Drea dreamed of the ocean that night.
Not the ocean people knew.
No waves. No moonlight. No shore.
Just endless black water stretching beneath a sky with no stars, thick and silent as ink. She stood barefoot in the middle of it somehow, though there was nothing beneath her feet except depth.
And far below her—
Something enormous opened its eyes.
Silver light rose through the dark like submerged lightning.
She woke choking for breath.
Her apartment smelled of saltwater.
Every mirror in the room had been covered before she slept, sheets draped carefully over glass, but one cloth now lay crumpled on the floor.
The bathroom mirror was exposed.
Wet.
Not with condensation.
Seawater.
Drea approached slowly. Her reflection stared back a second too late.
Then it smiled before she did
