Yna can't forget what happened by the gate.
The flickering lamps. The brief silhouette she believed she saw, tall and still, like watching her. The way her chest tightened even after she turned and found on one there. It wasn't fear exactly, but it was nothing either. It felt... noticed?
By the time she got home, her head was buzzing. She damped her bag on her desk, pulling her laptop, and tried to lose herself in a half hearted attempt at an essay. She even opened new episode of her comfort drama, hoping the familiar banter and background music will help her forget what had just happened recently.
But it didn't work. Every laugh felt too hollow, every pause too long, as her thoughts kept on circling back.
Who was that man? Or did she even see a man?
She pressed her palms into her eyes. "Get a grip, Yna. You're making shadows into stories again."
It was past midnight by the time she showered, brushed her hair, and crawled into her bed.
Rain patterned faintly on the roof, a rhythm she usually loved. Tonight, it only reminded her of the flicker in the lamps.
She rolled over and hug her pillow. Sleep didn't come easy. It stretched and tugged like a stubborn tide. but when it finally caught her, it caught hard.
The dream began again.
She was standing on the edge of a black sea.
It wasn't water, not exactly. It simmered like oil and glass, endless and smooth, reflecting stars that weren't hers. Above, the sky burned a shades she couldn't name, deep violets, pale silvers, streaks of green and gold woven like tread in fabric.
And across the sea stood a city of light.
The towers weren't stone or steel but more like transparent, crystalline, bending and scattering the colors of the foreign sky. Bridges arched between spires, glowing faintly, and somewhere deep within the patterns of light, she thought she saw movements, shadows walking, pausing, and looking outward.
Towards her.
Her breath paused, even though she wasn't sure she was breathing in this place. Her bare feet rested on the smooth ground that hummed faintly, as if it was alive. She stepped closer to the water's edge, and ripples of color fanned out.
Somewhere, faintly, she heard it again. The low musical hum.
The same one she thought she'd imagined last week's storm.
Her lips parted. "Hello?"
The sound carried, swallowed by the glassy sea. For a moment, the city pulsed brighter, one great inhale then exhale, like the star that she'd been admiring every night.
Her heart hammered.
She wanted to cross. She needed to cross.
But the black sea stretched endlessly, a distance she couldn't measure how far.
And then, at the moment, she wasn't alone anymore.
A figure stood at the farthest bridge, high above the crystalline spires. Too far to see clearly, but tall, upright, watching. She couldn't make out a face, only the impression of stillness.
And the strange part is she knew it was the same presence she felt at the gate. That silent weight of being seen.
She tried to call out again, but her voice broke. The hum rose, clearer this time, layered with notes that remind her of music she had never heard but somehow remembered.
She blinked -
And the city flickered.
One moment, towers of crystal light. Then the next thing, darkness. She gasped, stumbling back and when she looked again, the city was whole.
Like time had skipped.
Her chest tightened. She tried to memorize the shape of it all, the tallest spire, the faint arches, the way the patterns bent toward the stars above. She wanted to hold it in her mind, carry it back with her.
And then she whispered without meaning to, "What are you?"
The hum softened. For the briefest second, she thought she heard words, threaded into the sound, syllables that weren't hers,
Something like Ka-
She jolted awake.
Her room was dark, familiar, a little too quiet. And the rain already stopped.
Yna sat up fast, her heart was racing. her blanket clung damp against her skin. She grabbed her phone into her nightstand.
2:18 AM
Except...last time she checked the clock before she sleep was 2:16.
Her throat went dry. Two minutes. She'd dreamed for hours - or seconds?
Her phone buzzed faintly as she turned the screen on. For half a second, the display ripped with static. She blinked hard and rubbed her eyes, then it was gone.
"No way." She pressed the phone against her chest, trying to steady her pulse.
But the word lingered on her tongue, caught like a half remembered lyric. She know she'd heard on her dream, she knew it had been important, yet she tried to repeat it,
Ka...
Nothing.
She sank back against her pillow, staring at her ceiling. Sleep was gone by now, driven off by adrenaline and a strange, hollow longing she couldn't name.
For the rest of the night, she lay awake, eyes wide, waiting for the hum to return.
But it didn't.
---
K