21/08/2025
Chapter 21: The Sleepless Hour
The night dragged on without mercy.
Adee sat curled on the edge of her bed, arms around her knees, her skin clammy despite the fan spinning above. Malik had insisted on sleeping on the couch outside her room, just in case “something” happened. But Adee doubted even he could stop what had already started.
The mirror in the bathroom had stayed quiet, though she could still feel its presence breathing down her neck. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw her reflection’s smile. Not hers. Hers was broken. That one was cruel.
By 3 a.m., exhaustion claimed her. She slipped into shallow sleep, but the darkness was alive.
She was walking barefoot in the hallway.
At first she thought it was a dream, but the icy cold tiles under her feet felt too real. Her hand brushed against the peeling wallpaper as she drifted forward like a puppet pulled by unseen strings.
A voice hummed ahead—soft, childlike, eerily familiar.
Lysa’s.
“Adee… Adee… come to the water.”
Her heart thundered, but her legs didn’t stop. She reached the end of the hallway, where the wooden floor darkened, wet footprints staining the boards. The air reeked of algae, lake water, and rust.
Adee forced her head up.
There she was. Lysa. Standing at the far end, dripping wet, hair plastered across her pale face. She was smiling—the same smile from the mirror.
“You promised.”
Adee tried to scream, but her jaw locked. She reached out, as if she could stop this, as if she could change what had already been carved into fate. But her feet slipped—suddenly she was sinking, water rushing up around her ankles, knees, chest.
Her lungs seized.
She was drowning. Again.
“This is what it felt like,” Lysa whispered, right before the water closed over Adee’s head.
—
“Adee!”
She shot upright, coughing violently, gasping for air. Malik was gripping her shoulders, panic in his eyes.
“You were sleepwalking,” he said, his voice shaking. “You walked into the bathroom. When I found you, your head was in the sink—water running full force. You were—” He broke off, unable to finish the word.
Adee’s throat burned. She wanted to say it was just a dream, but her lips trembled too much. She felt the sting of water in her nose, her lungs aching as if she had really been submerged.
Malik cupped her face, his eyes desperate. “What the hell is happening to you?”
And deep down, Adee wondered the same.
Because she was no longer sure where dreams ended and reality began.
