Chapter 1 - The Experiment
CHAPTER ONE — THE FIRST NIGHT
The flyer looked harmless.
A plain white sheet taped to the school bulletin board, squeezed between a lost‑dog poster and an ad for math tutoring. No creepy fonts. No weird symbols. Just bold black letters:
PAID SLEEP STUDY — $500 PER NIGHT
Participants Needed Immediately
SomniTech Research Center
Most people walked right past it.
But not Jason.
Five hundred dollars a night?
For sleeping?
He could barely stay awake in class anyway.
He tore the flyer down before anyone else could see it.
---
The SomniTech building sat on the edge of town, past the abandoned train tracks and the old water tower that everyone said was haunted. The place didn’t look like a lab. More like a dentist’s office that had been remodeled by someone who hated windows.
Jason hesitated at the door.
Something about the building felt… off.
Like it was too quiet.
Too still.
But five hundred dollars was five hundred dollars.
He stepped inside.
---
The lobby was empty except for a woman at the front desk. She smiled too quickly, like she’d been waiting for him.
“You must be Jason,” she said.
He blinked. “How did you—?”
“We’ve been expecting you.”
Her smile didn’t move, but her eyes did — flicking to the hallway behind him, like she was checking to make sure no one else had followed
Jason swallowed. “So… what exactly is this study?”
Before she could answer, a tall man in a white coat stepped out from the hallway.
His ID badge read: Dr. Erickson.
“Jason,” Dr. Erickson said, voice smooth and calm. “Glad you made it. Follow me.”
Jason followed him down a long hallway lined with doors.
Behind one door, he heard voices — Kendall and Bree, arguing about who snores louder.
Behind another, Tyler was asking if they’d get snacks.
And Myles was sitting quietly, staring at the floor like he already regretted signing up.
Jason didn’t know any of them yet.
But he would.
Dr. Erickson opened a door at the end of the hall.
The sleep room looked like a mix between a hospital and a hotel.
A soft bed.
A heart monitor.
A camera in the corner with a tiny red light blinking.
Jason sat on the edge of the bed. “So I just… go to sleep?”
“Yes,” Dr. Erickson said. “We monitor your brainwaves, heart rate, REM cycles. Completely safe.”
His voice was calm. Too calm.
Like he’d practiced the line a thousand times.
He handed Jason a small pill cup.
“What’s this?”
“A mild sedative. Helps you fall asleep faster.”
Jason hesitated.
Dr. Erickson didn’t.
Jason swallowed the pill.
---
Sleep hit him like a wave.
One second he was staring at the ceiling.
The next, he was standing in a hallway he’d never seen before.
Long.
Narrow.
Walls the color of old teeth.
The lights flickered overhead, buzzing like angry insects.
The air felt thick, like he was breathing through cotton.
“Hello?” he called.
His voice echoed too far, like the hallway was bigger than it looked.
Then he saw it.
A door at the very end.
Tall.
Black.
Wrong.
Something scratched at the other side.
Jason took a step back.
The scratching stopped.
Then came the whisper.
“Jason…”
His blood turned to ice.
He spun around — but the hallway behind him was gone.
Just darkness.
Thick and endless.
The whisper came again, closer this time.
“Don’t wake up.”
Jason ran.
He didn’t think.
Didn’t breathe.
Just sprinted toward the door, because it was the only thing that felt real.
He grabbed the handle.
It burned his skin.
The whisper rose behind him, turning into a voice he recognized — his own.
“Don’t wake up.”
He yanked the door open.
---
He shot upright in the bed, gasping.
The room was dark.
Too dark.
The camera in the corner wasn’t blinking anymore.
The monitor beside him was off.
The hallway outside the room was silent.
Jason swung his legs off the bed.
His foot hit something.
He looked down.
A long black door handle lay on the floor beside him — still warm.
His skin burned where he’d touched it in the dream.
Except it wasn’t a dream.
Not anymore.
---
