The Nook

Chapter 2

My knees sink into the damp soil, bleeding into my pants. But I couldn't care less. Not with what's in front of me. Illuminated like it's under a goddamn spotlight, taunting me. It's the only thing visible. Everything surrounding me is pitch black, covered in thick fog.

"Adira..." The eerie voice crawls down my spine, stealing the breath from my lungs as it wraps itself around my mind. Hands creep over the edge of the stone—My gravestone.

I lurch backward, desperate to get away, but instead of landing on more wet soil, my heart hammers in my throat as a gust of wind surges against my back, whipping my hair forward. Panic grips me like a vice, my heartbeat pounding in my ears as the sound of rushing wind drowns out everything else. I'm falling—plummeting endlessly as if the ground beneath me has disappeared.

Then, just as suddenly, my back slams into something hard, causing a jolt of pain to shoot through me. Dark soil caves in, enclosing me, burying me alive. My vision blurs, making it impossible to distinguish any details. I thrash and fight against the suffocating weight, but the more dirt that piles on top of me, the harder it becomes to move, to breathe. I am trapped, helplessly being buried alive, and there is nothing I can do to escape. How did I get here?

A desperate desire to scream overwhelms me, but my mouth and eyes are filling with dirt, silencing any attempt. The pressure intensifies, encasing my senses, and my ears ring with an unbearable, skull-crushing intensity.

"This isn't real! Stop fighting Adira!" The eerie voice echoes inside my head, pleading, demanding.

Stop fighting?! Why would I stop fighting? I don't want to die. I don't want to die!

There's a crack echoing through my skull. And the eerie voice is back, even harsher now. "Stop Fighting now!"

I stop thrashing, forcing my limbs to lock. Dread choking me and I wait to be suffocated, no longer exist.

But I still breathe? The weight that once pressed was so devastatingly heavy. Gone, as if it never existed.

This isn't real. This isn't real.

Air returns to my closing lungs, pushing down the panic until my heart returns to a steady rhythm. Light burns in through my eyelids and I open my eyes slowly. I'm no longer on the ground, but standing in front of... a door? It glows a bright white gleaming stream, shining through the creaks of the door. It rattles violently. As if the light is desperately fighting to break through. Singing fills my ears, luring, urging me towards the door, like it's... calling me? I go to grab the handle, but it vanishes in white smoke beneath my hands. The rattling turns into a full-blown convulsion, and the cracks in the door widen.

Snapping back into blaring reality, the nightmare dissolves. Everything is painfully bright, abnormally bright. It's like the sun is a spotlight aimed directly at me, and I squint against the assault on my eyes, grumbling as I reach blindly for my phone.

Which vibrates aggressively against the dark wood with three resounding buzzes before falling quiet. Lighting up the lock screen, six o'clock is written in thick white numbers.

Damn. I feel like I haven't slept, and it's six in the godforsaken morning. I roll onto my back, pressing my clammy palms into my tired eyes, count to three, then forcefully push my weary body into a sitting position, throwing the covers off my exhausted, cold sweat frame.

Way. Too. Fast.

A wave of dizziness crashes over me, pulling me under. I snap my eyes shut, trying to steady myself, but the buzzing in my head refuses to subside. It hums relentlessly, like static filling every corner of my mind, and I can feel it crawling just beneath my skin, threatening to break me apart. Clenching my teeth, I exert all my willpower to focus on my breathing, anchoring myself to a central point.