The night was restless.
Daniel drifted between wakefulness and something else, something that felt neither real nor imaginary. It was a place between, where shadows stretched unnaturally, whispers slithered through the cracks of his consciousness, and memories that weren't his flickered like dying embers.
He wasn't sure when the dream started. Or if it even was a dream at all.
The first thing he noticed was the smell, old parchment and burning candle wax, thick with the scent of something ancient.
Then, the walls.
Rows and rows of shelves stretched beyond the darkness, each lined with books, scrolls, and most unsettling of all, fragments of paper pinned haphazardly to wooden boards.
Names.
Hundreds, maybe thousands of them, some neat and careful, others frantic and scrawled in desperation. Some had symbols beside them, inked in strange looping script. Others had been crossed out.
Daniel swallowed, his pulse steady but heavy.
This wasn't new.
He had been here before.
And yet, every time, he forgot.
A candle flickered in the distance, drawing his attention to the only figure in the room.
The man in the black coat stood beside the largest board, running a gloved finger over one of the pinned names. His face was unreadable, but his presence was… different this time.
More real.
More permanent.
As if this moment wasn't just a dream but something deeper, something set in stone.
Daniel stepped forward cautiously. "Who are they?"
The man didn't turn. "People like you."
Daniel's breath hitched. He already knew the answer before he asked, but the words slipped out anyway. "And Kaia?"
The man's finger stopped. Slowly, he turned toward Daniel.
"She was the first."
The words sent a chill down Daniel's spine.
The first?
The weight of the statement pressed into his skull, as if something long buried was trying to resurface. A feeling clawed at his mind, familiarity. A truth he had once known, now just out of reach.
"What does that mean?" Daniel asked, his voice more demanding this time.
The man studied him. For the first time since they had met, there was something almost hesitant in his expression.
Then he reached into his coat and pulled out a folded page.
It was old. Yellowed. Frayed at the edges.
He handed it to Daniel.
Daniel hesitated before unfolding it.
His own handwriting stared back at him.
"If you're reading this, you already know.
They will erase it soon. They always do.
Remember this: Kaia is the key. And if you ever wake up—"
The rest of the sentence was smeared, blurred as if someone had deliberately tried to wipe it away.
Daniel's grip tightened.
This wasn't the first time he had been here. This wasn't the first time he had asked these questions.
And every time, he forgot.
He sucked in a sharp breath, heart pounding against his ribs.
"I need to wake up," he whispered.
The man gave a slow, knowing nod. "Then wake up."
The world fractured.
Daniel woke with a start.
His breath came fast and uneven. His skin was cold. The ceiling of his room loomed overhead, cracked and real.
But something was wrong.
Silence.
No humming of his fan. No muffled sounds from the kitchen. Not even the distant hum of cars outside.
His heart pounded as he slowly sat up, scanning the room.
His notebook.
His gaze snapped to his nightstand.
It was still there, right where he had left it.
With a shaking hand, he reached for it, flipping to the page he had written last night.
The words were still there.
THE WORLD IS CHANGING.
WE ARE BEING WATCHED.
IF YOU WAKE UP AND THIS IS GONE—FIGHT BACK.
Daniel exhaled shakily. It worked. The message stayed.
But then—
A noise.
Soft. Barely audible.
A whisper.
It was coming from inside his room.
Daniel froze.
His grip tightened on the notebook, his pulse thundering in his ears.
The whisper came again. Not words. Just the faintest sound of breath against air.
Slowly, he turned his head.
The mirror across from his bed was fogged over, as if someone had breathed against the glass.
And there, written in the condensation—
"Run."
A sharp knock shattered the silence.
Daniel flinched, his heart lurching to his throat.
The knock came again, this time more insistent.
His mother's voice followed, slightly muffled through the door.
"Daniel? You're gonna be late."
Daniel stared at the mirror, the word already fading.
The room was still.
Nothing moved.
But the feeling lingered, the undeniable sensation that he was not alone.
He swallowed hard and forced himself to respond. "Yeah, I'm up."
He moved to grab his phone, needing some sense of normalcy. But as he tapped the screen, his stomach clenched.
No notifications. No time displayed.
Just a single message flashing across the screen:
SYSTEM ERROR.
Daniel's breath hitched.
Then, the phone screen flickered—just for a second.
And in that brief flicker, before it returned to normal—
He saw his own face staring back at him.
But it wasn't his reflection.
The other Daniel smiled.
And then it was gone.
By the time Daniel made it to school.
Kaia was already there, sitting at her usual spot by the bleachers. The moment she saw him, she stiffened.
"You look like you've seen a ghost," she muttered as he sat down.
Daniel swallowed, his voice hoarse. "What if I have?"
She frowned. "What happened?"
He told her everything. The erased memories. The warnings. The mirror. The reflection.
By the time he finished, Kaia's hands were curled into fists, her breathing shallow.
"Something's wrong," she said quietly.
Daniel let out a humorless laugh. "You think?"
"No." She shook her head, eyes dark and serious. "I mean, I think something's changing. I woke up this morning and my message was still there."
Daniel's breath caught.
"You mean—"
Kaia nodded. "It didn't erase."
A long silence stretched between them.
Daniel's thoughts spiraled. If their messages were staying, if the gaps in their memories weren't resetting—
That meant the rules were breaking.
And if the rules were breaking, then whoever was in control—
They knew.
Kaia exhaled sharply. "We need to find out who's behind this. Fast."
Daniel nodded. "And before they find us."
She opened her notebook again, flipping to a new page.
This time, she wrote something different.
WHO ARE YOU?
WHY ARE YOU WATCHING US?
She pressed the pen down hard, carving the words deep into the paper.
Daniel clenched his jaw. "Do you think they'll answer?"
Kaia's eyes darkened.
"They already have."
She turned the notebook toward him.
The ink had already begun to fade.
Not erased. Not wiped clean.
But disappearing, slowly…right before their eyes.
Not by accident.
But deliberately.
Like something, someone was responding.
A single word remained.
Daniel's stomach twisted as he read it.
"Soon."