I think "Just a few hours of sleep.Then I'll deal with this world again."
One minute passes. Then two.
Suddenly, a harsh, buzzing sound pierces the silence. It isn't the elegant silver bell of the maids. It's loud, vibrating, and horribly familiar.
My eyes snap open.
The heavy silk canopy is gone. Instead of the grand, high ceiling of a palace, I'm staring at a plain white ceiling with a tiny water stain in the corner. The smell of expensive incense has been replaced by the faint scent of old coffee and city dust.
I sit up abruptly, my heart hammering against my ribs. I'm not wearing a silk nightgown; I'm in my mismatched pajamas. I'm not in a palace; I'm in my cramped, messy apartment.
I look at my phone on the nightstand. The alarm is glowing: 6:30 AM.
"What...?" I wisper, my voice sounding raspy and dry.
I check the time. "It had been seven hours since I first closed my eyes to take a nap after work. But in the night while my body was sleeping , I had lived a whole day as Elanore. I can still feel the phantom weight of the heavy jewels on my neck and the cold sting of Elanore's father's gaze."
"Was it a dream?" I gasp, touching my face. "But it felt so real. I was there. I felt the silk... I felt the cold..."
I look around my small room, feeling a sudden, terrifying sense of vertigo. I had spent all day trying to survive a "perfect" noble family, only to wake up back in the very life I thought I had left behind.
When I stare at my phone. 7:00 AM. "No, no, no!" I gaspe, my voice sounding thin and modern. I usually woke up at 6:00 AM to beat the commute. I'm already an hour behind. "I'm going to be so late! My boss is going to kill me."
I throw off the covers and ran toward the bathroom, but as I splash cold water on my face, I stop for a moment. I look into the small, cracked mirror of my apartment. I don't see the long, flowing hair or the pale, perfect skin of Lady Elanore. I saw Sara—tired, slightly pale from overwork, and very confused.
"What happened? I wonder, my heart is still racing. I was just at the dinner table. I was just looking at the Duchess. Then I went back to my room. Did I fall asleep? How am I back here?"
As I scramble to put on my office clothes—a simple blazer and trousers—I can't shake the feeling of the palace. The memories of my father's harsh schedule and my brother's cold eyes are more vivid than the room I'm standing in.
"Was it just a dream because I was stressed?" I whisper, grabbing my bag. "But I felt the silk. I felt the tea."
I hurry out the door, my mind split in two. I have to focus on my spreadsheets and my deadlines, but all I can think about is the girl I left behind. "If I'm here... what happened to Elanore? Is she back in that cold house alone?"
I rush out of my bedroom thinking about Elanore. The smell of fresh breakfast hit me—not the fancy, tasteless food of the palace, but the warm, familiar smell of home. There they are: my real family, sitting around a small, cluttered table. They aren't hiding behind newspapers or staring at me with judgment. They are chatting, laughing, and passing plates around.
"Sara! Finally!" my mother calls out, smiling as she poured tea. "What happened? You're the early bird of this house. How did you manage to oversleep so late?"
My father looks up from his seat, not with a strict glare about schedules, but with a look of genuine concern. "You must have been working too hard, Sara. Sit down, eat something before you run off to the office."
I stand frozen for a second, my eyes stinging with tears. Just a few minutes ago, I was begging for a single kind word from a cold father and a mother who didn't care if she lived or died. Now, here is my real family, teasing me for sleeping in and making sure I'm fed.
A huge smile broke across my face. I don't care that I'm late for work. I don't care about the messy table or the small apartment.
"I'm sorry!" I laugh, pulling out a chair and sitting down quickly. "I just... I had the strangest dream. But I am so, so happy to see you all."
I realize then that while Elanore had gold and servants, I'm the truly rich one because I've a family that actually look at me when I speak.
When I step into the office, the familiar hum of computers and the smell of printer ink surrounding are surrounding me. Usually, this place made me feel small and nervous, but today is different.
When my boss give me a mountain of tasks and strict instructions, I don't shrink back. I look him in the eye and nod with steady voice . I think, "If I can handle a Duke who wants to rule the world, I can definitely handle a manager who just wants a spreadsheet." I work with a new kind of fire. I become faster, sharper, and more confident. Every time I feel tried, I remember of my real family's smiles at breakfast, and it gives me the energy to keep going. I want to be succeed for them.
However, by the time the clock hits 5:00 PM, a wave of heavy exhaustion hits me. My body feel like lead. Even though I had slept for one night as Sara and just working as Elanore in my dream, my brain feel like it has been through a week of high-stakes drama.
"I must have been more tired than I thought," I whisper to myself, rubbing my eyes. "It feels like I haven't had a real break in years."
I laugh a little, thinking about how I had told my "palace maids" I was exhausted, too. It's a strange feeling— within one day I've lived two lives. As I head home, I'm not just Sara the office worker anymore. I'm someone who knows that she can survive anything.
By the time I reach my home and back into my own bed that night, I feel like I've lived a lifetime in a single day. My muscles are aching with a deep, strange fatigue that I can't explain. I look at my plain bedroom walls, feeling thankful for the safety of my modern life.
"It was just a dream," I whisper to myself, pulling the blanket up. "I'm back. I'm Sara. Tomorrow is just another normal day."
I'm so tired that I don't even have the energy to scroll through my phone or think about my tasks for tomorrow. I convince myself that the "Elanore" chapter of my life was closed—a strange, stress-induced hallucination that was finally over.
"As Sara driftes off into a heavy, dreamless sleep, she feels a familiar peace. But she doesn't know that the "drastic change" she feared in the palace wasn't gone. She doesn't know that while she sleeps in her apartment, Lady Elanore's body was still lying in that silk bed, waiting for the soul to return.
As she closes her eyes in one world, completely unaware that she was about to wake up in another. The fairy tale hasn't ended; it's only just beginning."