Ashen Veil

Elias Veylen had never truly been alone before.

As he stood at the entrance of his new dorm, suitcase in one hand and a box of his belongings in the other, the reality of it all settled in. The campus buzzed with energy—students hauling suitcases up stairwells, parents making last-minute fusses over their kids, laughter and chatter filling the late summer air.

For the first time in his life, no one was waiting for him at home. No one would check in if he stayed out late. No one would remind him to eat dinner or tell him to call if he needed anything.

He should have felt nervous. Instead, a quiet excitement stirred in his chest.

He was finally free.

Not that his mother had been overbearing. If anything, she had done too much for him, working endless shifts to keep them afloat, always making sure he had everything he needed. Ever since his father disappeared, she had carried the weight of two parents. And as much as he loved her, he could feel the invisible tether between them—her worry, her constant hovering, the way she still looked at him like he might slip away just like his father had.

She never said it out loud, but he could see it in her eyes.

Now, for the first time, he could do something on his own. No one here knew him as the boy with the missing father, or the kid whose mom worked late shifts to keep their tiny apartment. Here, he wasn't someone to be pitied.

Here, he was just Elias Veylen.

And that was exactly what he wanted.

Looking around hi dorm was... fine. Small, but his. He unpacked slowly, letting the hum of campus life outside settle into his bones.

His roommate, some engineering major named Lucas, had already staked his claim on the side of the room near the window. The guy barely looked up from his laptop when Elias walked in, just offered a distracted nod before returning to whatever coding project had him glued to the screen.

But his drop-off had been short. Elias had insisted on unpacking alone, though his mother had hesitated. She stood by his dorm door, arms crossed, shifting from foot to foot like she wasn't sure if she should say something.

"I'll be fine, Mom," he said, forcing a small smile.

She exhaled, brushing a strand of dark hair from her face. "I know."

But she didn't move.

Elias sighed. "You can call whenever, okay? You're not getting rid of me forever."

That finally got a smile out of her. "You say that now."

Still, she lingered.

There were things she wasn't saying. There were always things she wasn't saying. He wanted to ask—wanted to push her to finally tell him what she had been holding back all these years.

About his father.

About what really happened.

But she just reached up, smoothed his hair like she had when he was little, and whispered, "Be careful, Elias."

He frowned. "Of what?"

She hesitated. Then, quietly, she said, "Just... be careful."

And with that, she was gone.

Elias watched her walk down the hall, disappearing into the crowd of parents. Something about the way she had said it sat wrong with him, like there was something more behind those words.

But he pushed it aside.

He was on his own now. And for the first few weeks, life on campus was exactly what he had hoped for.

The First Few Weeks

Classes started off easy enough. Elias was taking a mix of general education courses—History, Literature, Intro to Philosophy—along with an elective in Ancient Civilizations, which he had signed up for on a whim. He figured it would be interesting, maybe even an easy A.

He was wrong.

Professor Aldren, a wiry man with piercing gray eyes, ran the class like a military briefing. He spoke in clipped, rapid sentences, piling on reading assignments as if they were training for some archaeological expedition. But despite the workload, Elias found himself fascinated.

Ancient cultures, lost cities, mythologies that blurred the line between gods and men—there was something about it that felt oddly familiar, like reading a story he had heard before but couldn't remember.

"You know," Ava had said during one of their study sessions, flipping through the assigned reading, The Mythology of Forgotten Civilizations, "you could've taken an easier elective. Like, I don't know, Creative Writing. Or literally anything that doesn't have a three-page paper due every week."

"Where's the fun in that?" Elias had smirked.

"Masochist," Ryan muttered, lying flat on the dorm floor with an arm thrown over his face.

Ava and Ryan had been his friends since elementary school. The three of them had grown up together, surviving everything from middle school drama to high school heartbreaks. And now, by some miracle, they had all ended up at the same college.

Ryan was majoring in Film Studies, though he insisted it was just an excuse to avoid math. Ava was in Political Science, already planning to take the world by storm.

Elias, on the other hand, still wasn't sure what he wanted.

————

The best part of college so far? Freedom.

There were no strict curfews, no worried calls if he stayed out late. He could grab midnight snacks from the 24-hour diner with Ryan, spend hours in the library with Ava, or just walk around campus, soaking in the feeling of being on his own.

Ryan had already made it his mission to try every fast-food place within a five-mile radius. Ava, on the other hand, had gotten involved in student politics, which meant Elias often found himself roped into "quick meetings" that somehow lasted hours.

"Come on," she had said one night, dragging him toward the campus center. "It's just an interest meeting. You don't have to join."

Two hours later, Elias had a name tag and a folder full of student government policies.

Ryan, of course, had somehow escaped unscathed.

"Dude, you need to learn the art of the strategic retreat," Ryan had said, stuffing fries into his mouth as Elias glared at him across the diner table.

"You abandoned me," Elias shot back.

Ryan grinned. "And I'd do it again."

Despite the chaos, Elias liked how things were settling into place.

For once, life felt normal.

For once, he didn't feel like the kid with the missing father, or the boy his mother still watched too closely.

For once, he felt like just another college student.

And for a while, that was enough.

Until the Dreams Started.

The first time, it was nothing but flashes—shimmering cities swallowed by mist, the sky burning violet, voices chanting in a language he didn't know.

Elias woke up gasping, his sheets tangled around his legs, heart pounding like he had run for miles.

The images faded too quickly, slipping through his fingers like grains of sand.

Just a dream, he told himself. Maybe I've been too invested into my history classes.

But the next night, it happened again.

And again.

And again.

Each time, the images lasted longer, the whispers in his ears growing clearer. He could almost understand them—almost—but then he'd wake, drenched in sweat, the sound of his own breath too loud in the dark.

A/N: Feel free to comment! Makes me a better writer! I originally posted this on Wattpad but I wanted to try on different plateforms to get the story out there.

- MAV