Lucid desire

Chapter 6_the touch

Aria’s fingers hovered over the keyboard, her mind still half in the dream. She rubbed her temples, trying to push the lingering images of Kael’s smile and the shifting moonlit garden out of her head. But the memory clung stubbornly, like smoke curling into her vision.

“Focus, Aria. Just focus,” she muttered under her breath, tapping a few keys only to realize she had input the wrong figures.

“Aria… are you even paying attention?” a voice snapped beside her. She looked up to see claire, her coworker, eyebrows raised.

“I… I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I just… got distracted for a second.”

Tolu shook his head. “A second? Aria, this isn’t a game. You know how important this report is for the client.”

Aria swallowed, the heat rising to her cheeks. “I know, I… I’ll fix it.” She said while grabbing the documents as they all scattered across the floor.. she went on her knees to pick them up while fidgeting and walked back to her seat, she tried to fix the numbers, as she tried to correct the numbers, the client’s email notification pinged in her mind, flashing red. Her stomach sank. She had already sent it out.

By the time her boss walked in, holding a printout, the tension in the room had coiled like a spring.

“Aria!” her boss’s voice cut through the hum of the office. “Do you know what this is?”

Her chest tightened. “Yes, I ”

“Do you know what this is?” Miss Rachel repeated, slamming the report onto her desk. “Claire would never make a mistake like this! One misstep and we’re talking thousands lost!”

Aria’s hands shook as she looked down. “I… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

“Didn’t mean to?” the boss barked, voice sharp as a whip. “We can’t afford mistakes like this! If this happens again, you won’t have a job to come back to!” “what on earth is wrong with you”? Miss Rachel asked “for the past few days you have been disoriented and gazing out”… “I don’t care what problem you have but you do not bring it to my work place do you understand “

“I… I understand. I’ll fix it right away!” Her voice quavered, a mix of panic and guilt tightening in her chest.

***************

The scolding left her dazed. She pushed her chair back and hurried to the bathroom, the fluorescent lights harsh on her face. Her reflection stared back at her, pale and wide-eyed.

“Why can’t I focus?!” she whispered, pressing her palms against the cold sink. “I can’t even do this right… everything’s falling apart.”

Her breathing quickened, heart hammering in her chest. Frustration bubbled, mixing with shame. She slammed her fist against the mirror. The hard surface didn’t break but it vibrated, subtly at first, then with increasing intensity, like a hum running through her bones.

“What… what’s happening?” she muttered, eyes widening. She raised her hand to touch it, hesitating only a fraction of a second. The moment her fingers grazed the glass, a shiver ran up her arm. The bathroom lights flickered, the tiles beneath her feet seeming to ripple like liquid.

“No… this isn’t possible…” she whispered, pulling back, only for the mirror to bend and stretch toward her, pulling her closer. Her reflection blurred, morphing into swirls of color and light.

“Aria…” a faint whisper echoed in her mind. It wasn’t her voice. It was soft, distant, beckoning.

She gasped, stepping forward despite the fear knotting her stomach. The glass stretched around her fingers, forming a tunnel of shimmering light. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears.

“What’s happening to me?” she whispered, tugging at the edges of her rational mind, trying to cling to normalcy.

The moment she let go of resistance, the mirror drew her in. She felt herself pulled weightlessly, spinning through colors she couldn’t name. Air swirled around her, carrying scents of flowers, rain, and something metallic she couldn’t identify. Her hair lifted as if underwater, clothes shifting into strange yet familiar fabrics.

Her thoughts scattered. “Is this… real? Or another dream?”

A warmth touched her hand the mirror, alive, responding to her presence. She tried to scream, but no sound came. She felt herself fall into something vast, infinite, yet strangely comforting.

“Where am I…?” she breathed, senses overwhelmed by the shift in gravity, the air, the light. The mirror shimmered, pulsing in rhythm with her heartbeat.

Images flashed in her mind: Kael’s smile, the moonlit garden, the silk of her gown in the dream, and the lingering pull she still felt in her chest. She realized… this power, this pull, had nothing to do with him. It was hers.

Her legs flailed in the air, reaching for something solid, but the mirror held her, guiding her into an unknown world. She felt a strange clarity amidst the chaos she could sense the space around her, feel the boundaries of this new world before she even arrived.

And then… silence.

Her body landed softly, though she couldn’t see the ground. Colors shifted, morphing into shapes she couldn’t comprehend. Her pulse slowed, yet her mind raced.

“This… this is impossible,” she whispered, touching the space in front of her. The air shimmered at her fingertips, responding, bending. Her breath caught. “I… I can… do this?”

A laugh soft, incredulous escaped her lips. She couldn’t tell if it was excitement or fear. Every instinct told her she was on the edge of something enormous, something that would change her forever.

And then, as she looked around, she realized… she wasn’t alone. Something moved in the shadows of this strange world. Not a person, not a creature, but a presence intangible, alive, familiar.

Her heart thundered. “Who’s there?”

No answer came. Only the hum of energy around her, pulsing with a rhythm that matched her own heartbeat.

Aria took a cautious step forward, feeling the ground beneath her shift like liquid. “I… I have to understand… what’s happening to me…”

Her hand reached out instinctively, and the air rippled under her fingertips, responding, bending, alive. The realization struck her like lightning: she wasn’t powerless. She wasn’t just a girl lost in a mistake at work… she was something else. Something more.

Her pulse quickened, and the world shifted again. Shapes bent, colors glowed, and her reflection shimmered in the air before her, merging with the space itself. She could feel it the power inside her, raw, unshaped, untamed.

And then, just as suddenly, the sensation heightened pulling her deeper into the unknown, a tunnel of light stretching endlessly before her. She blinked, heart hammering.. she saw another person that looks just like her “oh god” am I hallucinating??

“What is happening to me”? She said shakenly