd ended up in this... place. Wherever this actually was.

I mean, everything around us looked exactly like outer space. I'd actually been to space once before, when an absolutely insane version of myself decided it'd be funny to teleport me there. Definitely not the kind of first experience I'd recommend.

I'd rather not think too much about that day. Anyway, the point is... This place looked identical to space. An endless void scattered with countless distant stars. The only difference was that something about it felt... off. It was as though we weren't merely floating through space.

It felt like we'd somehow ended up somewhere completely detached from reality itself. A place forgotten by everything. A place suspended in the middle of nowhere. But by far the most absurd question was something else entirely. How, exactly, was Charlotte here? I could come up with plenty of explanations for why I was somehow surviving in this environment.

My body had stopped obeying the normal laws of biology a long time ago. At this point, being able to breathe in a vacuum wouldn't even make the top ten weirdest things about me. Charlotte, on the other hand, was just an ordinary human.

There was absolutely no way she should have been able to survive in space. Much less remain perfectly conscious, breathe normally, and casually hold a conversation with me as though we were sitting together on a park bench.

That said... Apparently, we weren't alone. Right in the middle of my internal monologue, another voice echoed through the empty expanse. Oddly enough, it sounded exactly like Charlotte's. And yet... Something about it was different. It was firmer. Calmer. Far more serious. Gone was the almost childlike enthusiasm that normally defined Charlotte: "Oh, so you two finally made it" the voice said: "I was beginning to think I'd have to wait a little longer. You two are unbelievably difficult to pull over here"

The moment I turned toward the voice, I froze. Another Charlotte had appeared. She was wearing the exact same clothes as the Charlotte who had, only moments earlier, been marveling at the strange space around us. But that was where the similarities ended. Her expression was calm and composed, almost emotionless.

There wasn't even the slightest trace of the infectious excitement the other Charlotte radiated. Her posture was different, too. Her shoulders were straight, her gaze unwavering, and the air around her carried an astonishing level of maturity. Almost authoritative.

It contrasted so sharply with the playful Charlotte we knew that the two barely seemed like the same person. Physically, they were identical. And yet... They felt like two completely different people. Seriously... Could this day possibly get any stranger?

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