A memory you almost forgot, but it still hurts when you remember it.
as if something invisible still pressed me into the bed.
For a moment, I didn't move.
I listened.
The room was quiet. Too quiet. No traffic. No birds. Not even the fan's hum.
Then—
*Tick
I frowned.
The wall clock hadn't worked in months.
Slowly, I sat up.
The air felt… wrong.
Not cold exactly—more like the absence of heat. As if warmth had been taken away, carefully, deliberately, leaving the space hollow. I pulled the blanket tighter around myself and glanced at my wrist.
Nothing.
No cuts. No scars.
Yet the skin there felt warm.
Not the warmth of blood—but the afterglow of something that had passed through.
I swallowed and stood, forcing myself to breathe normally.
"It was just a dream," I murmured.
The words felt thin.
The bathroom mirror fogged the moment I turned on the light.
I froze.
I hadn't used the shower.
The mirror clouded further, breath-like patterns blooming across the glass. I stared at my reflection through the blur—my face pale, eyes rimmed dark, lips colorless.
For half a second—
My reflection didn't blink when I did.
As the fog vanished.
I staggered back, heart pounding.
"…I need sleep," I whispered.
*Priya arrived an hour later.
"You look like hell," she said bluntly, stepping inside with coffee in hand. "Did you even sleep?"
I forced a smile. "Enough."
She didn't believe me.
Her gaze drifted around the room, lingering on corners, shadows.
"…Is it colder in here?" she asked.
"No," I replied too quickly.
She shrugged. "Weird."
As she sat down, her phone slipped from her hand and hit the floor face-up.
The screen lit.
Not her lock screen.
Not any app.
It showed an image—
A vast, frozen shore.
An ocean stretching endlessly beneath a blinding white sun.
Snow fell upward, dissolving into the sky.
In the center of the image—
A gate.
Not of metal. Not of stone.
It looked like space itself had folded inward, forming an outline too large for the world to hold.
From within it, something shifted.
Not a body.
Not a shape.
A presence.
Priya frowned. "Huh? That's not mine."
The screen went black.
I couldn't breathe.
"Hey," she said.
*suddenly in serious tone*
"What's wrong?"
I opened my mouth—
And the floor groaned.
A deep, distant sound vibrated through the apartment, like the echo of something enormous turning in its sleep.
The shadows stretched.
The walls felt… thinner.
There were gates everywhere.
Not opening.
Not closing.
Just waiting.
And behind them—
Things that did not dream.
Things that remembered.
The warmth surged along my wrist.
The same black-blue spark danced beneath my skin.
Far away—no, beneath—
Something noticed me.
Then—
Silence.
The pressure vanished.
The room returned to normal.
Priya stared at me, pale. "…Did you feel that?"
*I nodded slowly.
"This wasn't a dream," I said.
Outside, the sun shone brightly.
Too brightly.
And somewhere beyond sight—
A gate remained unopened.
As soon I a thought that–
The gates started to open.
As gates opening without spectacle, and horror that comes from realization.
I went pale as I saw the faces in gates*
She looks just like me!!
No, she looks 10x better than Me!
The girl in gate had similar face to mine but with better Shapes and Features.
I frowned,
As soon as I saw the Black Lace Gown she was wearing.
The first thing that stopped was sound.
I noticed it when Priya's lips moved—but no words came out.
Her mouth was mid-sentence, teeth barely visible, breath frozen in her throat.
Even the coffee in her hand had stopped sloshing, suspended as if the cup had forgotten gravity.
I blinked.
Once.
Twice.
Nothing changed.
"Priya?" I said.
My voice echoed—soft, distant—but it existed.
I reached out and waved my hand in front of her face.
No reaction.
The world had paused.
Not shattered.
Not collapsed.
Paused.
Like something had pressed a finger against reality and whispered.
[wait]
---
Outside the window, snow began to fall.
That was wrong.
It was summer.
The flakes hovered in the air, unmoving, each one sharp and perfect, reflecting a pale light that didn't belong to the sun.
Cars stood frozen in the middle of the road, exhaust hanging like ghostly breath.
People were statues.
Eyes open.
Some smiling.
Some screaming.
None allowed to finish.
My chest tightened.
"…This isn't just happening to me," I whispered.
The warmth in my wrist pulsed in response.
Not heat.
Recognition.
–––
Then I felt it.
A shift.
Not here—but everywhere.
Like the world's skin had grown thin.
I staggered as a pressure pressed down from above, below, and inside my thoughts. Images flooded my mind—not visions, but knowledge forced into shape.
The gates were revealing themselves—as if they had always been there, hidden between seconds.
Each gate was different.
Some were circles of absolute darkness.
Some were cracks filled with writhing starlight.
Some had no form at all—only the certainty that crossing them would be a mistake.
And behind them—
Something stirred.
---
Inside the gate i saw,
A Far away, in a city I had never visited, a man stood frozen mid-step.
Behind him, a gate unfolded like a thought being remembered.
From it emerged nothing.
And yet—
I felt the gaze of the Girl from behind the gate. A Memory Lane got the Hold over Me.
Things that I never held,
People that I never Meet,
And the Places I never Visited.
All of them Felt Familiar yet Strange at the same time.
---
I dropped to my knees.
My head throbbed as whispers crawled along the edges of my mind—languages I didn't know but somehow understood.
[The Dreamer has been marked.]
[The Gate recognizes its echo.]
The Dreamer? The echoes??
I was in deep thought then I hear–
"Time pauses for the chosen,
not to save them—
but to let them decide.]
"Decide what?" I gasped.
The air thickened.
In front of me, the space between the walls folded inward.
A gate appeared.
Not large.
Not dramatic.
Just tall enough for one person.
Its surface looked like deep blue water under moonlight—rippling without movement. Snow gathered at its base, forming despite gravity being frozen.
From within came a familiar sensation.
That freezing air.
That impossible sun.
That black-blue spark.
"She's alive," I whispered.
No.
Not alive.
Waiting.
It felt like that girl from my Dream and the girl behind gate were Same soul, in different Body.
I felt a sharp gaze as I looked at the girl who was identical to Me.
Like a memory that had learned how to breathe.
Sometimes whispered–
[Enter]
something suggested gently.
[Remain]
something else warned.
–––
My wrist burned.
Behind me, Priya stood frozen forever on the edge of a moment she would never remember.
Time held its breath.
And I finally understood the truth—
Dreams were not escapes.
They were invitations.
I rose.
The gate rippled.
And somewhere beyond reality—
Something smiled without a mouth.
My Brain signals that I should not go in, it could be dangerous.
But my heart races with excitement.
In the End,
I Walked Into The Tiger's Den on My Own.
---
To be continued.