= Sera =
I woke with a sharp gasp.
Air flooded into my lungs so violently it felt like I had been dragged up from deep water, my chest rising and falling in ragged bursts as I struggled to breathe. For several disoriented seconds, nothing around me made sense. The world felt distant, unreal, like I hadn’t quite returned to it yet.
My fingers twitched against the sheets, trembling uncontrollably. My heart was pounding so hard against my ribs that each beat sent a dull ache through my chest.
The nightmare still clung to me.
It hung in the air like smoke, refusing to dissolve.
Amara.
Her name surfaced in my mind with terrifying clarity.
In the dream, her face had been pale—too pale. Not the natural pallor of moonlight or exhaustion, but the colorless stillness of something lifeless. E
