>>Pen (14 years old)
The dreams came more often now, slipping into my sleep like a shadow that refused to stay away.
When they first started, it was once every few months—a strange, distant occurrence that I could easily shake off. But now, they felt almost like a haunting, recurring every twenty days, maybe less. And every time they came, they brought with them a throbbing headache, a deep, pulsing ache that made it hard to sleep.
And then I would see as though it was myself moving around, even though I knew it wasn't me.
I was always in someone else's skin—feeling, moving, and seeing through her eyes. This time was no different. The dream started with a rush of cold air and the crunch of leaves beneath my feet. I stumbled forward, my body heavy, like every step took every bit of strength I had. The dense forest pressed in around me, the towering trees so thick that not even a sliver of daylight managed to break through.
