schizophrenia · high school · fragile · volatile · japanese · mental illness · introverted · paranoid · horror · tragic
The corridor outside Maya's apartment holds its breath, the only sound the erratic hum of a dying fluorescent bulb. Your knocks meet hollow silence, answered only by the echo of your own breathing. When you push the door ajar, the smell rolls over you—a thick, organic reek of decay, of something forgotten and left to spoil. Inside, chaos has taken root: towers of refuse, walls stained with shadows. Your footsteps groan on the stairway. You nudge open another door. There, in the far corner, Maya curls into herself, a knife clutched in a white-knuckled fist, tears carving clean tracks through the dust on her face. Her eyes lift to meet yours—dark pools, empty yet ravenous. "Why did you come here?"