Memories From Nowhere

Luna was asleep… At least, that’s what it looked like on the surface. Her body lay still, her breaths slow and steady, but her mind was far from peaceful. Deep within her subconscious, she was somewhere else entirely, trapped in a world that was both foreign and painfully familiar.

The dreams had come again. The same fragmented, disjointed visions that had haunted her since childhood. They were always the same, yet somehow different. Flashes of places she had never been but felt like home, voices she didn’t recognize yet stirred something deep in her chest, emotions she couldn’t place but weighed heavily on her soul.

Tonight was no different.

She stood in the middle of a vast, open field beneath a silver moon, its glow casting an eerie luminescence over the swaying grass. The land stretched endlessly in all directions, empty yet suffocating, as if the very air carried a weight she couldn’t shake. A cold wind howled around her, rustling the grass in chaotic whispers, but despite its sharp bite, she felt nothing. No chill, no discomfort, just an overwhelming sense of déjà vu, like she had been here a thousand times before.

Her breath came out in slow, measured exhales as she took in her surroundings. The field was eerily still, untouched by time, yet there was something else, someone else. Ahead, standing just beyond the reach of the moon’s glow, was a shadowy figure. Watching. Waiting.

Their form was indistinct, shifting like smoke, their features blurred, hazy, as if the world itself refused to let her see them clearly. She squinted, her heartbeat hammering in her ears. The harder she tried to focus, the more obscured they became, like looking through a fogged-up glass.

Something, or someone, didn’t want her to see them. The realization sent a chill down her spine.

"Who are you?". Luna asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

The figure didn’t answer, but it took a step closer, reaching out its hand.

"I will come back," the voice echoed through the dream, distant yet pleading, carrying a weight of longing that sent a shiver through her. It wasn’t just a statement, it was a promise, one laced with desperation, with something unspoken lingering beneath the words.

Luna’s breath hitched as a strange force tugged at her, invisible yet powerful, wrapping around her like unseen hands pulling her forward. Her chest tightened, her heart clenching with an ache she couldn’t explain. The sensation was familiar, like a melody.

Then, suddenly

A sharp, splitting pain shot through her skull, searing and blinding, as if something inside her mind was being torn apart.She gasped, staggering back, her hands flying to her temples in a desperate attempt to ease the agony.

"I will remember"

"Luna, wake up"

"Remember!"

Her entire body jolted, as if struck by an unseen force. A sharp gasp tore from her lips as her vision blurred, the world around her tilting violently. It wasn’t pain, no, it was something else. A shockwave rippling through her very being, as if something had awakened inside her.

The air around her crackled, charged with an energy she didn’t understand. The ground beneath her feet felt unsteady, as if she were standing at the edge of something vast and unknown. Her breath hitched, her fingers twitching at her sides.

She swallowed hard, pressing a shaking hand against her forehead. Cold sweat clung to her skin. Her other hand gripped the blanket tightly, as if it could ground her back to reality.

"Not again," she whispered hoarsely.

Her head throbbed, a dull ache lingering from the intensity of the dream. She squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself to calm down, but her pulse was still racing.

The clock read 2:34 AM.

Luna sighed, running a hand through her hair. It was always around this time. Every night. Like clockwork.

Her phone buzzed beside her. She blinked at the screen.

Aria:Another bad dream?

Luna hesitated before typing back.

Luna:Yeah… Same as always. Maybe worse this time.

The typing bubbles appeared almost instantly.

Aria:Luna, this isn’t normal. You need to see a different doctor. Or a therapist. Someone.

Luna exhaled sharply, gripping the phone tighter. She’d heard this before. From Aria. From doctors who handed her prescription after prescription that never worked.

Luna:No doctor has been able to stop them. The pills just make me drowsy, but the dreams never go away.

She hesitated before sending the next message.

Luna: And it doesn’t feel like just dreams, Maia. It feels real.

The typing bubbles appeared again, then stopped. A few seconds passed. Then,

Aria: What do you mean… real?

Luna bit her lip. How was she supposed to explain it? That every time she dreamed, it wasn’t just a passing vision, it was something deeper? That when she woke up, she could still feel the lingering emotions from the dream as if she had actually lived through it?

She didn’t reply.

Instead, she set the phone down, pulling her knees to her chest. The dream’s voice still echoed in her head.

"I will come back."

Come back where?

She didn’t have the answer.

Luna didn’t sleep again after waking from the dream. She lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, her chest rising and falling in deep, measured breaths as if trying to slow the frantic beating of her heart. The dream had never been this clear before.

The figure. The voice. The feeling of being pulled somewhere.

"I will come back."

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to push away the memory. It didn’t work. Of course. The words echoed in her mind like an old song stuck on repeat.

“This is getting worse…” she whispered to herself.

Luna sat on the edge of her bed, her fingers gripping her phone tightly, her eyes scanning the screen for the hundredth time. Maia had sent her a long list, places she could go, people she could see. Psychics, dream analysts, meditation groups.

"You have to try something," Aria had texted earlier. "You can't keep living like this, Luna. You need sleep."

Luna sighed, tossing the phone onto her nightstand.

She knew Aria was right. The exhaustion was becoming unbearable. Her body ached, her mind felt foggy, and she had lost count of the number of times she had nodded off at college, only to jerk awake, gasping, with images from her dreams burned into her vision.

Still, psychics? Dream analysts?

She wasn’t that desperate.

Was she?

She rubbed her temples with slow, deliberate circles, as if trying to knead away the tension building beneath her skin. A deep sigh escaped her lips, but the relief she sought never came. Instead, a sharp, pulsating ache throbbed at the base of her skull, intensifying with every beat of her heart. It was relentless, like a drum pounding inside her head, each pulse echoing through her bones.

She blinked rapidly, her vision blurring for a moment. The dim light of her bedroom felt too harsh, the shadows in the corners shifting in ways that made her stomach churn. Exhaustion clung to her like a second skin, wrapping around her limbs, dragging her down. Her gaze drifted toward the clock on her nightstand, the glowing red numbers standing out starkly in the dimly lit room.

4:56 AM.

The sight of it made her stomach twist with frustration. How had the night slipped away so quickly? It felt as if she had only just crawled into bed, only to lie there, restless and awake, trapped between exhaustion and the gnawing fear of sleep.

The numbers on the clock remained unchanged, glowing ominously in the darkness, a silent reminder of how little sleep she had gotten. How little sleep she ever got. A deep, weary groan escaped her lips, barely more than a whisper in the silent room. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment before forcing them open again, blinking against the haze of exhaustion clouding her vision. She had done it again

Another sleepless night. Another battle lost to the creeping anxiety that coiled in her chest, tightening its grip every time she much as thought about closing her eyes.

Her fingers curled into the sheets, gripping them as frustration bubbled up inside her.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered under her breath, her voice hoarse from disuse.

“Just five minutes," she whispered, pulling the blankets over her body and sinking into the mattress.

Her eyelids drooped.

And almost immediately,

She was back.

The air was crisp and cold, wrapping around her like unseen hands. The grass beneath her feet was damp, soft yet chilling against her bare skin. Overhead, the silver moon shone brightly, casting an eerie glow over the endless field stretching before her.

Luna shivered, wrapping her arms around herself.

It was the same dream. The same place.

The same nightmare.

But something felt different this time.

Her heart pounded in her chest as she slowly turned her head.

And there it was.

The figure.

A shadowy silhouette standing in the distance, just as it always did.

But tonight, theyweren’t standing as far away as before.

It were closer.

Much closer.

A sudden chill ran down Luna’s spine, seeping into her bones like ice water. She shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself as an unsettling prickle crawled over her skin. The air around her felt different, thicker, heavier, as if the very atmosphere had shifted.

Her breath came out in short, uneven gasps, her chest rising and falling erratically. She struggled to steady herself, but the suffocating weight pressing against her made it impossible.

She had seen this figure in her dreams for years. Always watching. Always waiting. A silent presence lingering in the shadows, just beyond her reach. But never this close.

The silence was suffocating, pressing down on her like an unseen weight. Even the wind had stopped whispering through the field, as if the world itself was holding its breath.

And then

The figure moved.

A single step forward.

And then another.

A hand emerged from the darkness, slow and deliberate, pale as if untouched by the sun. The skin, eerily smooth, reflected the silver glow of the moon, casting an almost ethereal aura around it. It was long-fingered, slender, and oddly delicate.

For a moment, nothing happened.

The world around her seemed to still, as though time itself had stopped holding its breath, waiting for what would come next. Even the howling wind that had once echoed through the endless field had faded into silence. The night felt heavy, pressing against her chest, suffocating her in its quiet.

The figure tilted its head slightly, watching her. Studying her. Its presence pulsed against the air, thick with something unexplainable, something ancient.

Then, in a voice that sent ice shooting through her veins, it spoke.

“Luna.”

A whisper. Soft. Familiar.

Like a memory she couldn't quite grasp.

Her breath hitched.

The world around her felt smaller, closing in, trapping her in this moment.

And for the first time, she wondered, had she met this figure before?

"H-How do you know my name?" she asked, her voice trembling.

The figure said nothing.

Another step.

Luna’s fingers curled into fists, nails digging into her palms. She needed to move. She needed to wake up.

“Who are you?” she demanded, forcing strength into her voice.

Still, no answer.

The figure took one final step.

And then,

It reached out.

Luna gasped, stumbling backward.

But before she could escape,

Fingers brushed against her skin.

A soft, reassuring sensation wrapped around her, like a fleeting touch against her skin, gentle, yet undeniably present. It was neither warm nor cold, just a delicate pressure that sent a strange shiver down her spine. It felt familiar, almost like the ghost of a memory she couldn’t quite grasp, something distant yet intimately close.

For a brief moment, the sensation lingered, as if trying to comfort her, to anchor her amidst the chaos unfolding around her. It was soothing, almost lulling her into a sense of peace. Her vision slowly darkened, the edges of her world fading into nothingness. Her breath caught in her throat, shallow and unsteady, as if she were sinking into the depths of an unseen force.

And then,

The last flicker of light vanished.

The air around her grew still, heavy with an eerie silence.

Her body gave in to the darkness.

Everything went black.

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