The first nightmare came before midnight.
Aeris woke standing in the academy corridor. Stone walls, Tall windows, Moonlight spilling across the floor. Her bare feet were cold. Her pulse was already racing.
She knew this hallway.
Crimson Academy. But she had not enrolled yet.
Something dripped behind her, She turned.
A long streak of fresh blood ran down the lockers.
Her shadow stretched unnaturally across the floor, longer than the moonlight allowed.
At the far end of the corridor, a figure stood motionless.
A student.
Head tilted at an impossible angle.
Aeris tried to step forward but Her body didn't respond.
Sliding across the stone floor toward the figure. The whisper filled her ears. Not lies,
Not voices but Recognition.
She woke in her bedroom.
On the floor Breathing hard Her palms were dirty. Dirt scattered across the polished wood beneath her. Her window was open.
Cold air drifting inside.
She did not sleep again.
______________________________________
Training Room.
Morning came too quickly.
Aeris stood in the Vale estate training room, facing a wooden practice post She needed to test something, Her heart beat faster deliberately.
One. Two. Three.
The shadow beneath her feet darkened.
"Move," she whispered.
Nothing happened. Her pulse rose higher The air around her felt heavier.
Then— The shadow struck the practice post. A sharp crack echoed through the room, The wood splintered.
Aeris froze.
Slowly, she lifted her hand and pressed it against her chest, feeling the rapid rhythm beneath her ribs. Fear should have come.
Instead—
A quiet thrill spread through her.
Footsteps approached outside the training room.
Aeris forced her breathing to slow then The shadow returned to normal.
Lucien stepped into the doorway. His eyes moved immediately to the cracked wooden post. Then to her.
"You started training early," he said.
Aeris nodded. "Yes."
He did not ask more questions. That worried her more than if he had.
As Lucien turned to leave, Aeris noticed something new.
For just a moment—
his shadow did not match his movement.
It lagged behind him. Then snapped back into place.
Aeris stood alone in the training room, pulse slowly calming. The morning light crept across the floor. Her shadow rested quietly at her feet.
And for the first time since waking from death,
Aeris wondered
if the shadow had returned before she did.
[End of the chapter 4.]