I was going insane.
I knew it.
Have you ever had a dream where you're watching everything through some kind of glass or something that you can't break through no matter how hard you try?
I wasn't asleep.
But I was.
I was watching everything going on around me. I was right by them. I could see them all, Ron, Hermione, Derrin, but I didn't even know if I was seeing them. It was more of a sense.
It was the ultimate torture.
I've never been so confused, so hurt, so torn apart in all my life.
I felt like my soul was being torn apart from the inside out.
Everything was melting, crumbling into oblivion, then being thrown back into my face, giggling with the insanity of it's existence.
What the hell is happening to me!
I would have been hyperventilating if I had been breathing. Maybe I was.
I didn't know anymore.
I tried calling out to them, screaming to them. But all that reverberated back to me was my own confusion.
Was I crying? Was I breathing? Was I even alive?
Everything was swirling black. But I had never seen so many shades of black.
I was being sucked into some hole, ripped into the fabric of this universe.
The hole grew wider, it's fangs exposed, tearing at my fleshy shell of a body.
Suddenly, silence...
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"So, how did you find out you could see us?" Hermione asked, casting a sideways glance at Harry.
The four ghostly teens walked down the street. Ron and Hermione walked alone either side of their friend, and Derrin strode along behind them, his eyes never leaving Harry's back, an almost suspicious look dancing around the brown irises.
"Well, I'm not sure exactly. It was more of a gut feeling, you know? I told Derrin he could meet me at the parlor. But when I was about halfway there, something came over me. It was like I knew that nothing would happen. I mean, how long were you following me before anything happened? So I figured, why couldn't I follow you? So I tried it, and...well..." Harry's voice trailed off as he finished his story.
"Well, I'm just glad that we can see you." Ron said. His voice cracked somewhat. "I mean, you don't know what it was like for us. You just went missing. No one had a clue what happened to you. Then we finally found some clues, but most of them were just dead ends. We were ready to give up. But-"
"That's enough." said Harry. His voice was firm. "That's in the past. Let's just focus on now. We need to figure out how to fix this."
Hermione looked at him. "What?"
"This!" Harry gestured. "We're invisible! Unless we all want to starve to death, we need to do something..."
As they talk, no one notices Derrin, who slowly stopped, turned around, and glancing back over his shoulder to check that he wasn't spotted, hurried off down the street.
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A figure stirs in the darkness.
Dead green eyes blearily open to take in their surroundings.
A shadow of a hand reaches in front of a face hidden in darkness to feel for glasses that aren't there.
There is a drop of water heard in the background, splashing against some unseen surface.
A hand reaches down and touches a stone floor.
He freezes.
Something's not right.
He's been here before.
He has been here before...
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Derrin jogged down the street, away from the reunited 'friends', and back towards the tattoo parlor.
He didn't know why he was so panicked; Harry had acted just like Harry. There was nothing wrong with his behavior.
Only, everything in his gut was telling Derrin to run. That something was terribly, horribly wrong with everything at the moment.
His eyes were wide with some unknown fear as his jog increased to a run, and his run increased to a full-blown sprint.
It was all he could do to keep from hyperventilating.
Something was happening.
Something bad.
Very bad...
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His breath fogs out in front of him as he takes a deep, knowing, morbid breath.
He knows where he is.
But- how?
He stands slowly on unsteady feet.
Everything around him seems to be surrounded in mist.
Freezing cold permeates everything.
He can't see his hand in front of his face.
He stumbles forward, hands outstretched, waiting to feel the cold stone that haunts his nightmares.
But no wall comes.
He pushes blindly forward into oblivion...
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A young woman, around the age of twenty, was shopping with her new husband.
He rolled his eyes as she pointed out a shirt and insisted he try it on.
He added it to his growing pile and smiled at his love as she turned around and dug through another rack of clothes.
After they paid for the goods, he opened the door to let his wife out.
But as she stepped through the door, she was plowed over by a gothic-looking teenage boy with messy brown hair.
He rolled to a stop on the cobblestone road.
The man could hear him gasping for breath as he rushed to the aid of his wife.
He had obviously been running for a long time.
The man furiously glared over at the teenager, who was standing slowly on shaking legs.
"Hey kid, you ought to be more careful. You could have done Alex a serious injury!"
"I'm sorry." The boy panted. He gathered up a few groceries that were close to him and shoved them into the bag they fell from.
The newlyweds stared at the boy, unsure of what to think about him.
But before he resumes his sprint, the two boys' eyes met for a second, then parted as Derrin took off.
The man gasped when he saw the boys face.
Fear was etched into every inch of the boy's face...
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He falls onto his knees after walking miles.
A drop of water is heard splashing onto some unseen surface.
A gasp.
Fingers trace the cold stone floor underneath him.
His breath quickens as he realizes...
He hasn't moved at all.
Then he realizes he is laying down, his back drenched by the icy cold puddles on the floor.
A sharp pain lances through his head, and he reaches up, feeling the warm, sticky liquid running down his face.
Echoing laughter bounces off the nonexistent walls.
He pushes himself up on his hands until he's sitting up.
He starts to hyperventilate.
He jumps to his feet and runs into the fog, losing himself in the shades of gray.
The fog swirls around him, going faster and faster until it is completely still.
A drop of water can be heard splashing on some unseen surface.
And another,
and another.
He screams in frustration and fear.
Mostly fear.
He freezes as the walls to his cell suddenly appear, surrounding him and trapping him inside.
Footsteps can be heard in the hallway outside, coming closer...
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Derrin sprinted and sprinted.
He never realized how far the parlor was before.
Finally, he saw it.
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and closer...
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Derrin ran up the back steps, then stopped before the door, suddenly unsure...
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and closer...
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Derrin taked a breath, swallowed, and steps through the door...
He froze at what he saw
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The door to the cell creaks open, and a figure steps in, smiling down at him eerily.
He gasps. He can't help it.
The figure wasn't who he thought it would be.
It was-
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"Oh my God... HARRY!"
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"Welcome," the figure speaks.
He is covered in cold sweat by now, and shivering violently as he stares into the eyes of-
"Welcome to my hell."
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The End
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PSYCHE!
To be continued...