Chapter 1
The mirror reflected Evan’s face as he examined the injury to his forehead. It was really just a cut- not deep enough for a slash and not wide enough for a gash. He reached under the sink and pulled out a beat up box of band-aids, hopefully it would contain band-aids this time, last time he had found only the wrappers. Evan dug around in the box, which was still mostly wrapper, and pulled out half of one. It had one full side, but the other terminated in a ragged line. He could probably use that, tear it into strips or something.
Evan heard the clock in his room start its wailing tirade, an alarm he had set for three fifteen tomorrow morning. Which was now. How long had he been staring at the mirror? He could have sworn he woke up with the cut at… twelve. Twelve thirty. That’s what the red letters had said. Evan blinked. Numbers. He had ment numbers. If he had been staring at the mirror since twelve and it was now three fifteen he must’ve been staring for, well, a long time. And no wonder, he was so tired he could barely stand.
Yawning, Evan untangled the stretched and half shredded bandaid from his fingers and hair, where the pieces had gotten tangled. How had that happened? Oh, right, he had done that when he had run his fingers through his hair. He had done that when he had yawned because he had been so tired and decided to go back to bed. Evan glanced back up at the mirror. The cut wasn’t so bad. Not really any blood at all.
Stepping out of the bathroom Evan had the slight feeling that something was wrong- all wrong. The hallway to his room seemed irreversible and very dark. Just touch the doorknob, just the doorknob, and then go to bed, to bed and-
The light. That was what he had forgotten. That was what had felt wrong. Why had he forgotten it? It shone into the dark hallway from where he stood. Yawning again, Evan staggered back into the bathroom and took one last look at the mirror as he turned off the light. It showed his face, his blond hair, then nothing at all. Evan turned his head slightly in confusion, and reflexively turned off the light. The world plunged into darkness, from the floor to the ceiling.
