📖 CHAPTER ONE — The Flicker
The dream always starts the same way.
Anya stands in the middle of an endless white room, barefoot on a floor that feels like glass. There's no sound, no walls, no ceiling — just glowing space stretching forever. And in front of her floats a small, pulsing light.
Soft. Warm.
Almost alive.
When she reaches for it, it flashes—
bright enough to burn through reality.
Anya gasped.
Her eyes flew open, and the real world rushed back: the hum of speedrails outside, neon light leaking through her window, and the faint buzz of the holo-clock hovering above her nightstand.
3:12 AM.
Her room should have been silent… but it wasn't.
The lights along her ceiling were flickering.
Her tablet kept turning on and off.
Her mirror screen glitched, showing three different reflections at once.
"Not again…" she whispered, sitting up.
This had been happening for weeks — small malfunctions whenever she woke from that dream. But tonight felt different. Stronger. The air itself tingled around her, like electricity was crawling across her skin.
She swung her legs off the bed, and the moment her feet touched the floor, every device in the room powered off at the same time.
Complete darkness.
Then—
BOOM.
A burst of blue light shot from her palm and cracked the air like lightning.
Anya stumbled back, breath shaking.
"Okay… that definitely wasn't normal."
Before she could even process what she'd just done, her holo-window slid open with a soft hiss — and a message appeared in glowing red letters:
WE SAW THAT.
STAY WHERE YOU ARE.
DO NOT RUN.
Her heart stopped.
Someone was watching her.
And whoever sent that message… they were already close.