Reality or a dream

Reality or a dream

"Listen carefully, dreamers. To escape this dream-like place, you must follow a few rules," a voice echoed through the air, trembling with warning.

"Rule number one: never trust anything you see or hear. Everything here is a lie," the voice told me.

I stood frozen, listening as anxiety steadily crept over me with every passing second.

"Rule number two: never speak to anyone you encounter. No matter who it is, I repeat do not engage, or you’ll suffer the consequences," it said firmly, stressing each word with an unsettling urgency.

A chill ran down my spine as I processed the warning, glancing around the unfamiliar place cloaked in unnatural silence.

Everything around me looked like a dream, yet carried the weight of a nightmare, haunting, surreal, and wrong.

"Rule number three: ignore every sound you hear. Do not follow any noise or voice. If you do... you won’t come back," the voice continued, this time quieter, darker, like it was being pulled away.

My hands began to tremble. Dread pooled in my chest like cold water.

"Rule number four: never enter any house you see. No matter how beautiful or safe it appears, stay away from them-" The voice was suddenly cut off, its last words still echoing in the air, unfinished.

I stood alone on a deserted street, surrounded by houses, each one exactly how the voice had described, inviting, glowing, deceptive.

But the voice never told me how to leave.

“Serene,” someone whispered behind me. I flinched at the sound of my name.

I was about to turn, to respond instinctively, when the rules flashed through my mind.

My breath caught. I stood perfectly still.

Eyes shut tight, I tried to contain the rising panic.

Then, footsteps. Soft. Deliberate. Getting closer.

I opened my eyes, breath trembling, and started moving forward, desperate to escape.

In the distance, I spotted something strange, a red door standing alone, suspended in emptiness. No walls, no frame. Just the door.

“Maybe that’s the only way out,” I whispered to myself, staring at it.

“Yes… go to that door. Ignore everything. Follow the rules… if you want to survive,” the voice whispered again, this time directly beside my ear.

That confirmed it. I picked up my pace, almost running, desperate to escape this hellish place.

“Serene, my child... look at me. It’s Mom. Talk to me,” a voice called out behind me.

I froze. My mother’s voice.

Then a hand gripped my wrist.

It was wet.

I looked down and saw blood. Thick, vivid red. My wrist was slick with it, seeping from the hand that grasped me.

Pale. Cold. Drenched in crimson.

A strangled whimper escaped me.

I didn’t look back. I didn’t speak. I pulled away and kept walking toward the red door.

The hand slowly vanished, fading into nothing, like it had never existed. But the blood remained on my skin, a terrible reminder that it had.

At last, I reached the door. My trembling fingers closed around the handle.

I opened it, and stepped through.

Darkness swallowed me whole.

I fell. Through icy blackness, endless and silent. I screamed, but the void devoured every sound.

Then light.

I woke with a start, gasping for breath. My room. My bed.

I was home.

I exhaled shakily, relief washing over me. Just a dream.

Just a nightmare.

I steadied myself and lay back down, trying to calm the panic and erase the lingering fear.

But then I saw it.

Dried blood. Still on my wrist.

It hadn’t been a dream.

And something else was wrong.

The house I was in… it was one of the homes from that place. From the dream.

As I lay frozen in bed, something cold wrapped around my waist. Another hand clamped over my mouth.

Out of thin air.

“You broke the rule, Serene,” the voice whispered again directly into my ear.

My screams were muffled. Terror raced through my veins.

And then....... Everything went dark.

*****

the amount of effort I put into this, u guys better like it.

QOTD

which rules do u think guys she broke?

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