The boy awoke to silence.
It was an eerie kind of quiet, the kind that made the world feel too big, too empty. Slowly, his eyes fluttered open, blinking against the bright, crystalline light that seemed to pierce through his eyelids. He felt a chill tickle his skin—colder than he had ever known in his seventeen years. For a moment, he lay still, waiting for the familiar hum of his alarm clock, the muffled sounds of traffic outside his window.
But none of that came.
The mattress beneath him was soft, the blankets twisted in a mess around his legs as if he had tossed and turned all night. But something was wrong. His body was too light, his breaths too sharp, like the air was thinner here.
Here.
The thought hit him like a lightning strike. Where am I?
He sat up, throwing the covers off in a frantic motion, and froze.
His bed was floating.
Above an endless expanse of jagged, snow-covered mountains, his bed was drifting, suspended in the icy air. The sky around him was a pale, ethereal blue, with thin wisps of silver clouds that shimmered like silk threads spun by ancient hands. The peaks below glistened in the sunlight, rising like titanic spears from the earth, and far off in the distance, glaciers sparkled, casting off beams of light like shards of crystal.
His breath caught in his throat.
This wasn't a dream—he knew that with a strange, deep certainty. The cold that pricked his skin, the rough texture of the blanket beneath his fingers, the wind that whistled past his ears—all of it was too real, too vivid.
He scrambled to the edge of the bed, clutching the wooden frame like it was the only thing tethering him to sanity. His heart pounded wildly in his chest, fear tightening his throat as he leaned forward, looking over the edge.
There was no ground beneath him. No familiar street, no house, no school. Only the vastness of ice and rock, and the terrifying void between him and the world below.
How is this possible? His mind raced, searching for any kind of explanation. He had gone to bed in his room like any other night, the hum of his phone charging beside him, the faint sounds of the city lulling him to sleep. And now... now he was here. Wherever here was.
A burst of panic surged through him. His hands tightened their grip on the bedframe, knuckles turning white. His body trembled, and for a moment, all he could do was breathe—shallow, rapid breaths that fogged the frigid air in front of him. His pulse thudded in his ears, drowning out the stillness around him.
This can't be real. I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming. I'm—
But then his gaze swept outward, past the immediate terror of the drop, and something else tugged at his chest.
The beauty of it.
The mountains were a vision of untouched wilderness, their peaks reaching high into the heavens, crowned with frost and ice that shimmered in the morning light. There was no sound except the whispering of the wind and the occasional crack of distant ice shifting. The sky was vast, endless, painted in hues of white and blue so pure they seemed otherworldly. A sense of stillness permeated everything, a deep, ancient silence that felt as though it had existed for thousands of years before he had arrived.
His breath slowed, his heart following suit as he gazed at the horizon, where the sun was rising in a slow, deliberate arc. Light cascaded over the mountains, painting the snow in shades of gold and silver. The sky seemed to ripple with magic, a subtle shimmer in the air, like the whole world was alive with a power he couldn't understand.
A sense of awe washed over him, momentarily overwhelming his fear. He had never seen anything like this before. It was as if he had stepped into another world—no, he had stepped into another world.
What is this place?
He turned in every direction, looking for some clue, some answer to the impossibility of it all. There was no sign of anything familiar—no buildings, no roads, not even the distant hum of airplanes in the sky. Only the mountains, stretching on and on as far as he could see, their icy peaks towering over the landscape like silent, ancient guardians.
A strange thought entered his mind, unbidden. Maybe... I'm supposed to be here.
He shook his head, trying to dismiss the notion, but the idea clung to him. There was something about this place, something that felt... right. As if the world itself had called to him, pulled him from his bed in the middle of the night, and transported him here—into this wild, untamed beauty.
But why? And how?
The wind picked up, stirring his hair, carrying with it a faint, distant sound—like a song, or a whisper, just on the edge of hearing. It sent a shiver down his spine, not of fear, but of anticipation. His hands loosened their grip on the bed, and he slowly rose to his feet, wobbling as the bed swayed gently beneath him.
The cold bit at his skin, but he barely felt it now. He was too focused on the world around him, too enraptured by the sheer majesty of the mountains, the endless sky, the feeling that something—something incredible—was about to happen.
And then, as if in response to his thoughts, a soft glow appeared on the horizon, just beyond the nearest peak. It was faint at first, like a star rising from the earth, but it grew steadily brighter, casting a warm, golden light over the snow.
The boy's heart quickened, but not with fear this time. It was curiosity—an overwhelming, irresistible pull toward the unknown. Toward whatever it was that lay beyond the mountains, beyond the light.
He took a step toward the edge of the bed, his bare feet sinking into the soft, warm fabric of the blanket beneath him. And then another step. The fear was still there, lurking at the edges of his mind, but it was drowned out by something far stronger.
Hope.
He was in another world, a place of magic and wonder, and it was waiting for him.
With one final breath, he leapt from the bed and fell into the sky.