The classroom felt colder than usual, though the sun was pouring in through the high windows. Ryan sat near the back, his hand curled loosely around his pen, his thoughts drifting too far to grasp. He barely noticed when Miss Aveline glided into the room, her presence swallowing the chatter in a silence that felt more like suffocation than discipline.
Her voice, low and silken, wound through the rows like smoke. "Dreams," she said suddenly, snapping Ryan back into focus. Her eyes, sharp as blades, fixed on him. "They don't lie, do they, Ryan? Even when we pretend to forget them."
The words cut deeper than anyone else in the room could know. Gabriel frowned, glancing at his friend, but Ryan could only sit still, his throat tightening. Miss Aveline didn't look away, her smile curling at the edges with something too knowing, too cruel.
Then, as if drawn by invisible strings, her gaze shifted to Gemma. The silence grew heavier. Gemma did not move, did not flinch, but her eyes… they were colder than Ryan had ever seen them, a glacial sharpness that made the air brittle. For a fleeting second, he wondered if she had heard the same thing he had, if the same memory gnawed at her.
The lesson carried on as though nothing had been said, yet every word scraped like glass across Ryan's nerves. He barely remembered the dismissal bell. Students filed out in a rush, but Ryan stayed behind just long enough to feel Aveline's gaze still pressing against his back like a shadow.
When he finally left the school grounds, the streets stretched before him, yet his feet carried him without thought. His chest tightened with each step, the same words replaying in his head. Dreams don't lie.
By the time he stopped, the sun had sunk low, and he was staring up at the mansion. The walls loomed high and silent, the windows darkened as though watching him. Ryan's hands curled into fists at his sides.
He didn't know if he was here to face the truth or run from it. But he knew one thing—something in that house tied them all together, past and present, in ways no one dared speak aloud.
He drew in a breath, the weight of the years pressing down. For the first time in so long, he felt both terrified and certain.
And he stepped forward.