At 3:17 a.m., I woke up in my dorm.
My phone screen lit up with a line of text: “Do not leave your bed.”
From beneath the bed came a voice exactly like mine: “Come down quickly. The rules are lying.”
I glanced at the tiny words in the corner of the screen: “The creature beneath the bed will take your place.”
So I smiled.
The rules said not to get out of bed? Then I’d do exactly that.
I tricked it with a recording, making it lunge at empty air, then rolled out of bed and dashed into the bathroom.
A new rule appeared on the mirror: “Do not see your reflection.”
The “me” in the mirror was smiling at me.
This world is full of rules: no running, always smile, never lie, no more than two people in a room...
Everyone obeys them in terror.
Only I discovered a secret
Rules are made to be broken.
