m world, the more blurred the line

A swirl in the air that shimmered like heatwaves. People moving half a second too slow.

er pressure or if reality itself was cracking open

tform during one of their shared dream sessions. Around them was a vast, shifting dreamscape-

mitted. "I feel like I'm sleepw

s jacket. "You're between states. Eventually, your

zoning out in algebra and the other half wondering

lesson was

school like usual. Instead, the air felt denser. Charge

re we?"

em. A towering maze of mirrors and memories-walls made of flashing screens, shifting

d, "is the Mem

ht you said we weren

ing to create your Lucid Key, you need

cape like a gravitational pull. Voices echoed from within-some her

is place will challenge you, Ava. Not with monsters. With memories. Doubts. Fears you d

if I

. And the Hollow

rd and stepped t

-

different versions of herself. Ava as a child with scraped knees and a stuffed penguin. Ava on stage at

ed at her, whisperin

eet-from hardwood to carpet to grass to wet tile. Sounds

a corner

actly as it had been. The purple star-patterned sheets. The hand-drawn

bed sat h

ry of him. Smiling, tired eyes. Weekend beard. Jeans and a flan

oftly, like noth

oat tig

whispered, even as her

mber," he said, smiling

behind her ey

aid. "But dreams keep us

o come back. Every

u're walking a world I never could. You'

her hand passed th

d her made he

fted. The bedroo

as back i

-

emory by memory

t heartbreak. The time she fainted in t

ting of embarrassment. The ache of loneliness. The

pt walking. She didn't

elt i

e realized,

e clarity without

-

labyrinth, Ava fina

r floated a shape like a spinning dodecahedron made of lig

ollow was

hadows, a humanoid figure with no face, tendrils of blac

fr

dn't

ly wa

ce-not with her ears,

carry

dn't r

ken. Let go. Let me in. I

ed on silence. On emptiness.

pe twitched. The

trong enough.

nched h

now. That's what makes

r eyes as she walked t

ey snapped toward her, draw

rs closed

s shriek of fury and hunger-an

byrint

-

p in her b

rum. But in her hand, curled tight against her palm, som

Luci

ad ma

-

er the bridge, Leo sm

d it,"

e symbol of the key shim

d

ud and exhausted.

r w

d up at

en the

-