Chapter 1: Sideways
Ava woke up to chaos. Her room wasn’t just messy — it was wrong. Gravity had shifted sideways. Books slid into piles against the wall, her bed leaned toward the window, and even her toothbrush had rolled off the sink and stuck to the plaster.
She rubbed her eyes. “It’s all a dream,” she muttered. She closed her eyes and willed herself awake.
But when she opened them, nothing had changed. The world was still tilted, sideways and strange.
Ava’s heart pounded, but instead of panicking, she decided to experiment. She bent her knees, jumped — and floated. Her breath caught. She hovered midair, gently spinning. Pushing off the walls, she soared across the room like a superhero testing her powers. For the first time, she laughed.
That was when she saw it.
The far wall shimmered, like it was hiding something behind a glitching screen. Ava reached out, and the shimmer peeled back to reveal a glowing control panel. Buttons pulsed with strange labels: Sideways, Inverted, Zero-G, Random.
At the bottom, a tiny button blinked: EXIT DREAM?
Ava pressed it.
