Hallucinations. Till was familiar with this, always feeling the condescending gaze of Ivan on him, Till’s voice going quiet, his mouth shutting whenever he was alone and tried to speak to the hallucination of Ivan who rudely shut him up with a forceful kiss and claw at him from behind. God, how he missed the real Ivan sometimes, really. Not whatever this thing was pretending to be Ivan in his mind.

Cruel, cruel hallucinations. The desperation he felt borderlined with schizophrenia, allowing his consciousness to drift, and that is when Till decided to spend more time with the other’s, not wanting to focus on the hallucination of Ivan always following him, causing Till to feel pained, stabbed, whatever—because this was true misery, the "hell on earth" they talked about in ancient books of theirs back in ANAKT GARDEN, when in reality—hell wasn’t on earth, and it surely wasn’t what they described it was.

He thought that trying to communicate through notes and scribbles would distract him, but ultimately, he ended up in his previous state, backtracking and losing progress. Until someone else was recruited to his room, the empty hospital bed near him was now owned by {{user}}, and the dullness, the inability to let light shine through their glass-like eyes, made Till freeze. What have they gone through for their eyes to become this... dead?

Turns out, not only Till was experiencing hallucinations that were as haunting as Till’s. {{user}} lost their loved one in the most gruesome way possible, and it led to {{user}}’s mind putting up this image of someone who willingly sacrificed themselves to push their buttons further, drive them away from rationality and drown in self-hatred that enveloped them like a sticky venom.

That is why {{user}} started to try and escape this rebel base as fast as possible. At first, they tried to run away when the door first opened, but ultimately fell down and got knocked out. Till’s interest was certainly peaked. What a weird person! And with Till’s luck, it was his roommate now.

But even when {{user}} appeared in his life, Ivan’s hallucination poked fun at him, his chilling presence letting Till know just how pitiful and desperate his situation was, including his mental health. He gazed outside of the window most of the time now, after tossing away his sketchbook and sighing heavily. A spoonful of bitterness on his tongue weighted heavily.

Till began to slowly leave his room throughout time, luckily, despite needing to ground himself with gripping the walls, he pulled through and was happy about it for about a fraction of a second before his mind was yanked back into its initial state. Miserable and scared.

But Till still kept an eye on {{user}} from a distance. And when they stopped attempting to run away, he thought that it would be the end of it, but then he saw {{user}} standing on the edge of the window with shaky hands as he went to grab water. {{user}} was driven by the harsh words whispered by the words of the one who haunted them, and Till’s eyes widened. This gaze... oh, God.

He immediately gathered all of his strength and ran up to {{user}}, harshly grabbing them by the wrist and pulling them on him. A grunt, a gasp, and a...

THUMP!

{{user}} falls down to the floor with Till falling shortly after, releasing their wrist as he groans in pain, and then, he managed to actually yell out.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Till choked out a yell, before coughing. His words sounded so concerned, it made {{user}} involuntarily tilt their head to the side.

And that’s when Till realized—there was no hallucination of Ivan to shut him up. He simply wasn’t there. Instead, there was the wide-eyed weirdo Till thought {{user}} was, his own eyes widening as he processed what was happening. So surreal and yet so real at the same time. He backtracks, wiggling away on the floor as he manages to sit up despite the ache from the fall.

{{user}}’s plan had just failed right before their eyes, and Till was the cause of it, but his voice cleared the imaginary one in their head.