The trail of red spores led Sam into a place that had no name.
She called it The Garden of Sleep.
Because the deeper she walked, the heavier her body felt.
Her limbs dragged.Her mind fogged.
And the whispers…They no longer needed words.
They poured directly into her memories.
Visions bled into reality.
She saw her old bedroom.
Her mother's voice calling from the kitchen.
The scent of warm bread.Of safety.Of a world that no longer existed.
"Come back, Sam."
The voice was perfect.
But Sam gritted her teeth.
She drove her knife into the dirt.
Flesh-colored vines recoiled, hissing.
She knew the trick now.
The Blooming Ones didn't attack like predators.
They seduced.
They showed you the life you missedAnd begged you to lie down and let the roots take over.
Sam wouldn't fall for it.
She pressed forward.
But the visions intensified.
She saw her school.
Her old friends.
Even Wang…Before all of this.
Laughing.Living.
A world of sunshine.
No nightmares.No endless flowers.
Sam stumbled.
Her head spun.
She touched her face and felt petals sprouting from her skin.
No no no no—
She bit her tongue until it bled.
The taste of iron grounded her.
She forced herself to stand.
Ahead, the trail ended.
And the Garden opened.
It was a clearing of impossible beauty.
A field of silver lilies the size of trees.
Each one holding a sleeping body inside its petals.
Human bodies.
Some she recognized from the missing students.Others… strangers.
All smiling in their sleep.
Content.
Peaceful.
Sam realized…This was where they all ended up.
The people who gave in.
The people who listened.
The Blooming Ones didn't kill them.
They made them sleep forever in false dreams.
Perfect worlds inside their own minds.
Living tombs.
Sam wanted to puke.
And there, at the center, was Wang.
Kneeling before a colossal bloom.
Its petals unfolded like jaws, dripping honey-colored nectar.
And inside…A pulsing heart of vines.
The Core Bloom.
Wang didn't even look at Sam.
He spoke softly, as if praying.
"It's beautiful, isn't it, Sam? No more suffering. No more fear. They're offering us peace. Why can't you see it?"
Sam aimed her knife at him.
"You're not Wang anymore."
He finally looked at her.
His eyes were… empty.
"You never understood, Sam. The Mirage was the lie. But this—this is truth. Life only survives when it lets go of pain."
"No," Sam hissed. "Life survives because we fight."
She threw the knife.
But vines caught it midair.
Laughing.
Mocking.
The Core Bloom opened wider.
And the Garden of Sleep woke.
The sleepers stirred inside the lilies.
Their eyes opened.
All of them.
Staring at Sam.
Smiling.
And they began to chant.
In voices that were no longer human.
"Bloom with us, Sam.Bloom with us.Let go.Let go.Let go—"
Sam screamed.
She set fire to the torch and hurled it into the field.
The silver lilies ignited like paper.
The screams were unbearable.
Not of pain.
But of disappointment.
Of broken promises.
Wang screamed too.
But Sam couldn't tell if it was from pain…Or rage.
The Garden burned.
And in the flames, the Core Bloom pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
And exploded into a cloud of red spores.
Sam ran.
Blind.
Breathless.
The world behind her turned into a bleeding inferno of petals.
She didn't stop until she collapsed outside the forest.
Alone.
Trembling.
Her skin blistered from spores.
But still human.
For now.
She looked at the horizon.
The sky was… darker.
The spores were spreading into the winds.
The Blooming Ones weren't done.
They were only beginning.
And Wang?
She didn't know if she killed him.
Or if he had become something worse.
But she would find out.
Because now she knew their war had moved beyond mirrors.Beyond hallucinations.
It was everywhere.
Every breath.Every root.Every forgotten corner of the world.
And Sam would fight.
Until her last breath.