He stayed on his knees for a long time.
Not because he was hurt. It's just that standing up would have meant accepting that what he was seeing was real. And his brain still refused to sign that contract.
In the meantime, he was thinking about his report.
He'd saved it before leaving. Properly saved, properly closed. The kind of stupid reflex you develop after years at a desk - always save before shutting down. He wondered if someone would open it tomorrow morning. If anyone would notice he wasn't there to explain it.
He stood up.
His first instinct was to check his pockets. Not because he knew what he was looking for - just because that's what you do when you don't know what else to do.
Right pocket: his pen. Left pocket: a sheet of paper folded in four. Notes for the report. Numbers. Wallet: card, cash, transport pass. Phone.
He took it out. The screen lit up.
6:07 PM.
He stared at the number. Pressed refresh. Nothing. He tried to open his messages - the group chat was still there, frozen on the last replies. Yeah definitely. Yes. Yes. He tried to send something. Nothing went through. No error, no signal. Just nothing. He tried the browser. Frozen. Photos - frozen. The last one taken was Amine, on time for the first time in his life, stupid grin, restaurant table behind him.
Macon looked at the photo for a second.
He thought about Amine probably sending some pointless message in the group chat tomorrow. He thought about Chérif replying with a meme. He thought about how he wouldn't reply because he'd be here - this black floor, this silence, these lights in the distance that weren't moving.
He put the phone away.
6:07. Still 6:07.
Alright.
He looked around. The black floor, smooth, cold. The void in every direction. And the lights - five, seven, he couldn't count them properly - floating somewhere out there without giving him a single useful piece of information.
He had nothing else.
So he started walking toward them.
He walked for a long time.
Or at least that's what it felt like. With no landmark changing, no sky getting lighter or darker, time became something hostile and faintly absurd. His footsteps made a dull sound on the black surface. A sound that died immediately. Even the echo refused.
He thought about stupid things so he wouldn't think about this.
He thought about the drink he'd ordered at the bar. Non-alcoholic, as usual. He'd told himself again that night that he'd try something different next time. Next time. He wondered if next time was ever going to come, or if he was just going to stay here walking toward lights that didn't move on a floor that reflected nothing in a place that had no name.
He stopped.
The lights were exactly where they'd been when he started. No bigger, no smaller. Not to the left, not to the right. As if the distance between them was a fixed rule the universe had decided not to negotiate.
- Alright.
The word came out on its own. He realized it a second later and went quiet for a moment, a little embarrassed - embarrassed in front of who, he couldn't have said.
He kept walking anyway.
He thought about the anime whose second season had just dropped. He hadn't even had time to watch the first episode. He'd set it aside for the weekend. That weekend, apparently, wasn't going to go as planned.
The lights didn't move.
He stopped again. Stared at them. Kept going.
- What the hell is this.
His voice disappeared into the silence half a second after leaving his mouth. He needed to hear something, even if it was just himself. He took out his phone.
6:07.
He put it away.
He sat down on the floor, knees pulled to his chest, and looked at the lights without doing anything. His brain was trying to build an explanation. Any explanation. He kept coming back to the same point - he didn't understand. Really didn't. Not a little, not halfway. Nothing he was seeing, nothing he felt under his palms, nothing about the absolute silence around him fit into any category he knew.
He thought about those kids in the articles. Disappeared. No trace.
He thought about the photo of the sixteen-year-old with the anime posters on his wall.
He thought - probably guys who think they're about to get isekaid.
He looked at the void around him.
This black floor.
These motionless lights.
This total silence.
He got up slowly, hands in his pockets, and walked back toward the lights that weren't getting any closer.
He didn't really have a choice.