[NOT A CHAPTER]
The Dream and the Dreamer....
I run through a field of endless flowers,
petals brushing against my skin like whispers of a life I never had.
And for once—
I smile.
Not the fragile kind I wear to survive…
but something real.
Something warm.
It's so hard to believe.....
A happiness I once believed was never real, was only a dream.
Yet here it is—
alive in my chest, blooming like the world around me.
It felt so good.....
In the distance, they stand…
My family.
Waiting.
Smiling as though I was never lost.
My mother steps forward, her arms open wide—
a silent promise of comfort, of belonging… of home.
My heart stirs, aching and hopeful all at once.
I run faster.
Desperate.
Afraid this feeling might slip away if I slow down.
Just a few more steps…
Just a little closer—
And then—
The wind shifts.
The flowers tremble.
My flowers began to fade....
The sky darkens, swallowing the light whole.
A storm crashes into my fragile paradise,
violent and unforgiving.
Colors bleed into nothingness.
The warmth disappears.
And so do they.
Gone—
as if they were never there at all.
I stand alone…
in the ruins of a dream
that felt far too real
to be only a dream.