Page 26 of The Stuffing Situation

Why do I feel like I’ve lost something I never had?

The ache wasn’t physical, but it throbbed—

as though something essential had been taken.

Or perhaps never given at all.

His hand rose to his chest, not to find a heartbeat, to check that there was still something left. Something felt. Something fragile. His heartbeat wasn’t real.

But the ache beneath it? That was.

He reached for his phone, fingers trembling in a way that had nothing to do with calibration.

He typed the message to Blair at 3:12 a.m., each word a weight:

I need help.

Something’s wrong.

I think I’m remembering things that never happened.

13

Popcorn, Incense, and Consequences

Ashar answered the door shirtless, like a cryptid who moonlighted as a romance cover model.

“You’re late,” he said, stepping aside.

Maya blinked. “We weren’t even invited.”

Felix didn’t speak. He stood in the entryway, as if afraid that stepping inside might break something.

Himself, maybe.

Blair stood behind Ashar, hair in a messy bun, wrapped in a flannel over a tank top that readWitch, Please.She waved them in, as if this were a magical intervention, not a low-lit apartment that smelled faintly of popcorn, incense, and consequences.

“I made snacks,” she said brightly. “And reality-bending tea.”

Felix blinked. “Is that an herbal blend or—?”

“Just come in,” Maya muttered, already regretting all of it.

Ashar’s gaze flicked briefly toward Felix’s hand, then up to Maya. “I felt the shift. You did the right thing.”

Blair’s expression changed the moment she saw Felix clearly. Her usual grin dimmed to something thoughtful. “Oh.”

“Oh?” Maya repeated, instantly defensive.

Blair ignored her. Her eyes didn’t leave Felix. “What did you remember?”

Felix hesitated. “A bowl. A sound. Her laugh. But it hadn’t happened.”

Ashar stepped forward, slow and deliberate, studying Felix like a glitch in a system he didn’t build. The air in the apartment seemed to tighten with static.

“That’s not just data corruption,” he said. “That’s origin rewrite.”

Felix frowned. “What does that mean?”