Restricted Section

AUTHORIZED ACCESS ONLY
CLEARANCE LEVEL: PERSONAL

A note was found attached to this door: "The librarian's passcode was her mother's name. Her mother's name is [REDACTED] but it begins with M."

The gate is locked. Find the key.

Personal Research Notes — C. Jiang

⬛ CLEARANCE GRANTED — ACCESS LEVEL: PERSONAL

These notes were not meant to be part of the public collection. If you are reading this, you found the passcode. That means you were paying attention to the small things. That is, appropriately, what this section requires.

The corridor started appearing in my dreams before I built it. This is the thing I could not include in any academic paper, the thing I could not tell M. without her using it as evidence that I should stop. So I am writing it here, in the restricted section, for whoever finds the key.

The dream is always the same. I am walking a corridor. The corridor is not dark — that would be too obvious. It is perfectly lit. The walls are clean. The floor is clean. There is a door at the end. I know the door is the point of the dream, the thing I am walking toward. But no matter how long I walk, I cannot see what is through the door from this distance. I wake up before I reach it. I have had this dream approximately twice a week since 2014. I began building this site in 2019. I do not think this is a coincidence. I think the site is me trying to walk to the door in a medium that will let me get there.

I have also begun noticing corridors in places that should not contain corridors. In my apartment. In spaces I know by heart. There is, sometimes, a corridor between my bedroom and the bathroom that is longer than it was the last time I walked it. I have measured it. It is different each time.

I am not frightened. I want to record that clearly, for my own reference: I am not frightened. I am interested. There is a corridor in the fabric of this place and I am the person most qualified to walk it, and I intend to do so with full attention and without apology.

Further personal notes removed by the author prior to uploading. — archival note