My eyes flew open, and I gasped for air, my heart pounding in my chest. The world around me was blurry at first—disoriented, like waking from a deep sleep you can't quite remember. My breath was heavy, shallow, as if I had just run a marathon. The remnants of the dream clung to me like a wet shroud—fragments of conversation, the eerie whispers of a dark force, and the feeling that I was being hunted.
But as my eyes began to focus, I realized I was lying in my own bed, the sunlight filtering through the curtains. It was morning—early, perhaps. The room was quiet, except for the soft hum of the air conditioner. No secret passages, no ominous figure waiting for me. No Headmistress Blackwell. No dark magic.
It was all a dream.
But it felt so real, every word, every shadow, every piece of th
