Cat Zhu, class of 2026
The clock reads 3:42 A.M. Its bright red digits illuminate her dark room.
April has been staying at her mom’s house for a month since her best friend Olivia died two months ago at 3:42 A.M.
Her room sits at the end of the narrow hallway upstairs. The floorboards creak at night, moaning and groaning as if they were mumbling to each other. The walls smell faintly of dust, like a room that has been left abandoned for years.
At night, the house is too quiet.
If you look closely enough, the floorboards near the wall look scratched, as if something heavy had been dragged across them many times.
April can’t sleep. Her mind floods with memories of Olivia.
Finally falling asleep, April suddenly wakes up to a soft glow on her face. The clock reads 5:02 A.M. It wasn’t the sun. Squinting her eyes, April sits up to find a glowing door at the wall.
It wasn’t there before.
The air feels colder as April slowly climbs out of bed.
The light felt strangely comforting–almost inviting.
Without a second thought, April steps through the door.
After regaining her sight from the blinding light, April opens her eyes, finding herself in a world that is almost identical to her own.
But everything is better.
Olivia is alive. Her parents never divorced. Her grades are perfect. Even her mom is working at a safe office job and not the dangerous factor where she lost the ring finger on her left hand.
For the first time in months, April feels happy.
Whenever April falls asleep in this world, she wakes back up in the room of her original world.
But every night the glowing door returns.
And she keeps going back.
The perfect world slowly stops feeling so perfect.
Olivia begins spending more time with a new girl named Cherry.
Cherry was everywhere.
When they hang out, Olivia laughed more with Cherry. When they study at April’s house, her parents smile bigger when they see Cherry.
April starts to feel like she doesn’t belong in this world anymore. Was Cherry replacing her?
One night, April decides to confront Cherry.
But instead of arguing, like she expected, Cherry tells her the truth: The perfect world is not real. It’s a trap.
Every time April enters it, she stays longer and longer. Eventually she would forget her real life completely.
And something else would take her place in the real world.
Cherry wasn’t stealing Olivia. She was protecting April from getting stuck.
The next morning, April wakes up in her real room again.
For the next few nights, she ignores the glowing door, vowing never to return to the other world.
One morning, April wakes up to the smell of pancakes coming from the kitchen.
She goes downstairs, confused to see her mom drinking coffee at the dining table.
She was supposed to be working at the factory by now.
Then, April realizes something is wrong.
Her mother is wearing gloves. She never wears them inside the house.
“Mom… aren’t you supposed to be at the factory today?” April asks her slowly.
Her mom pauses, pulling the gloves tighter around her hands.
“Take them off.” April whispers.
Her mom smiles.
But it wasn’t a warm smile. It was strange. Too big. Not right.
When she takes off her left glove, April lets out a big gasp.