DREAMS
CHAPTER 39 I woke up gasping. Not from a dream. Not from one of those shadowy half-memories I’d learned to live with. No, this time it was something sharper—like I'd been yanked up through a hole in my own mind and left choking on what was real. My room was quiet. Too quiet for a Tuesday morning. The curtains hadn’t been drawn. My textbooks were still scattered across the floor from last night. The stale air of forgotten things hung heavy around me. I sat up slowly. The image wouldn’t leave me: the tree. The shallow earth. My face, lifeless beneath the dirt. It wasn’t just a dream. I could feel the soil in my mouth. — I didn’t go to class. Glory had left early, thank God. Her usual breakfast sermon—peppered with tight smiles and barely disguised warnings—was absent. I wasn’t in t
- Writer
