Jonas stopped in front of the half-open door.
The voices behind it were now clearly audible.
Several people were talking over each other. Laughter. Conversations. Clinking glasses.
It sounded… familiar.
Too familiar.
Jonas placed his hand on the door.
He hesitated.
“Something you know,” the man had said.
And this time he didn’t have to see it first to know.
“This is going to get really uncomfortable…,” Jonas murmured.
Then he pushed the door open.
Warm air hit him immediately.
And light.
Bright, yellowish, cozy.
Jonas stepped inside.
He was standing in a living room.
A completely normal living room.
Sofa. Table. Snacks. Drinks.
And several people.
His friends.
Ben, Leon, Sarah, and two others from his class.
They were sitting together, laughing, talking.
No one noticed Jonas.
He just stood there.
Unsure.
And then he understood.
This was the evening from a few days ago.
The invitation.
Which he… had declined.
“I don’t have time,” he had written.
Which wasn’t true.
He just didn’t feel like it.
And now…
he was here.
Right in the middle.
But somehow… not really.
“Okay…,” Jonas whispered.
He took a step closer.
The conversations became clearer.
“Too bad Jonas isn’t here,” Sarah said.
Jonas stopped.
His gaze immediately went to her.
“Yeah,” Ben said. “He’s been canceling more often lately.”
Jonas felt something tighten in his chest.
“Maybe he just doesn’t want to hang out with us anymore,” Leon said half-laughing.
Some laughed briefly.
Not mean.
But not completely relaxed either.
Jonas’ hands grew cold.
“Doesn’t matter,” one of the others said. “We’re enough.”
More laughter.
Jonas stood there.
And didn’t know what to do with himself.
He couldn’t say anything.
They couldn’t see him.
But he heard everything.
And this time…
it hurt more than anything before.
“I should have just come…,” he murmured.
The scene continued.
The conversations turned. Different topics. Different jokes.
But his name kept coming up.
Briefly.
In passing.
And every time it felt uncomfortable.
Not dramatic.
But… real.
After a while, Sarah got up and walked toward the door.
Directly toward Jonas.
He was startled and stepped back.
But she just walked past him.
Of course.
She couldn’t see him.
Jonas slowly turned around.
The door he had come through was still there.
Simply.
Open.
He could leave.
Like in the test.
Like at station 1.
Only this time…
it felt different.
It wasn’t about being able to do something.
But about what he had done.
Or not done.
Jonas looked back at his friends.
They were laughing about something.
Completely normal.
Without him.
“I did this myself…,” he said quietly.
At that moment something changed.
The scene paused briefly.
Just slightly.
Almost imperceptibly.
Jonas felt it anyway.
As if the room was reacting to him.
“And now?”
His voice was barely more than a whisper.
Suddenly he heard a familiar voice behind him.
The man.
“You know the options.”
Jonas didn’t turn around.
He knew he was there anyway.
“I can leave,” Jonas said quietly.
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“Then it stays like this.”
Jonas closed his eyes briefly.
He knew exactly what that meant.
This situation would simply… remain.
Unchanged.
Unspoken.
He opened his eyes again.
“And the other option?”
This time it took the man a moment to answer.
“You intervene.”
Jonas frowned.
“How? They can’t see me.”
“Not yet,” the man said calmly.
Jonas felt his heart beat faster again.
“And if I do that?”
“Then you change something.”
Jonas looked back at his friends.
Ben was just telling something. The others were listening.
Everything normal.
And that was exactly the problem.
He clenched his hand slightly.
“This is going to be embarrassing…”
The man answered calmly:
“Yes.”
Jonas took a deep breath.
Then he took a step forward.
And another.
Right into the room.
“Okay…,” he murmured.
“Then let’s do this properly now.”
At that moment the light flickered briefly.
And one of the heads turned.
Slowly.
Directly in Jonas’ direction.