The room didn't breathe.
It didn't move.
It just watched.
Adrian didn't stand.
Didn't flinch.
Didn't even twitch.
He just stared at me with those silver eyes, like he already knew how many times my heart had beaten today.My throat went dry.
Great. Perfect. Love that for me.
"Sit," he said.
Hell no—his voice didn't come from his mouth.
It came from everywhere at once, like the walls whispered it with him.
But fine. My legs were jelly anyway. I sat.
Druhva stayed close beside me, hands clenching her sleeves. She smiled at him like someone who was definitely scared shitless but pretending not to be.
Adrian finally blinked once.
"You saw the forest again," he said. Not a question. A statement. A damn accusation.
"How—" I started.
He tilted his head, and the temperature in the room dropped five degrees. "You walked too close." His voice was calm, steady, like he was explaining weather patterns, not my possible death. "The door noticed you."
My heart punched my ribs. "Noticed me? What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"
"It means," he said, leaning forward with eyes sharp enough to carve bone, "it won't stop until it takes you."
Druhva inhaled sharply beside me.
I wanted to punch something. Or cry. Or maybe both.
"I'm not crazy," I whispered.
"No," he said. "You're marked."
Oh, great. Just what I wanted. A cosmic death stamp.
He stood now—and the air around him bent.
Not dramatic, not flashy.
Just… wrong.
Like the shadows behind him didn't agree with gravity.
He walked closer, stopping in front of me.
He raised a hand—not to touch me, but to hover an inch from my forehead.
The moment he did—
The room shifted.
The lights dimmed, the air hummed, and the windows darkened like something leaned against the glass from the outside.
A pressure built behind my eyes.
Like fingers trying to pry them open from the inside.
I gasped, grabbing the chair.
Druhva reached for me, but Adrian snapped, "Don't."
His voice cracked the air like a whip.
Then—He saw it.
I knew he did, because his eyes widened the tiniest bit—like he'd just seen the inside of my nightmares.
The trees.The door.The dragging.The blind nothing that swallowed me whole.
He pulled his hand back slowly.
"…You're farther gone than I expected," he muttered.
"Wow," I snapped. "Thanks for the optimism."
He ignored my sarcasm (rude) and continued:
"The blindness you felt before waking up—that wasn't your mind shutting down. That was the realm trying to claim you. Once it gets its hooks into your sight, it spreads."
"What spreads?" I asked, voice shaking.
He looked at me dead-on.
"The forest." I swallowed hard.
"So what?" I whispered. "It's just going to keep coming for me?"
He nodded once. "Every time you sleep."
Awesome. Fantastic. Wonderful. Love that journey for me.
Druhva's hand found my arm, trembling. "Adrian… is there anything we can do?"
He turned slowly, shadows curling across the floor behind him.
"Yes," he said, voice low and dangerous."You train."
I blinked. "In what? Yoga?!"
His eyes snapped to mine, cold and sharp.
"In how to survive a world that eats people alive.
In how to walk dreams without being devoured.
In how to make sure that when the door opens again…"
He stepped closer.
"…you're the one dragging them."
The room went silent.
My whole body buzzed with fear—fear and something else. Something angry. Something ready.His face softened a single degree. Barely."You want to live?" he asked quietly.
I nodded, breath shaky."Then don't sleep tonight," he said. "Your training starts now."
I stared at him like he'd just told me to wrestle a damn hurricane.
"Train? TRAIN WHAT, EXACTLY? The dream owns me. It gets in my head—my body—I can't move, I can't breathe, I can't even think straight when I'm in it.
How the hell am I supposed to fight something that drags me around like a puppet?"
He didn't flinch. Didn't even soften. His voice dropped low, calm in a terrifying way.
"You're not supposed to fight it."
He leaned forward, eyes locking onto mine like needles.
"You're supposed to take control of it.
The dream moves you because you've never pushed back.
You let fear steer your mind… so the nightmare drives."
Then he tilted his head slightly.
"But I've seen people worse off than you.
They learned. You will too."
Druhva stepped closer, her fingers brushing my shoulder, grounding me.
"He's right," she murmured. "You think you're powerless, but you're not.
You survived this long, didn't you? Most people don't even last a night."
She shot Adrian a warning look.
"Maybe explain it without sounding like an ancient cryptid for once."
He ignored her completely.
"I'm going to teach you how to wake up inside the dream.
How to bend it.
How to shut the door before it drags you through."
His gaze hardened.
"But only if you stop running from it like a frightened child."
Adrian stepped closer—too close—and before I could pull back,
his hand lifted and pressed flat against my forehead.
His palm was cold.Not normal cold.Not winter cold.Dream cold.
My breath caught—then the world tore open.
My eyes rolled back.
Darkness swallowed everything….
(If you're reading this, comment 👁️ so I know the forest didn't take you too)