Hidden Wings

He wasn't just a dream

The garden’s flowers towered over our heads, their vibrant petals glowing under a sky that held three massive, silver moons. Everything about the castle grounds felt like stepping into a fairytale, from the unmatched elegance of the sweeping gowns to the strange, beautiful creatures mingling near the marble fountains.

At first, I chalked it up to my obsession with fantasy novels. It always started as a romantic dream. We walked through the garden and into the grand ballroom, passing masked onlookers who stared as he took my hand. The moment our fingers brushed, the music began. We danced until dawn, his eyes locking onto mine with a familiarity that made my chest ache.

But tonight, the dream didn’t end at dawn.

Just before the music stopped, he disappeared. The vibrant ballroom dissolved into a labyrinth of unfamiliar, dark streets.

Panic tightened my throat. I need to reach him, I have to… if I don’t—

“I’m slowing down!” I shouted into the void. The thought of being left alone in this shadowy world turned my blood to ice. Pushing past my fear, I rolled my shoulders and felt a pair of faded green and purple wings unfurl from my back. I lifted off the cobbled ground, launching forward with more speed than my legs could ever manage.

“Please let me reach him in time… please.”

I flew toward the edge of the strange town, pushing my body until my lungs burned and dark spots danced in my vision. Ahead sat an abandoned, crumbling building. I dropped out of the air, folding my wings tightly against my back as my boots hit the dirt.

Then, I saw it. A heavy trail of dark blood gleamed in the moonlight, painting a path toward the shadows behind the building.

Blood… it’s blood… there’s so much of it.

I took a trembling step forward, gasping as I finally spotted his face in the dark—

I sat up in bed with a violent gasp, my sheets tangled around my legs.

My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird. I looked over at my digital clock. 3:15 a.m. “Why me?” I muttered, wiping a layer of cold sweat from my forehead.

I dragged my heavy, exhausted body downstairs into the quiet kitchen. I had woken up at this exact time every night for weeks, haunted by the same sequence, and it was starting to make me feel like I was losing my mind. I poured a glass of milk and closed my eyes, praying the routine would help me forget. But the images were burned into my eyelids: the faded wings, the three moons, and the bloody face of a boy I had never met in my life.

“Ivey?”

I jumped, nearly dropping the glass. My older brother stood in the kitchen entrance, rubbing his eyes. “Why are you awake?”

I shrugged, turning to rinse my cup in the sink to hide my shaking hands. “Just a bad dream.”

“Same one?” he asked, stepping closer to give my head a gentle, sympathetic pat. He glanced at the oven clock. “You should go back to bed. You have school in a few hours.”

“Yeah. Goodnight.”

I stayed by the window for a long time after he left, staring up at the empty, cloudless Maine sky. It looked entirely hollow compared to the vibrant, three-moon sky in my head.

By 6:00 a.m., my alarm was blaring, and my brother was yelling down the hall for me to turn it off. The unease from the night slowly faded as I went through the motions of a normal morning—showering, eating breakfast, and climbing into my brother’s truck for the ride to school. By the time he dropped me off with a wave, my worries were completely gone.

I pulled my hood up to cover my untameable red hair, bracing myself as I walked toward the front doors.

“Oh look, I didn’t know vampires came out in the light,” Heather Bolshiv smirked from her locker. Her two shadows, Greta and Olivia, laughed on cue.

I sighed, switching out my textbooks. “Greta, vampires turn to dust, they don’t explode. Please know your lore before speaking—it’s too early for stupid.”

Swinging my bag over my shoulder, I walked past them, ignoring the heat of their glares. I headed down the main hallway toward my first period class. To get there, I had to pass the main office—a room enclosed by massive glass walls. Usually, I kept my head down to avoid looking at the administration, but today, it felt like an invisible force physically grabbed my chin and pulled my gaze toward the glass.

My breath caught. My heart lurched so violently it stopped me dead in my tracks.

Sitting in the office chair was a boy with deep blue eyes and dark brown hair. He was wearing normal clothes, and his skin looked warm in the fluorescent lights, but there was absolutely no mistaking him.

It was the boy from my nightmare. And he was looking directly back at me.