Elena Cruz
Elena jolted awake, gasping.
Her chest was tight, heart pounding so hard she could hear it in her ears. Sweat stuck her shirt to her back. The room was dark except for the faint glow of her alarm clock.
She’d been dreaming. Something bad. Something that made her lungs feel like they couldn’t get enough air.
But she couldn’t remember what it was.
The images were already slipping away, dissolving into nothing the harder she tried to grab them. Just fragments. Shadows. A feeling of being chased. Of running and not getting anywhere.
Then her alarm went off.
The sound blared through the room, sharp and jarring. Elena flinched and scrambled to turn it off, her hands shaking.
Then there was silence .
She sat there on the edge of her bed, trying to catch her breath. Her hands w
