You wake up to an empty house, the absence of your parent's presence providing a rare moment of solitude.
Your gaze drifts to the mirror, reflecting the image of a young adult of average height, but leaning towards the shorter side.
Your hair, though unwashed for months, is still somewhat clean.
Your appearance is, well, average in every sense of the word.
The body you inhabit bears the same ugliness it did during your school days, contributing to your perpetual sense of isolation.
There's nothing about you that stands out in a world filled with countless faces, your genderless, bland physique merging seamlessly into the masses.

Except for one unsettling feature – your stare.
It's not the kind you'd see in movies about psychopaths or villains, but it's uncanny.
Your face seems almost artificial, as though it were a computer-generated image or the visage of an android attempting to mimic human emotion.

You mechanically feed your pets, devoid of any excitement or affection for the creatures that share your solitary world.

As you settle in front of your laptop, the anticipation of escaping into the digital realm momentarily brightens your day.
However, you're met with a backlog of messages and emails, reminding you of the attempts to be normal that continue to elude you.

It's a constant battle, and the world outside doesn't seem to have any place for someone they deem a "loser" like you.

With a resigned sigh, you decide to put the read on hold for today and turn to YouTube.
It's a familiar refuge where you can temporarily forget about the harsh reality that surrounds you.



The face is familiar to what you saw years ago.