The Fall Beyond Worlds

It was unbearably dark.

Silence clouded every corner of my vision, thick and suffocating. Sweat rolled down my neck as I stood frozen like a statue, unable to move.

My breathing came out in sharp, uneven gasps.

Then—

A loud bang echoed somewhere ahead of me.

Every nerve in my body screamed at me to run, but my legs refused to move. They felt impossibly heavy, as if they had been nailed to the ground.

I could feel someone approaching me slowly...

Step by step.

Closer and closer.

My thoughts were slipping away.

Panic clawed at my chest.

Then suddenly, warm breath brushed against the back of my neck.

I tried to speak, but no sound came out. It felt as though someone else had complete control over my body.

“You have to come with me,” a deep voice whispered near my ear.

“I need you.”

Before I could react, I was slammed against the wall with brutal force.

Pain exploded through my body.

I could hear the faint crack of bones as agony spread through every inch of me. My vision blurred instantly, and I squeezed my eyes shut.

I’m dying.

I’m dying.

I’m dying.

“Not yet, Lara,” he hissed darkly.

“Not now.”

I heard the sharp click of his boots as he began walking away.

Step.

Step.

Step.

The sound slowly faded into the darkness.

I forced myself to turn slightly, trying to catch one last glimpse of him through the corner of my eye, but he had already disappeared into the shadows of the chamber.

Then suddenly—

“You’re going to be late!”

The voice echoed from somewhere far away.

“Alara! Alara!”

My eyes flew open.

I sat up abruptly in bed, breathing hard as reality crashed over me.

It was just another nightmare.

Again.

Mom was shouting from downstairs.

“Yeah, Mom!” I called back weakly, still trying to steady my breathing.

Same nightmare.

Same room.

Same exhausted version of me.

Fantastic.

Still, I didn’t want to be late on my first day of college.

Honestly, I still couldn’t believe I had managed to get into college with the terrible grades I earned during senior year, but somehow life had decided to spare me.

I pushed the blanket aside and dragged myself toward the bathroom.

The image of that man from my dream still lingered in my mind like smoke.

These nightmares had become almost routine lately.

I turned on the shower, letting warm water pour over me as I tried to calm down and wash away the lingering fear.

For a few minutes, everything felt quiet again.

After showering, I stepped back into my room and grabbed my hair dryer. Standing in front of the mirror, I began drying my hair absentmindedly.

Then my fingers brushed against the back of my neck.

I froze.

The skin there felt rough.

Slowly, I touched it again with my fingertips, and a sharp pain shot through my entire body.

“What the hell—?”

My pulse quickened instantly.

I rushed toward my drawer beside the bed, searching frantically for my pocket mirror.

Nothing.

Great.

I remembered leaving it downstairs near the shoe rack.

“Of course you did,” I muttered under my breath.

I hurried down the stairs as quietly as possible.

When I reached the shoe rack, I searched through the mess until I finally spotted the mirror stuffed inside one of my slipper boxes.

I seriously needed to stop living like a raccoon.

“Honey, I’m not letting you go to college wearing a bathrobe,” Mom said as she walked into the hallway.

I turned toward her.

“Relax, Mom. I’m not going outside like this. I was just looking for something.”

“In the shoe rack?” she asked, raising both eyebrows suspiciously.

“Well... technically, yes.”

She sighed the kind of sigh only mothers could master.

I gave her an awkward smile before quickly escaping back upstairs.

The moment I entered my room, I locked the door behind me and walked straight to the dressing table.

My hands trembled slightly as I lifted the pocket mirror behind my neck and adjusted it carefully.

Then I saw it.

A bluish scar stretched across the skin between my shoulders.

Fresh.

Painfully fresh.

My stomach dropped.

“No...”

That wasn’t possible.

It had only been a nightmare.

A nightmare.

So how could the scar be real?

I stared at it in disbelief, my breathing growing shallow.

It looked exactly like an injury made only hours ago.

But that couldn’t happen.

Unless...

Something was terribly wrong with me.

Or maybe—

Something was terribly wrong with my life.

And for the first time...The scar burned again.

I realized the nightmare had followed me into reality.