Elias gasped as darkness swallowed the room. His pulse hammered in his ears, his breath coming in shallow bursts.
The whisper still echoed in his mind—Wake up, Elias. You're still dreaming.
He reached blindly for his phone on the nightstand, his fingers fumbling in the dark. When he pressed the power button, the screen didn't light up. No response. The battery had been full before he went to sleep.
A faint shuffling noise came from the corner of the room.
Elias froze.
Someone—or something—was there.
Slowly, his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He could make out the silhouette of his desk, the outline of the chair, the bookshelf against the wall. Everything was in its place. Yet, the air felt different. Thicker. As if the room itself was breathing.
Then, movement.
A shadow detached itself from the far corner, gliding toward him. It wasn't a trick of the light—this was something real. The figure was humanoid, but its limbs were too long, its posture unnatural. It moved without sound, like a living absence of light.
Elias staggered backward, his knees hitting the bed frame. His voice caught in his throat.
The shadow stopped mere feet away. It didn't have a face, only an emptiness that seemed to pull at reality itself. And then, in a voice that was both distant and intimate, it spoke.
"You do not belong here."
A cold wave of fear crashed over Elias. His mind screamed at him to wake up. To escape. But his body refused to move.
The shadow tilted its head, as if studying him. Then, without warning, it lunged.
Elias fell backward onto the bed, but instead of hitting the mattress, he plunged into darkness. The room, the shadow, everything vanished. He was falling—endlessly, weightlessly—through a void without end.
Then, light.
Blinding, searing light erupted around him. A thousand voices whispered at once, their words overlapping in a chaotic symphony. Images flashed before his eyes—places he had never been, people he had never met, events he could not understand.
Then it all stopped.
Elias found himself standing in the middle of a vast, empty street. The city skyline loomed in the distance, but something was… wrong. The buildings were distorted, as if they were melting into the sky. The streetlights flickered erratically, casting unnatural shadows.
And then he saw them.
Dozens of people, standing still. Their backs turned to him. Motionless. Their presence felt off, as if they weren't truly there.
Elias took a hesitant step forward, the sound of his footstep echoing unnaturally. As if in response, one of the figures twitched. Its head jerked slightly—just enough to let him know that it had noticed him.
His breath hitched.
The figure turned.
It had no eyes. Only hollow, empty sockets that seemed to devour the light around them.
And then they all moved.
All at once, the motionless figures turned toward him, their empty gazes locking onto his. A wave of pure, primal dread flooded Elias' senses.
He ran.
His feet pounded against the pavement as he bolted through the distorted cityscape. The air was thick, resisting his movements as if he were wading through water. The whispers returned, surrounding him from all directions.
"You are not supposed to be here."
The street ahead twisted, bending into itself. The city was collapsing, reality unraveling at the edges.
And then, just as his legs gave out, just as the figures reached for him—
He woke up.
Elias sat up with a jolt, drenched in sweat. His room was exactly as he had left it. The clock read 3:47 AM.
The same time as before.
His chest heaved as he tried to steady his breathing. His hands were shaking.
This wasn't just a nightmare.
Something was very wrong.
And the worst part?
He wasn't sure if he had truly woken up.