I woke up to the sound of hushed voices and warmth pressing against my skin. My eyelids were heavy, my head pounding like something had tried to drill through my skull. As my vision cleared, I saw my mom and dad sitting at my bedside, their faces tight with worry.
"Oh, Leo, are you okay? What happened?" Mom's voice wavered as she gripped my hand.
I blinked, trying to pull myself out of the fog in my mind. What had happened? I could still feel the lingering weight of something—something strange. Dizziness, voices, and then... the dream.
No. Not a dream. A vision.
I swallowed. "I... I don't know. I just collapsed."
Dad squinted at me. "Are you sure you're not taking any drugs, Lolo?"
I sat up, my exhaustion momentarily forgotten. "Drugs?! I would never take drugs! Drugs destroy lives, families, futures—" My tongue twisted as I fumbled over my words. "I would never do durags! I mean drags! I mean—"
"Hmmm. Durags, eh?" Dad crossed his arms. "Have you been hanging around certain types of... people, son?"
"Jonathan!" Mom shot him a sharp look.
Dad threw up his hands in exaggerated apology, but you could see the guilt hadn't sunk in yet.
After Mom drowned me in every kind of soup and tea she could find, they finally left me alone.
That's when I let myself think.
The vision came rushing back, as vivid as if I were still inside it. The grand Victorian-era chamber bathed in golden light. Chandeliers glimmering overhead. A long, endless corridor stretching into darkness.
And then... the wall. The black, all-consuming void. Like a star collapsing into itself, pulling me in until I was nothing.
My hand reached for my pencil the one I had dropped before collapsing. It was still there on my nightstand. I grabbed my sketchbook and, with shaking hands, started drawing.
I sketched the chandeliers, the ornate walls, and the arched ceiling, filling the page with every tiny detail I could remember. The golden tree patterns wind along the corridors. The heavy velvet curtains. The eerie emptiness.
And then I drew the wall.
The one that had swallowed me whole.
The more I drew, the more real it felt. My heart pounded as I shaded the last corner of the hallway, darkening the void where I had vanished.
Then
A flicker.
The sketchbook shimmered. A pulse of golden light traced along the lines of my drawing, like a heartbeat. The pencil slipped from my fingers.
The air thickened. The pages of my sketchbook glowed, the ink turning liquid, swirling, shifting—
And then the light exploded.
A force yanked me forward, and suddenly, I wasn't in my room anymore.
I was inside the drawing.
The world around me morphed, twisting like a kaleidoscope until I was no longer sitting in bed. I was standing in the hall from my vision.
The same golden chandeliers. The same eerie silence. The same stretching corridor that had no end.
I turned in a slow circle. My breath hitched.
This wasn't a dream.
This was real.
I was here.
The realization sent a shiver down my spine. I pressed a hand against the cold marble floor, feeling its smoothness beneath my fingertips. My heart hammered against my ribs.
"What the—" My voice came out hoarse.
The hallway stretched before me, grand and endless. The walls flickered with an otherworldly glow, and I swore I could hear whispers. Faint, distant. Like voices carried through a storm.
I stepped forward. The chandeliers above flickered, casting long shadows against the towering walls. The golden patterns on the walls seemed to shift, twisting and curling as if alive.
And then I heard it.
A low hum.
It vibrated through the floor, through my bones, growing louder with each step I took.
Then
A door appeared.
It hadn't been there before. One moment, the corridor was empty; the next, a towering black door stood at the end of the hall.
My feet moved before my brain could catch up. I walked toward it, pulse thundering. The closer I got, the heavier the air became, like I was wading through something invisible.
My fingers brushed the handle. Ice shot up my arm.
A voice whispered from the other side of the door.
"Leo Asher... you've returned."
A jolt of terror shot through me. Before I could react, the door swung open, and the darkness swallowed me whole.