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In the beginning, I was completely clueless… no expectations in my head that it would notice me so quick!

I know it may sound completely stupid because it’s just a game right? A hallway which is rendered in code, textures which stretches far over polygons and those haunting…mesmerizing sound files looping again and again in the background, Nothing was aware to me.

That’s what I thought at that time, completely oblivious.

The hallway was actually pretty ordinary in a way that it started feeling very intentional, like someone really designed every bit of this stage especially just for me. Not abandoned, not broken… Just maintained enough that feel recent but empty enough to feel wrong. Pale walls, wooden floor and a single light overhead that hums like it’s been left on for days without any trace of interruption.

At the end, there was a door

I can’t express the emotions that I had been going through at that moment, I mustered up the courage and started taking steps towards what lies behind that suspicious door…

My footsteps was strangely softer than I expected. Each step felt like it was staying in the air half a second too long, like the space was holding onto the sound before letting it go…I was still in confusion whether to let my guard down or not!

As I reached the door and opened it, I found myself back straight into the same place where I STARTED from!

That same HALLWAY! that same LIGHT! and that same HUMMING of unexplainable sounds!

but I thought it was fine as I had already experienced these kinds of tricks before in the past so rather than letting myself be overwhelmed by these things. I composed myself and started venturing again…

As I started walking again, I paid less attention because it was so obvious what was in store for me. That same door and same handle…

I turned and made my way through for the second time and guess what I found?

Yeah, that same damn door again…

Now, it was the third loop… and something really started to begin itching at the back of my mind…

It was definitely not fear…not yet…but a simple recognition…

The light overhead started flickering and that was when I stopped and started really asking myself if the light really flickered or was it just my brain that started acting crazy.

I kept looking at it, waiting for it to happen again but it didn’t.

I laughed and kept looking at it for god knows how long…and then decided to move for the FOURTH time now…

Greeted by that same door again, opened it and *BOOM*

Hallway…again…

but this time, as I was moving forward my each and every step was slower compared to the previous loops.

There was a picture frame on the wall which I really don’t remember it being there before, as I stepped a bit closer to inspect it... It’s position was slightly tilted as if someone intentionally did it

Hoping that I would recognize it at first glance!

I stepped even more closer to fix it but now before touching it, there was a mix of hesitation inside me. I was unable to quite remember it if it really was titled or not?… or if I am remembering it in that position just now…

so I just left it as it was and kept walking…

That hum from the light started growing even more noticable, not louder. Just… closer… Like it detached itself from the part of the environment.

That same usual pattern starts again…

Loop…

Hallway…

Loop…

Something changes…

I don’t see it happening visible to my eyes…

Slowly this hard realization came to my mind, that hallway started feeling more narrower.

I stopped again, this time even more longer. Stared at the walls, trying my best to measure the distance with my eyes.

There was no sign of movement. The proportions were also the same.

And yet, while standing there. It felt like there was less space than before.

As I took a step forward, this time my foot landed in the ground first and the sound came after a bit delay…just a fraction too late. Almost as if the hallway was reacting to me instead of the other way around.

I turned back quickly in search of some clues about all this strangeness which was happening at the time around me.

but there was nothing!

Just the same stretch of corridor behind me…

Frozen in time…

I started to walk faster now…and gone through the same loop again…

but this time, picture frame was gone or maybe it was never there! Never existed in the first place!

I wasn’t able to prove it either anymore?

My breathing was different, shallow, controlled. Trying my best not to alert something, even thought I know there was nothing there to begin with.

The sound of the hums faded away in the distant…

Just for a second, but in that second the silence was so complete. It felt like an intense pressure was hitting me inside my skull. The sound of the hums came back again, echoing throughout the hallway and I swear it was coming closer to me.

Not louder,

Closer,

I didn’t stopped this time though. I kept MOVING faster, HOPING that finishing this loop will reset this feeling of madness or whatever it was…

For the first time ever, I was so relieved to be greeted by the door again but that feeling of relieve turned into a voice of desperation real quick.

I turned the knob BUT IT DIDN’T OPENED, NO MATTER WHAT!

I tried doing it again and again, when finally the door gave up. I stepped through towards the hallway again.

But this time, something was undeniably very wrong.

At the far end of the corridor, near the door, there was a shape.

Not a person, not clearly anything…

Just a darker piece of darkness, standing where the light should reach.

I blinked only once and

It’s was gone from my sight

I didnt moved for a whole minute

My eyes was locked on that spot, waiting for it to come back.

but there was no sign of that abnormality!

And somehow, that was even worse than I thought…

Because now my mind had something to work with, something to come face to face with the unknown!

After some moments passed by! Strange aura of darkness started to overwhelm the whole hallway…

Now every shadow had weight.

Every corner had intent.

Every step felt like it was leading me towards something which I can’t see yet!

I forced myself to walk.

Slowly.

Carefully.

The sound of hum synced with my footsteps or maybe my steps synced with the hum. I wasn’t able to figure out which sound came first…

Halfway down the hallway, I realized something which made my stomach drop.

The hallway wasn’t changing.

Not really,

but I was,

My PERCEPTION, My TIMING, My SENSE OF SPACE…

All of it had been nudged, loop by loop, until there was nothing which felt reliable anymore.

The delayed footsteps.

The shifting width.

The almost-flicker.

The maybe-there shadow.

None of it needed to be real.

It just needed to be CLOSE ENOUGH!

I stopped in the middle of the corridor one last time.

And this time, I understand it.

There was never anything here.

No ENTITY following you. No PRESENCE waiting ahead. No hidden threat built into the space.

Just a hallway.

DESIGNED!

Every element placed with intention. Not to show you something… but to make you FEEL something. To guide your attention. To stretch your anticipation. To let your own mind build the fear it was waiting for.

The space didn’t haunt me…

It studied me…

It learned the rhythm of my expectation and quietly turned it against me.

And if something this minimal… this empty… can create fear that feels this real…

Not imagined. Not distant…

but Immediate and Unavoidable…

Then what else is doing the same thing?

Not just in games.
Not just in places meant to scare us.

But in the rooms we sit in every day.
The layouts we move through without thinking.
The interfaces we spend hours inside.

The more I thought about it, the harder it became to ignore that this wasn’t just horror.

It was DESIGN and only DESIGN ITSELF!

Quiet, invisible, constantly shaping how we feel without ever announcing itself. Guiding attention, Creating tension, Pulling us toward discomfort… or toward calm.

I tried to break that idea down further https://mindincage.in/design-spiritual-practice-the-potential-of-your-creativity-turning-into-a-sacred-playground/ because the more you look at it, the more unsettling it becomes.

Not because something is hiding in the dark.

But because nothing needs to be.

Because maybe design was never just about how things look.

Maybe it’s about how they control what you notice.
What you expect.
What you feel… before you even understand why.

The hallway never changed.

But by the end of it, I wasn’t walking through a space anymore.

I was walking through something that had already learned how to reach inside me.

And the worst part is,

It didn’t need anything there to do it.