Chapter 4: The Dream That Wasn’t Mine

When I opened my eyes, I wasn’t in the mansion anymore.

I was lying on soft grass under a silver sky. Strange trees stood around me, their leaves glowing like stars. The air smelled of roses, just like the room behind the red door. Everything was quiet… too quiet.

Then I saw her.

The girl from the mirror.

She stood across the garden, wearing the same red dress I had seen in the painting. Her long hair flowed behind her as if caught in wind, but the air around me was still.

She didn’t speak. She just looked at me.

I took a step forward.

“Who are you really?” I asked, my voice shaking.

She smiled gently. “You already know.”

“No,” I said. “I don’t. I’m Lyra. But I’m not… you.”

“You’re me,” she said. “Or at least, you were. You came back. We always do.”

My hands turned cold. “Why do I keep hearing whispers? Why do you look like me? What happened to you?”

The girl’s face darkened.

“They loved me once. Then they feared me. Then they locked me away.”

“Who?”

“Everyone,” she whispered. “Even him.”

“Him?” I asked.

But before she could answer, the sky cracked with thunder.

Everything began to fall apart—the trees, the stars, the garden.

The last thing I saw was her reaching for me, her eyes full of pain.

“Don’t trust what you think you know.”

---

I woke up gasping for air.

The room was dark again, the fire out, and my clothes soaked in sweat. My heart pounded as I sat up in bed.

Aerin was sitting at the foot of the bed.

"You were talking in your sleep," he said quietly. "You said her name."

I looked at him, my voice trembling. “She said you betrayed her.”

He looked down at his hands. “I didn’t.”

I waited.

“I couldn’t stop what happened to her. I was just a boy when they locked her away,” he said. “She had strange dreams, like you. She spoke to shadows. People thought she was cursed.”

“She wasn’t,” I said. “She was gifted. Sensitive. Like me.”

He nodded slowly. “Yes. But back then… that was dangerous. So they silenced her.”

I looked into his eyes. “And now she’s speaking again. Through me.”

Silence fell between us.

Then I whispered, “Why do I look like her?”

He didn’t answer at first.

Then he said, “Because you are her. Or her soul, returned.”

I stared at him. “That’s not possible.”

He stood up and walked to the window.

“I thought it was a lie too. Until you showed up at the gate. You had her name. Her eyes. Her voice. Even the rose birthmark behind your left ear…”

My hand shot to the back of my ear. I had never noticed it before—but it was there. A small mark, shaped like a petal.

“You knew I was her,” I said.

“I hoped,” he said. “And I feared it.”

“Why?”

He turned to me. “Because the last time she was here, she died. And if history repeats itself…”

His voice cracked.

“…you might die again.”

---

Later that night, I couldn’t sleep. I sat by the window, staring into the forest beyond the mansion.

The wind whispered through the trees.

Lyra…

The voice didn’t sound afraid anymore.

It sounded lonely.

As if it had been calling for years.

Aerin entered quietly and handed me a cup of warm tea.

“You should rest,” he said.

I looked at him. “Did you love her? The first Lyra?”

His face turned unreadable.

“I was just a boy,” he said. “But I never forgot her. Not even for a day.”

My heart beat faster.

“Do you love me now?” I asked, surprising even myself.

He didn’t answer.

But the look in his eyes said everything.

He reached out and gently touched my hand.

“I don’t know what this is yet,” he whispered. “But I’ll protect you. Even if I couldn’t save her then—I won’t lose you now.”

His hand was warm. And for the first time since I arrived, I didn’t feel afraid.

But deep inside, I knew this wasn’t over.

The red door had been opened.

And the mansion still had more secrets to tell.

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