Chapter 85.

Confused by the unexpected sound, I turned my head to the left. What appeared from the void ten meters away was a swarm of brightly lit up fireflies that shot right in front of me before they vanished ten meters to the right.  

Flap. Flap. Flap. Flap...

Again.

Flap. Flap. Flap. Flap...

Again.

Flap. Flap. Flap. Flap...

And again.

They were all grouped together in a rectangular box-like pattern as they flew by like a passing storm. They all passed by in orderly, single-file lines. Sometimes they would even crossover and follow in a different line of what I could only describe as a representation of the traffic on the road.

They all flew through empty space without any sign of the ground beneath them. The only location with the ground visible to me was the path I drove on top of. Similar to when I walked forward, a rocky formation rapidly formed below in front of where the car traversed. The ground behind simultaneously collapsed and disappeared whenever the car moved forward.

When there were no longer any fireflies, Boss broke the silence and said, “hurry up and go, there’s no traffic or pedestrians now.”

I nervously pressed down on the accelerator slowly and positioned myself in line with where the swarm of fireflies had passed along. Boss didn’t say anything further, I simply drove forward in silence while I maintained a constant speed. 

It didn’t take long before another round of fireflies started flying by my sides. There were some that changed into the lane directly in front of me. I sped up a bit so I could keep them within the ten-meter radius which they could be seen.

“You’re doing a lot better than I expected. Are you actually fine now?”

“Yeah. I am.”

“That’s a lie, right? You still look terrified.”

“I’m not afraid of anything, it’s your imagination.”

“Black, remember the colors I see? Your body appears completely black to me right now. Naturally, I can tell whether you’re hallucinating or not.”

“Right... I forgot about that.” More like, I didn’t take her seriously.

We maintained our silence after that little exchange and I continued driving further into the void behind the swarm of fireflies. You wouldn’t fully understand it unless you tried it, but driving in a state where visibility was completely impaired was one of the most nerve-wracking and stressful things possible. Driving in a storm where your windshield was constantly obstructed by rain, snow, frost or fog no matter how quickly your wipers were running was horrifying enough, but this was countless times worse.

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After a while, my boss occasionally gave instructions on when to make turns; with her assistance, it didn’t take long before we arrived at her place. We stopped for a short moment and she collected a change of clothes. She also retrieved her driver’s license and we switched sides, the mental burden was too great for me to bear with so I let her drive us the rest of the way to work. I was immensely thankful that she really didn’t lose it to a dog. At least for the time being, it was far from a laughing matter for me if the dog really ate it.

It was too taxing on me to drive like this, and I definitely didn’t plan to drive again any time soon unless the world seen through my eyes returned to normal. I figured I’d leave the car parked up at work if things didn’t get better and I resolved myself to take the bus back after work today.

When we arrived at work, we went our separate ways. From that point on, Boss disappeared from my field of view. When I entered the office, I could hear the chatter of the workers all around me, but I couldn’t see them like I could with my boss. Through my memories of the office, I made my way over to where my desk was located, but I couldn’t accomplish much as I couldn’t see a thing.

I could only sit in the chair behind the desk I couldn’t see and pretend I was diligently working. From my perspective, I was sitting on a void in space. To the others around me who could see me, I appeared perfectly fine.

Some coworkers occasionally came over to ask for advice on whatever they were working on. Unfortunately, the only thing I could do was tell them common reasons for the problems they experienced. Somehow, I managed to bullshit my way through the day, but I was disappointed because I completed none of the work assigned to me. With my present state, there was literally no way for me to work on anything. Gradually I was driven to madness with how slowly time passed by when I had nothing to do in the empty void.

The only thing I found I could do to pass the time was to occasionally ask Siri what time it was. I did that all the way until it was finally the end of my shift.

When my shift was over, I declined any invitations from my coworkers and immediately departed to avoid anyone catching onto my unnatural behavior. I only prayed to myself that things returned to normal by tomorrow.

Luckily, I remembered the location of the bus stop and I was able to use voice over on my phone to find out when the next bus was scheduled to arrive. After I waited for ten minutes with my eyes glued to the ground where I assumed the bus stop was located, I heard the sound of a pressure valve being released and I knew it had finally arrived. When I looked up, I found a long rectangular swarm of fireflies with a door shaped gap at the front. Thankfully, there was only one bus on this route, so was certain I had the right one.

I got on the bus and fumbled about while I fiddled with the invisible change in my hand, trying to put it into the coin slot beside the bus driver. After I felt it up a bit, I found the opening and dropped the change in. I held onto the side rails as I moved toward the back of the bus. It was my intention to get to the back of the bus, but unfortunately, I kept bumping into the invisible crowd of passengers. When I reached the middle of the bus, I stopped then waited patiently and listened to the system calling out the intersections.

As time continually flowed by, the bus became more and more packed until I was squished up against an invisible wall that couldn’t be seen. The sounds of chatter grew louder and louder as voices came in from all directions. After some time, unable to match the origin to each individual sound, I grew disoriented, lost, and nauseous. The sounds of people breathing around me, I could hear many, but I couldn’t see them. As all the different noises blended together, I grew warier and more dreadful toward the unseen environment around me.

For me, even a simple bus ride was no longer a simple bus ride any longer. If I had to continue on like this for much longer, I would certainly lose my sanity. I never knew how scary it would be to be unable to see all the mundane scenes in the world. To become completely isolated from society as an outcast, all alone with nobody there to help me.

I was mortified. I wanted to escape. I wanted to run away, but I couldn’t. To begin with, I didn’t know where running away would lead me to. I could only force myself to stand there amidst the chaotic sounds swirling about all around me, helpless to resist as it attacked and slowly chipped away at my sanity.