CHAPTER III SHATTERGLASS DREAMS

Noen dreamt of her again. Not as she was, but as something else. She stood in a white hallway that pulsed like a lung. Her feet hovered above the ground, hair floating upward like she was underwater. Her eyes glowed dimly violet. She opened her mouth.. And a thousand whispers came out at once.

“You’re changing, Noen.”    

He staggered backward.    

 “They will come for you. Because you heard the Dirge.”

He reached for her. His hand passed through her shoulder like smoke.

“Don’t follow my footsteps.”
“Or you’ll learn the song.”

He woke up screaming. The windows in his apartment were all open. The air inside cold as the grave. Rain leaked in through the corners. On his wall, written in ash, was a single word: “CHOSEN.”

He felt sick. He started panicking and ran to the bathroom. There he stood and stared at himself in the mirror. His eyes weren’t normal anymore. A faint ring of violet circled his irises. He punched the mirror. Glass cracked. Blood dripped. But it did not help. The hum was louder now. Always there. Beneath anything and everything.