Ethan didn't go back to sleep.
He couldn't.
Not after that.
He sat in bed for the rest of the night, staring at the ceiling, his mind running in circles. The nightmare had felt too real—like he had actually been there. He could still remember the way the cold air had burned his skin, the uneven pavement under his feet, the whispers wrapping around him like smoke.
And the worst part?
He knew that street. Fulton Street.
It was a real place, a few blocks from his school. He had walked past it hundreds of times.
So why had it been in his nightmare?
Why did it look so... wrong?
He reached for his phone and hesitated. Who the hell would he even call? "Hey, I just had a nightmare and I think it's real." Yeah, that would go over well.
He sighed, rubbing his face. Maybe he was losing it. Maybe it was just stress.
But deep down, something told him otherwise.
And that feeling only got stronger when he got to school.
The second Ethan stepped into the hall, he knew something was off.
The air felt different, heavier, like walking through a room filled with static. The fluorescent lights above flickered more than usual, and there was a strange buzzing sound in the air, like an old radio just out of tune.
Students moved around him, chatting, laughing, the usual morning chaos.
But then it happened again.
For a split second—everything froze.
The sound cut out. The students stopped moving, their mouths hanging open mid-laugh, mid-sentence. The lights dimmed.
And then—snap—everything went back to normal.
Ethan stumbled back, his breath caught in his throat.
A few people gave him weird looks, but no one said anything.
"Did no one else see that?"
He spun around, searching for any sign that someone else had noticed.
And that's when he saw Maya.
She was standing near her locker, her face pale, eyes wide. She wasn't looking at Ethan—she was staring at her hands, trembling.
Like she had just seen something impossible.
Ethan's stomach twisted. He wasn't the only one.
"You Saw It Too?"
"Maya," Ethan called, pushing through the crowd toward her.
She flinched at the sound of his voice, snapping her head up like she had just been pulled out of a trance.
For a second, she just stared at him.
Then, in a low voice, she said, "Did you... did you see it too?"
Ethan's heart skipped a beat. He didn't have to ask what she meant.
"I—I don't know," he muttered. "The lights. The—" He stopped himself. "Did it feel like the whole hallway just... glitched?"
Maya swallowed hard. "Yeah." Ethan exhaled. So it wasn't just him.
Maya shifted uncomfortably, crossing her arms. "It's been happening all morning. I thought I was losing it."
She hesitated, lowering her voice even more.
"And last night..."
Ethan's breath caught. "You had the dream."
Maya's eyes snapped to his, sharp and wary. She didn't answer right away, but she didn't have to.
Ethan could see it in her face.
She had been there too.
"Fulton Street," Ethan said, testing the words.
Maya stiffened.
A cold shiver ran down his spine.
This wasn't a coincidence.
And if he and Maya both saw it—who else did? They didn't have to wait long to find out.
Jax. Lucy. And, to Ethan's complete lack of surprise, Reed.
All five of them had the same nightmare.
The same city with twisted buildings. The same whispers crawling under their skin.
The same glitches following them into real life.
The five of them sat huddled around a table in the farthest corner of the cafeteria. It was noisy, students shoving past each other, trays clattering, but for Ethan and the others, it felt like they were in their own world.
No one spoke for a long time.
Then Jax leaned forward, pushing his tray aside. "Okay. Someone say something, because I'm pretty sure I'm going crazy."
"You're not," Maya muttered.
Jax exhaled, running a hand through his messy hair. "Great. So... what the hell's going on? Did we all just randomly have the exact same nightmare last night?"
Reed, who had barely said a word so far, finally spoke. "It wasn't a nightmare."
Everyone turned to him.
Lucy frowned. "What do you mean?"
Reed's gaze was steady. "It wasn't just a dream. We were there."
Silence.
Ethan didn't know why, but hearing Reed say it out loud made it feel... worse. Like something permanent had just clicked into place.
Maya cleared her throat. "Look, we don't even know what's happening. Let's not—"
"No," Ethan interrupted. He looked at Reed. "You're saying it was real?"
Reed nodded once.
Jax let out a short laugh. "Okay, that's insane. We weren't actually there. It was just—"
"Then explain why things are glitching," Reed cut in, his voice calm, but firm.
Jax fell silent.
Ethan didn't know how to argue with that.
Because it wasn't just the dream. Reality itself was starting to break.
They all felt it.
The static in the air. The frozen moments. The flickering lights.
And something told Ethan it was only going to get worse.
3:33 AM. Again.
That night, Ethan tried to stay awake.
He made it to 3:15 AM before exhaustion finally pulled him under.
And then—he was there again.
Fulton Street.
Only this time, it was different.
This time, something was waiting for him.