I haven’t been sleeping well lately. Parang araw-araw, I wake up drenched in sweat, my heart pounding like I’ve just run a marathon. Pero wala naman akong ginagawa. It’s just… dreams. Pero hindi rin. Kasi iba yung feeling eh. These dreams aren’t normal.
There are images—blurred, distorted images—hazy, parang mga shadowy hallways with long, stretching walls. I can barely make sense of them, pero there’s always something, some sort of… presence. I hear whispers too, distant murmurs na hindi ko maintindihan, like they’re just out of reach. Every time I try to listen, they slip away. Parang gustong may sabihin, pero hindi ko marinig.
Every time I wake up from these dreams, I try to push them aside. Stress lang ‘to, I tell myself. It’s the research, the frustration, lahat ng pressure. Of course, my mind is running wild. Saan pa ba manggagaling yung ganitong klaseng imagination?
Pero, kahit na… it’s hard to shake the feeling that there’s more to it than just stress.
Days have turned into a blur. My research? It’s stuck. After that tiny blip of hope, wala nang sumunod. The data stays flat, and the anomalies aren’t showing up anymore. I’ve tried everything—new equipment setups, recalibrations, changing variables. Pero, I’m back to square one. Nothing.
It’s driving me insane. Literally.
One afternoon, I decide to clear my head. Hindi na kaya ng utak ko yung frustration, so I head to the library. Ardenvale’s library is my usual refuge, where I go to escape the pressure, kahit sandali lang. Doon ako nakakahanap ng konting peace, kahit na surrounded by books and endless theories.
That day, I was just wandering around the aisles, fingers trailing across the spines of books I’ve read a million times. I didn’t have a plan; I just wanted to lose myself in the endless rows of knowledge. Science, metaphysics, physics… ano pa bang hindi ko nakita?
Then, out of nowhere, I stumbled upon this old, leather-bound book, tucked away in a corner I’ve never noticed before. The cover was worn out, parang sobrang tagal na. Its title? Metaphysical Realities: Beyond the Physical Realm. Medyo creepy, to be honest. Pero, there was something about it that caught my attention. Like it was calling to me, waiting for me to find it.
I flipped it open, the pages yellowed with age, the ink slightly faded. The text was a weird mix of scientific theory and… esoteric ideas. Parang cross between physics and philosophy. It was talking about hidden dimensions, shadow worlds, invisible forces—concepts na halos science fiction na, pero presented as if they were legit, as if these things existed right beside us, just beyond our reach.
“Okay, this is weird,” I muttered, reading through one of the chapters. The author was explaining how certain realities might overlap with ours, pero hindi natin sila nakikita dahil our senses are too limited. The tools we use? They can only measure what we’re capable of perceiving, but these other dimensions—these shadow worlds—are real. They just exist in ways we don’t understand yet.
A cold chill ran down my spine as I read the words. It felt like the book was speaking directly to me, echoing everything I’ve been feeling lately. The frustration of not being able to measure the anomalies, the sense na parang something’s there but I just can’t see it… this book, it was explaining everything.
Or maybe I’m just imagining things. Maybe I’m so desperate for answers that I’m seeing connections where there are none.
But still, I couldn’t shake off the feeling. My rational mind was screaming at me—this is crazy! It’s pseudoscience! Esoteric mumbo-jumbo! But a part of me, a small, stubborn part, was intrigued.
“Could this be real?” I whispered to myself, flipping through the pages, looking for something, anything, that could give me answers. The book was filled with references to ancient philosophies, mysticism, and even quantum theory—parang intersection siya ng lahat ng knowledge na never ko pang pinagtuunan ng pansin. And yet, here it was, pointing me toward a path na hindi ko inexpect.
I found a passage that struck me, one that seemed to sum up everything I’ve been feeling:
“The boundaries of reality are not defined by the laws of physics, but by the limits of perception. What we cannot see, what we cannot measure, does not cease to exist. It is simply beyond our current understanding.”
I sat there, staring at the words, my heart racing. What if this was the missing piece? What if reality was more malleable than we thought? What if the dimensions I’ve been chasing aren’t bound by the rules I’ve been following all along?
It’s crazy. I’m crazy.
But somehow… it feels right.
For the first time in days, I feel a spark of hope again. Maybe science alone can’t give me all the answers. Maybe I need to look elsewhere—to places where the lines between reality and myth blur. Where physics meets the unexplained.
I checked out the book, clutching it tightly as I left the library. My mind was spinning with new possibilities. Could this be the answer I’ve been searching for? Could the truth really be hidden in these shadowy dimensions, these invisible forces?
The questions haunted me as I walked home, the city’s noise fading into the background. The streetlights cast long shadows on the pavement, and for a moment, everything felt… off. Parang may mali, pero hindi ko ma-pinpoint kung ano.
I looked around, suddenly uneasy. The shadows seemed darker than usual, deeper, as if they were stretching toward me. I shook my head, dismissing it as my imagination running wild again.
Pero, deep down, I couldn’t shake off the feeling. Something’s happening. Something I can’t explain.
And I don’t know if I’m ready to find out what it is.
I took the book home with me that night. Metaphysical Realities: Beyond the Physical Realm felt heavy in my hands—heavier than a book should feel, but maybe it was the weight of its words on my mind.
Pag-uwi ko, I went straight to my desk. I couldn’t wait to dive deeper into it. Nag-parang excitement kasi it seemed like it was leading me somewhere. My research was stuck, pero maybe—just maybe—this was the breakthrough I needed.
As soon as I opened it, the words practically jumped off the page. Parang gusto nila magpa-impress agad, like they knew I was searching for something. Or baka desperate lang talaga ako to find a way out of this dead-end I’ve been hitting. Whatever it was, something about the book kept pulling me in.
The text went deeper into ideas about how reality could be warped by forces beyond our understanding. One chapter even discussed quantum theory and how the smallest particles—mga atoms, neutrons, all the stuff we usually think of as solid and stable—could actually behave differently in other dimensions.
“Imagine,” I whispered to myself, flipping a page, “a whole other version of reality playing out right beside us, but we’re too blind to see it.”
Crazy. It sounded insane. Pero the book explained it like it was a natural extension of the science we already knew—na parang it’s just science we haven’t discovered yet. Quantum theory daw was the key, a way to explain these hidden dimensions. We were on the edge of discovering it, but we didn’t have the tools, the right perspective to make sense of it.
My head spun with possibilities. What if, in some way, the experiments I’ve been running have been touching on these dimensions, pero hindi lang sila detectable kasi the methods I’ve been using are too… basic? I’ve been treating the data as flat, as if it’s only measurable in one dimension. Pero, what if the anomalies were happening in dimensions na hindi ko pa nasusukat?
At some point, I leaned back in my chair, staring at the ceiling. The book made me question everything I thought I knew about science and reality.
The dreams came back that night, but they were different this time. They felt sharper, clearer, like the shadows were starting to take form. I could almost make out the walls of the hallway, the texture of the floor beneath my feet. And the whispers—those damn whispers—were louder now, almost like they were calling my name. But no matter how hard I listened, I couldn’t make out the words.
Pag-gising ko, I was drenched in sweat again. My room was dim, the early morning light barely creeping through the curtains. I felt a strange pull, like there was something in the air. Something was waiting for me.
But I pushed the thought aside. Stress lang. I went through my usual morning routine—shower, coffee, staring at my lab setup like it would magically give me answers. But my mind was stuck on the book. I couldn’t get it out of my head.
The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Maybe reality wasn’t as rigid as we believed. Maybe it was like a veil—thin, delicate, easily torn if you knew where to pull. Science, after all, had shown us that the universe was way weirder than we’d ever imagined. Black holes, quantum entanglement, dark matter—lahat yan, things that defied the laws of physics as we knew them. Maybe this was just another one of those things.
That day, I decided to push my experiments further. I tweaked the setup, recalibrated my instruments to measure things I hadn’t considered before. My hypothesis? That these hidden dimensions might be interacting with the particles, pero hindi sila detectable using the usual methods.
So, I worked. Day turned into night, pero I barely noticed. I was too deep in the process, too focused on finding something, kahit na what I was looking for was still undefined. The book was open beside me, its cryptic passages nagging at the back of my mind, guiding me like an unseen hand.
By the time I stepped back from the setup, it was already late. The city outside was quiet, save for the occasional hum of a passing car. The machines were running smoothly, data scrolling across the screens, pero still… nothing. No anomalies, no strange readings. Just the same flat line of data.
I sighed, rubbing my eyes. Maybe I was just wasting my time. Maybe all this, the book, the theories—baka they were just distractions.
I sat back, frustrated, trying to keep my mind from spiraling. But just as I was about to shut everything down for the night, something caught my eye. One of the instruments—the most sensitive one I had—was flickering. It wasn’t much, just a tiny blip in the readings, pero it was enough to make my heart skip a beat.
I leaned in, staring at the screen. The blip was faint, almost like it didn’t exist, pero it was there. I checked the equipment, making sure everything was working correctly. The anomaly wasn’t big, but it was there.
I took a deep breath, trying to steady my racing heart. Was this it? Was this the sign I’d been waiting for?
But then, just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone. The data flattened out again, back to normal.
I slumped back in my chair, feeling both exhilarated and defeated. It was something, sure, but it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t prove anything with a tiny flicker like that.
The questions swirled in my head as I tried to make sense of it all. Was the anomaly real? Or was it just a glitch, a trick of the equipment? Or worse… was it all in my head?
But deep down, I knew. Something was there. Something was happening. I just didn’t have the tools to measure it yet.
And then the whispers came back.
But this time, they weren’t in my dreams.
It was late, past midnight, when I heard them. I was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to fall asleep, pero my mind wouldn’t stop racing. I was still thinking about the experiment, the anomaly, the book.
And then, out of nowhere, I heard them.
At first, I thought it was just my imagination again—like maybe I was still half-asleep, dreaming. Pero the whispers were clearer now, more distinct. They weren’t just distant murmurs this time. They were close, too close. Parang nandiyan lang sa tabi ko.
I sat up, my heart pounding. The room was silent, too silent. I strained to hear them again, pero there was nothing. Just the sound of my own breathing, the ticking of the clock on the wall.
But the feeling was still there—that strange, creeping sensation that something was watching me. Something was there, just beyond the edge of my perception.
I stood up, walking over to the window, trying to shake off the unease. I stared out at the dark street below, the streetlights casting long, eerie shadows on the pavement.
And then, just for a second, I saw it.
A shadow, darker than the rest, moving at the corner of my vision. It was quick, almost too quick to notice, pero it was there.
I blinked, trying to make sense of what I just saw. But when I looked again, the shadow was gone. The street was empty, silent.
I stood there for a long time, staring out into the night, feeling that strange, creeping fear settle deep in my bones.
Maybe the book was right. Maybe reality wasn’t as solid as we thought.
Maybe the hidden dimensions weren’t so hidden after all.