Jude woke up again. He looked around and he was in the treehouse. Jude's eyes fluttered open once more, the vivid remnants of his unsettling dream still lingering in his mind like a haunting echo. He surveyed his surroundings cautiously, the dim light filtering through the treehouse casting shadows that danced along the wooden walls.
To his relief and mild bewilderment, Sophie and Lucy lay slumbering peacefully beside him, their presence a tangible reassurance of the waking world. Layla's form occupied the far corner of the treehouse, her figure bathed in the soft glow of moonlight.
A surge of disquiet gripped Jude's thoughts as he grappled with the disorienting interplay of dream and reality. Was this truly the waking world, or had he merely exchanged one semblance of illusion for another?
