The room felt quieter after the messages stopped.
Ita stared at his phone screen long after Kiel's last ridiculous selfie. His lips still carried the faint curve of a smile.
He didn't understand it.
Didn't understand why just a few stupid stickers and an ugly face could pull him out of something so dark.
But they did.
Kiel did.
It wasn't just the jokes.
It was the way Kiel didn't force him to talk.
The way he waited.
The way he treated him normally. like Ita wasn't broken or strange.
When Ita was with him, the heaviness inside his chest didn't feel so crushing. The fear wasn't as loud. Even the shadows seemed less threatening.
Kiel wasn't perfect. He was loud, annoying, dramatic.
But somehow,
He felt safe.
Ita typed another reply.
"Go sleep before math actually kills you."
Almost immediately:
"Only if you promise not to die before tomorrow. I need you for homework."
Ita stared at that message.
Not to die before tomorrow.
It was obviously a joke.
But something about it made his throat tighten.
He typed back:
"Idiot."
Then he locked the phone.
The silence of the room returned.
And with it,
Everything else.
The memory of hands.
The harsh voices.
The feeling of being small.
His body felt wrong. Dirty. Heavy.
He slowly stood up. Every movement hurt, like his bones had turned to glass. He winced but didn't make a sound.
The hallway outside his room was dark. No one stopped him. No one called his name.
He walked to the bathroom and locked the door.
The light flickered once before settling.
Ita avoided looking at himself in the mirror.
Instead, he turned on the shower.
The water ran cold at first, then slowly warmed. Steam began to fill the small space, blurring the edges of the room.
He stepped under it.
The water ran down his hair, over his shoulders, down his back. He scrubbed harder than necessary, as if trying to wash away something that wasn't visible.
He closed his eyes.
The sound of water hitting tile echoed softly.
For a moment, it was peaceful.
Then,
Something felt wrong.
The water pressure changed.
It became heavier.
Thicker.
Ita frowned and opened his eyes.
The water wasn't clear anymore.
It looked darker.
He blinked.
No.
Not darker.
Strands.
Thin black strands slid down with the water.
His breath hitched.
He looked up.
From the showerhead, instead of clean streams of water,
Hair.
Long, black, dripping hair poured down over him.
It tangled around his arms, stuck to his face, clung to his shoulders.
Ita stumbled backward, slipping slightly against the tiles.
The strands moved.
Not like normal hair.
They writhed.
Like they were alive.
His heart slammed violently against his ribs.
He tried to pull them off, but they wrapped tighter around his wrists. Around his neck.
The bathroom light flickered again.
Once.
Twice.
Then,
The mirror fog cleared on its own.
And in the reflection,
Someone stood behind him.
A figure, thin and crooked.
Its skin looked pale and stretched too tight over sharp bones. Long wet hair covered most of its face, but through the strands, two dark hollow eyes stared directly at him.
Its mouth was wrong.
Too wide.
Too curved.
As if it had been cut into a permanent smile.
The creature tilted its head slowly.
The sound it made wasn't a voice.
It was a whisper layered over another whisper.
"You can't wash it away."
The hair tightened around Ita's throat.
He clawed at it, gasping.
The ghost leaned closer in the mirror, its long fingers almost touching his shoulders.
"You smell of fear" it whispered.
"So sweet."
Ita squeezed his eyes shut.
"no." he breathed.
When he opened them again,
The water was normal.
Clear.
Cold.
No hair.
No hands.
No figure in the mirror.
He stood alone under the running shower.
His chest heaved as he grabbed onto the wall for support. His legs felt weak.
Slowly, he turned off the water.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
The bathroom was silent again.
But as he stepped out, wrapping a towel around himself, he noticed something on the mirror.
Three faint streaks.
Like long fingers had dragged through the fog from the inside.
Ita stared at them.
Then he quickly wiped the mirror clean.
His hands were shaking.
He didn't know which was worse anymore.
The ghosts that followed him.
Or the life that waited outside the bathroom door.
But one thought stayed steady in his mind,
Tomorrow.
He would see Kiel tomorrow.
And somehow,
That was enough to keep him standing.