At three in the morning, I was jolted awake by the hushed whispers from the beds across the room. My roommates. I flicked on my bedside lamp, the sudden glare cutting through the darkness. "Maya, what in the world are you and Ava Hayes chatting about at this hour?" I snapped, my voice thick with sleep and irritation. "Some of us actually need to sleep!" Maya Thompson, the name barely out of my mouth, practically exploded. "Chloe Miller, what's gotten into you in the middle of the night? I was sound asleep! Who did I offend?" Her voice was sharp, laced with annoyance. "And who’s Ava Hayes? Are you having delusions or something?" Her words hit me like a splash of ice water, snapping me fully awake. I rubbed my eyes, a cold dread creeping in. The bed next to mine, Ava Hayes's bed, was empty. Her comforter, her shoes, her toothbrush – even her name on the dorm duty chart – all gone. My fingers tightened around the ten-dollar bill in my pocket, the one Ava had given me earlier that day. I clung to it, fiercely convinced Maya was lying. But Sophia Lee, in the bunk below mine, was staring at me with an eerie, unsettling expression. "Chloe, don't scare me like that," Sophia whispered, her voice laced with genuine fear. "There's no one named Ava Hayes in this entire university." 1 Our dorm room was a standard quad, just like every other one in the university. From the very first day of freshman year, the four of us had lived together. I could still clearly remember buying Ava Hayes a birthday cake with Maya and Sophia just last Wednesday, celebrating her twentieth birthday. But now Maya and Sophia were telling me there was no such person as Ava Hayes in our university. This wasn't funny. I grabbed Maya's arm. "Maya, you're joking, right? You and Ava were practically inseparable, stuck together every day. How could you possibly not remember Ava?" Maya, clearly fed up with being woken, impatiently yanked her arm free. "You're the one joking, Chloe! Ava Hayes? Never heard of her, let alone know her. Are you seriously staying up all night just to freak us out? Get a life!" With a frustrated huff, she pulled her comforter over her head, disappearing beneath the covers. I turned to Sophia. She pointed to the chore chart tacked to the wall. "Chloe, you must be sleep-deprived, blurring reality with dreams... Look at our chore chart. Our room has always only had three of us." I scrutinized her eyes, searching for any flicker of doubt or guilt. There was none. But how could that be? Memories of us going to classes together, eating meals together, were vivid, etched into my mind. I’d be damned if I believed a living, breathing person could just vanish into thin air. I frantically pulled out my phone. "We took a group photo for Ava's birthday last week! It's still on my phone. If you don't believe me, I'll show you." I scrolled through my gallery, picture by picture. Then I found that photo. What I saw made my blood run cold. Ava Hayes, who had been standing between Sophia and me, wearing a birthday hat, had inexplicably transformed into Maya. And Ava Hayes… I scoured my entire phone. Not a single photo of her. Nothing. Sophia, now curious, leaned over my shoulder. "See? I told you there's no Ava Hayes. Maya was the one who had her birthday last week, and you and I chipped in for the cake, remember?" Of course, I remembered! But aside from the details that aligned, Ava Hayes was simply gone. Yet her presence, to me, felt utterly, undeniably real. I stared at the photo again, the creepiness of it growing with each passing second, and then a new realization struck me. In my memory, Maya had taken that photo of the three of us. If Maya was in the photo… then who had taken the picture? 2 "Oh... the photo? Nancy Chen from the room next door took it for us. If you don't believe me, go ask her tomorrow morning." Maya's explanation was airtight. If I pushed any further, I feared she'd truly believe I was losing my mind. But fueled by a stubborn refusal to accept this absurdity, I sought out Nancy the moment day broke. Nancy glanced at the photo. "Yeah, I took this. And I even had some of Maya's birthday cake. Is there something wrong with the picture?" Something lodged in my throat. Staring at Nancy's earnest, unblinking face, I couldn't utter a single word. When we celebrated Ava Hayes's birthday, we hadn't invited Nancy at all. Yet here she was, swearing she’d been part of our celebration. A shiver of utter dread snaked through my body. I gripped her shoulders. "Nancy, you're our class rep, you can't lie! Ava Hayes was the one having her birthday that day!" "Ava Hayes? What are you talking about?! There are only three of you in your dorm room, who's Ava Hayes?" As she spoke, she pulled out our class's dorm assignment sheet from her backpack. "See for yourself. Is there anyone named Ava Hayes on here?" She pointed to the Section 301 dorm details on the paper. "Our dorm assignments are all based on admission scores, uniformly divided. For your room, it just happened to be three people. You even said you were lucky to have a quad with only three of you, remember?" She was right... Ava Hayes's name wasn't on the list. But what if the list itself was fake? The thought had barely formed when Nancy, as if reading my mind, said, "If you don't believe me, then we'll just have to go to the Dean." I agreed without a second thought. A living person had simply vanished without a trace. If I didn't get to the bottom of this, I'd go mad. The Dean, hearing our purpose, handed me a class roster, complete with everyone’s names and college entrance exam scores. I scanned it, name by name. Every student in our class was listed. Except Ava Hayes. Was my memory truly failing me? But then, how could I explain the ten-dollar bill still clutched in my pocket? I distinctly remembered Ava using my meal card to buy lunch, and then she’d given me that ten-dollar bill. We'd even run into the Dean in the cafeteria that day. Seeing me lost in thought, the Dean patted my shoulder. "Chloe Miller, I know the midterm exams are coming up soon, and you're under a lot of stress. If you're not feeling well, I can excuse you from your afternoon classes. Go back to your dorm and get some rest." I asked other classmates, but as expected, every single one of them had forgotten Ava Hayes existed. I finally accepted the Dean's advice and returned to my dorm alone. The empty room was eerily silent, a silence that felt oppressive. I powered on my laptop and started browsing the campus online forum. Suddenly, a missing person post caught my eye: "Seeking help: Please help me find a girl named Ava Hayes." My heart hammered in my chest. If Ava Hayes didn't exist, why would someone be posting about her? No matter how I looked at it, something was deeply, terribly wrong. I decided to talk to my roommates again. But that evening, when Maya returned to the dorm, she wouldn't even acknowledge me. She clearly thought I was completely unhinged. Sophia gave me a sympathetic, helpless look. "Maya didn't get much sleep last night, so she's still pretty angry. Don't worry, she'll be fine by tomorrow." She was right... If I'd been woken up in the middle of the night by my roommate, I'd be furious too. It seemed that discussing Ava Hayes with them again wasn't a good idea right now. After turning off the lights, I lay in bed, unable to sleep for a long, long time... I don't know how much time passed, but in that hazy state between sleep and wakefulness, I was disturbed again by voices. From the bed directly opposite mine. I rubbed my eyes, and the fear in my heart magnified, blooming into full-blown terror. Ava Hayes, who had vanished into thin air during the day, had reappeared! 3 Ava Hayes, clad in pink pajamas, was perched on Maya’s bed, leaning in close, whispering something into Maya's ear. Maya let out a soft giggle. I rubbed my eyes again, confirming that the two figures before me were indeed Ava Hayes and Maya. A sharp gasp escaped my lips. This time, I kept my wits about me. Without a word, I reached out and gently tapped Sophia’s shoulder, who was in the bunk below me. Still half-asleep, Sophia saw it was me. Suppressing a groan of annoyance, she mumbled, "Chloe, what is it?" I leaned closer to her ear, whispering, "Look at Maya's bed. Isn't Ava Hayes whispering to her?" Whether it was my tone that unsettled her, or the very mention of "Ava Hayes" that triggered something, her entire face went pale. After confirming I wasn't joking, she picked up her glasses and perched them on her nose. Then, cautiously, she peered at the bed across the room. A minute later, she spun back around, glaring at me in exasperation. "Chloe Miller, are you serious?! There's no one else on Maya's bed!" I was baffled. "You... you don't see her?" "See what?! Chloe Miller, you seriously need to see a doctor! This is the second time!" Sophia stared at me as if I'd truly lost my mind. If it had been Maya, she would have started yelling already. Being treated like a lunatic, one after another, ignited a flicker of anger in me. But the moment I flicked on the dorm lights, another shocking sight unfolded. Ava Hayes, on Maya's bed, was gone. My anger instantly evaporated, replaced by a chilling dread. I rubbed my eyes, disbelieving, but all I saw was Maya, sleeping soundly in her own bed. Now, even I began to wonder if my mind was playing tricks on me. I bit my lip, hesitating, wondering how to apologize, when Maya suddenly stirred. The harsh light made her sit up abruptly, her face a storm cloud. "What in the world are you two doing in the middle of the night?! Are you going to let anyone sleep?!" Sophia shot me a mournful look. "Ask Chloe!" I quickly tried to explain. "Maya, I know I turned on the light, it's because I saw Ava Hayes on your bed..." "Ava Hayes again?! We've told you so many times, there's no one! No one by that name!" Maya's voice rose to a furious shout. "Chloe Miller, tell me, have I offended you somehow?! Why are you always picking on me, tormenting me like this?" Her voice broke, laden with frustration. "I'm sick of it! No matter what you say, I'm applying to switch dorms tomorrow!" With that angry declaration, Maya burrowed back under her comforter. I looked at Sophia. Sophia, too, pulled her blanket over her head, ignoring me. I shook my head, making sure I was fully awake, then turned off the light. I peered at Maya’s bed again. This time, nothing seemed out of place. I closed my eyes, and surprisingly, drifted into a deep sleep. The next morning, when I saw Maya’s empty bed, my heart sank. It seemed she really was angry. She’d moved out first thing in the morning. I grabbed Sophia, who had just emerged from the bathroom, fresh from her morning routine. "Sophia, about last night, I'm so sorry. I think my mental state hasn't been great lately." I paused. "By the way, do you know which dorm Maya moved to? I want to apologize to her." Sophia's brow furrowed slightly, and then she uttered a sentence that sent a shiver of pure terror down my spine: "What are you talking about? Who's Maya Thompson?"
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