My voice comes out thinner than I intended. It doesn’t carry any of the authority I wanted to convey.
But just as it rings out, it dissipates into a void. It feels as though the walls swallow it whole before it can travel.
Silence ensues.
Then… A soft drag.
Not loud or particularly scary. Just the faint scrape of something shifting across the floor behind me.
I turn sharply this time.
Nothing.Stillnothing.
What’s happening?
My nightmares have been ever present for as long as I can remember, but they’ve never been mirrored in real life.
I scan the area again, searching for the source of the sound.
Nothing seems out of the ordinary. At least I think so… Right?
I frown, until something dawns on me. The shadows have changed.
They stretch longer now, pooling in the corners where the shield’s glow doesn’t quite reach. One of them—near the doorway—seems deeper than the rest, more defined.
My pulse stutters. I gulp down uncomfortably.
“That’s not possible,” I whisper, more to myself than anything else.It’s just a dream, Nykander. You’re sleeping, dreaming… It’s not real!
But why does this feelsoreal? Why does the air feel so cold and stale when the temperature is controlled by the runes, always ensuring theperfecttemperature.
Something is seriously wrong, but I don’t know what.
Another sound.
Closer.
Right behind me.
A breath brushes the back of my neck. It’s cold, damp…familiar.
I spin?—
No one is there.
But the air shifts, thickens, as if something has just stepped away from me. As if it’s circling. Watching. Waiting.Tauntingme.
And then I hear it.
A whisper.
Not from the other side of the room. Not from the door.
From behind me.
Sharp claws sink into my shoulder blades. They infuse me with terror unlike I’ve never known.
My body cannot move. It can only stand still, frozen on the spot, paralyzed from a mix of fear and actual frost.
