Perplexed, I look to my left and right, at Naomi and Evan. There's absolutely nothing else that the "other side" can be referring to, other than the dream world. "Have you entered the dream world as well Mr. Aarif?" (｡◝‿◜｡)
Mr. Aarif closes his eyes peacefully and smiles. Then simply says "Give it a read." (￣︶￣)
We open the diary and read as follows:
𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓞𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓢𝓲𝓭𝓮 𝓫𝔂 𝓚𝓪𝓼𝓱𝓲𝓯 𝓐𝓪𝓻𝓲𝓯
I decided to write this diary to document my findings of the other world- or dream world as some may call it. I, myself call it Psyche due to the information I have discovered upon studying this strange world. I have also documented each instance I've had in Psyche.
𝓕𝓲𝓻𝓼𝓽 𝓘𝓷𝓼𝓽𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮
This happened around three years ago.
In the real world, I have a sister who is currently in hospital with an illness. I pray to God that she will be cured soon, but in the meantime I visit her everyday. We had a disagreement about how she needs to be more optimistic about her wellbeing, she was very persistent in saying that she will die from the illness, and that hurt me so much.
When I went to sleep that night, I awoke again in the hospital, but it was abandoned. The once clean hospital was old, as if we had travelled several years into the future. The walls that once displayed advertisments for different kinds of products were bear with the paint peeling. The corridor in front of me looked long and endless, even if I couldn't see much from the lack of lighting in this abandoned building. The winding corridor had little rooms sectioned off from it, which would have been the hospital rooms.
I hesitantly trekked through the hospital corridors, looking either side of me into the rooms to see if I could find anything. It was like the rooms were staring back at me every time I looked into them- like I had invaded them. Some rooms still had hospital beds in them, but from the looks of it they were torn and tattered from the abandonment. Alarmingly, I heard a cry come from one of the hospital rooms, a room near the end of the corridor, to my left side. I closed my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. I'm religious; there's nothing for me to fear apart from the one who created fear. I took a step into this dreadful place, its door was hanging on one hinge and the windows were cracked, allowing the breeze from the outside to crawl its way through and engulf me. I slowly investigated the room around me, the bed was wheeled out of its place, the medicine cupboard had all sorts of creatures inhabiting it, and the chair was torn to shreads.
Within the medicine cupboard, I see a figure inside it. The lighting is too small to pick out what exactly this figure is. I curiously open the medicine cupboard and pick this object up. It appears to be a doll, the doll looks strangely similar to how I do, it has a beard and a suit on. When I pick the doll up, I feel something touch my back too.
In the corner of the room, I saw a silhouette curled up into a ball, with its hands on its head. The silhouette melancholically cried out, like a child that has been taken from their home.
Interestingly, I instantly recognised the cries as my own sister, the one I previously had a disagreement with.
Slightly scared, but also reassured, I put a hand on the silhouette's head and calmly spoke. "What's the matter?" (￣︶￣)
She looked up, not that I could recognise any facial features, and she sorrowfully spoke: "I'm going to die soon." ( ′︵‵.)
I brought her into my embrace, and reassured her that she will be okay. This was no time for me to be upset like I was earlier, clearly she feels a sense of inevitability and despair. Somehow, I feel much better that I approached her with care and peace, rather than anger or disappointment. She clutches onto her doll, making sure the doll isn't harmed in any way.
"I trust God's will. I pray for your health, so that you're no longer suffering." I told her. (￣︶￣)
"I'm sorry for hurting you, Kashif. I just cannot help it, I feel so pessimistic about my condition." She replies. ( ′︵‵.)
Strangely, in this dream she does not seem to be ill, she speaks like how she used to speak before she had this horrible illness.
"Zaara, it's okay. I understand now, how hopeless you can be when in this situation." I reassured her. (￣︶￣)
𝓐𝓯𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓭𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓶
I woke up in the real world. I immediately visited Zaara and made amends in the real world. I had heard about this dream world, and how everyone who goes to the dream world somehow has reversed personalities, yet in the dream world I was exactly the same as I am in the real world, and so was Zaara. So this cannot be true.
Upon researching more about Psyche, reading forums about it on the internet, looking in libraries about any leads to Psyche, I came to the conclusion only a very small amount of people experience Psyche, so small that there are no books about it or studies about it. So, with this, I decided to make my own book and investigations. This book is still very much in progress, but I wish to publish it once it's done.
Despite the fact that I have been studying this weird world for three years, research has been slow and I haven't managed to get much information, especially since I don't have many people around me to talk about it with. Entering Psyche isn't exactly the conversation point you have with your friends, so people being open about it is not frequent. If I could just find some people that enter Psyche regularly to help me out with my research...
***
The first two pages end here, so we turn to the next page. This page reads:
𝓗𝓸𝔀 𝓭𝓸𝓮𝓼 𝓟𝓼𝔂𝓬𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓴?
To first explain what Psyche is, I must first explain how I believe people's personalities work. According to McAdam's theory of personalities, many psychological studies, the Japanese idea of having three faces, and some of my own theory, humans consist of having three main layers of personality.
𝓕𝓲𝓻𝓼𝓽: The face you show to the outside world, the people around you.
𝓢𝓮𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓭: The face you show to yourself, the parts of you that you're aware of.
𝓣𝓱𝓲𝓻𝓭: The face that is your true self, not even you know about it and no one else knows.
I believe these concepts have something to do with how people appear in Psyche, but I'm not entirely sure how yet. My theory is that within Psyche, people are their true selves, with no outer layer to their personality. When I read online discussions about Psyche, I found many people saying that people have opposite personalities in Psyche compared to the real world, but from my own experience, I was the same as I am in the real world so that can't be the case.
Entering Psyche is what I would call 'fluctuation', where you 'fluctuate' between the real world and the dream world.
Instances are the word I would use to call the experiences people have in Psyche- or the 'dreams'.
According to my own experience and the online discussions, people who enter Psyche also tend to have a doll that resembles them, and they are connected to this doll. Anything that happens to the doll happens to the owner, so it's extremely important to keep the doll with you.
***
The rest of the pages are blank. I soon realise that I have to somehow find my doll, else I'm in danger.
Mr. Aarif closes the book and looks at Evan, Naomi and I. "So, what are you guys thinking?" He suddenly asks. (￣︶￣)
"I think we would gladly help out with your research, well, at least I would. I want to know more about Psyche too, it's so interesting." I respond eagerly. (｡◝‿◜｡)
Evan and Naomi both nod their heads.
"Great. I think it's extremely important for me to get a wider sample size of people who have actually entered Psyche, because using only myself is not accurate. Please, do tell me your Instances." He kindly asks. (￣︶￣)
Us three tell Mr. Aarif our Instances in Psyche, and the personalities we had.
"I see... so it seems you guys have had a completely different experience to me. One thing I am interested in is the fact that every location in Psyche is somehow abandoned and dark..." Mr. Aarif analyses. (￣︶￣)
Naomi pulls her phone out excitedly. "We made a group chat for discussing Psyche, so we don't have to constantly meet up if you wanted to join it." ( ᓀ ‸ ᓂ )
"That sounds like a good idea. I'd have to use my personal phone instead of my work phone, just because this is an independent research and I don't want people to know about it just yet. The school can monitor everything on my work phone." Mr. Aarif informs. (￣︶￣)
I open my phone and save Mr. Aarif's contact. Just as I'm doing this, I see a message from Shiro saying: "Can you come home, it's late..." ( ◠‿◠ )
"I'm sorry I have to leave, my sister is getting worried that I'm not home, since it's dark outside..." I apologise, slightly scared at how dark it is outside. (｡◝‿◜｡)
"No problem. Stay safe you three, it's cold and dark out there." Mr. Aarif says, concerned. (￣︶￣)
Evan stands up out of his seat and puts his coat on. He says politely: "Thank you Sir for your time." (ー_ー )
"Yeah. Thanks a lot!" Naomi exclaims. ( ᓀ ‸ ᓂ )
As we walk out of the classroom, I begin to deeply think about things. For a start, Naomi seems to be going through quite the personality change, she seems to be turning much kinder and brighter than before, which is really nice to see. I, on the other hand seem to be getting more and more anxious, fearful of the things around me. Does entering Psyche change you in real life? I ask myself.
Not to mention, I really need to find the doll.
Naomi notices my worried facial expressions and puts an arm around me. "Kuro, you good? You seem to be worried about something." She asks, concerned. ( ᓀ ‸ ᓂ )
Taken aback from her sudden action, I tense up and then relax again. "Y-Yeah I'm fine. I'm just thinking about Psyche, I need to find my doll..." (｡◝‿◜｡)
"Did you lose it somewhere in Psyche?" Evan asks worriedly. (ー_ー )
"Yeah... I think I lost it in my first Instance, which means it's somewhere in the Psyche version of school." I conclude. (｡◝‿◜｡)
We continue down the desolate corridors of real-world school, until we eventually get to the exit, to which me, Rico and Evan begin to part ways.
Naomi points to the right "alright Kuro, me and Evan live in this direction." she says. "I hope you stay safe, message the group chat if you're in any kind of danger, since it's cold and dark out here." She smiles at me. ( ᓀ ‸ ᓂ )
I still can't get over how nice she's being, I feel like she's just mocking me or something...
I give her a small, anxious smile. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." I put my thumb up. (｡◝‿◜｡)
"Good bye. Stay safe, Kuro." Evan states. (ー_ー )
I put my thumb up again and walk the other direction. As I'm strolling down the streets and into the alleyways, I look up at the tiny jewles in the sky. They're pretty, it's like they're blinking at me to try and reassure me. I take a deep breath and try to maintain my strength, not giving in to the fear I feel. I really do believe Psyche changes you.
The walk home takes a while, maybe around half an hour. As soon as I get home, Shiro greets me with an angry facial expression. "What time do you think this is?!" She yells at me. ( ◠‿◠ ) This is incredibly out of character for Shiro, she's almost never angry like this. Could she have been changed by Psyche too? Has she even been in Psyche more than once?