The news ran the same footage on a loop: the office building collapsing, shimmering, disappearing. Anchors speculated about causes—a gas leak, a rogue demolition—but no one could explain why there wasn't any debris.
Aiden sat on the couch, his phone buzzing with messages. His friends in the group chat were buzzing with theories.
[Jake]: Definitely aliens. I'm telling you, it's the government covering it up.
[Sam]: LOL, aliens don't blow up random buildings, dude.
[Maya]: It wasn't a bomb. Look at the footage—it just…vanished.
Aiden's fingers hovered over his phone, but he didn't respond. None of their theories mattered. They didn't feel what he felt.
"You've been sitting there all morning," Lila said, dropping into the armchair beside him. She tossed a bottle of water into his lap.
"I'm trying to make sense of it," Aiden muttered.
"You won't," she said flatly. "None of us will. Not until someone comes out with an actual explanation."
Aiden took a sip of water, the coolness settling his stomach. "What if it's not something we can explain?"
Lila raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"
"Like...what if it's not just disappearing?" he said, struggling to put the feeling into words. "What if it's being moved somewhere else?"
"Moved?" Lila repeated, leaning forward.
"Yeah," Aiden said. "I don't know...like it's being taken apart and put back together somewhere else."
Lila didn't laugh, but the skepticism in her eyes was clear. "You sound like one of those crackpot YouTube theorists."
"Maybe," Aiden admitted. "But it felt real, Lila. When I was standing there, it felt like...like something was pulling me toward it. Like it wanted me to disappear too."
Lila's expression softened. "You're just freaked out. We all are. Let's not go full conspiracy mode, okay?"
Aiden nodded, but her words didn't comfort him. Something deep inside him told him he was right.