Chapter 01: The Dream Unfolds
The scent of fresh rain lingered in the air as Evelyn sat on the edge of her bed, her body still trembling from the latest nightmare. The room around her was dim, with only the faintest hint of moonlight filtering through the curtains, casting long, twisted shadows across the floor. Her hands, now clammy and cold, rested on her lap as she tried to steady her breath, trying to ignore the lingering weight of the dream that had haunted her once again.
It had been the same dream, night after night, for weeks now. A thick, purple fog curled around her like a living thing, a suffocating embrace that filled her lungs with the heavy, stagnant air. She could feel the pulse of it, slow and rhythmic, like a heartbeat. But there were no people, no sound, only the oppressive silence and the feel of something—or someone—watching her.
And then came the creatures.
At first, they had been distant, mere flickers in the fog, just shapes that seemed to move in the corners of her vision. She had tried to dismiss them, chalking them up to the distortions of her mind. But lately, they had become bolder, more distinct, their forms twisting and writhing as they emerged from the mist. Their eyes glowed with an eerie, unnatural light, and their mouths twisted into grotesque shapes, dripping with something that wasn’t blood.
Each night, the dream grew more vivid, more terrifying. She could feel the creatures closing in on her, their rancid breath on the back of her neck, the foul odor of decay that seemed to seep into her very bones. But it was always just before they reached her that she woke up—sweating, heart pounding, her body frozen in terror. The nightmare always ended the same way, with her gasping for breath, sitting upright in bed, struggling to separate the line between dream and reality.
But tonight… tonight was different.
The moment she had woken up, Evelyn knew something was wrong. The air in her room felt thick, as if something unseen had slipped through the veil of sleep and entered the waking world. It was a strange sensation, like being watched from the corner of her eye. She turned toward the window, her pulse quickening, but there was nothing there—just the same empty street, bathed in the pale light of the moon.
Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling.
It wasn’t the first time she’d felt this way. Over the past few weeks, there had been subtle signs—small, almost imperceptible things—that made her question whether the boundaries between her dreams and reality were truly as separate as they had once seemed. Objects out of place, sounds she couldn’t explain, and, most unnervingly, the faintest trace of that same purple fog that had seemed to follow her from the dreams.
She shook her head, trying to push the thoughts away. It was all just stress, she told herself. It had to be. She hadn’t been sleeping well, and work at the art gallery had been demanding lately. Her mind was just playing tricks on her, blurring the lines between the waking world and the world of her dreams.
But deep down, a voice in her head whispered that something more sinister was at play.
Evelyn stood up and walked to the window, her legs still shaky from the aftereffects of the nightmare. She peered out into the night, but the street was quiet, bathed in moonlight. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Yet the unease settled deeper in her chest, like a slow-growing knot.
She glanced at the clock beside her bed. It was almost 2:00 AM. She had to sleep again. She had to get some rest before the morning. But part of her—an irrational part—was afraid to close her eyes again, afraid of what would come next in the nightmare. Afraid that the creatures would follow her even into her waking life.
With a sigh, she pulled the covers back over herself and closed her eyes, attempting to calm the racing thoughts in her head. She reminded herself that it was just a dream. Just a dream.
But as she drifted back into slumber, the air in the room grew colder, and the faintest trace of purple fog curled beneath the door, seeping into the room, unseen by her eyes but felt deep in her bones.
