Chapter 3: Little Things

The first strange thing happened on a Tuesday.

Gwen didn’t notice it.

At least, not at first.

It was the kind of morning that felt too ordinary to remember.

She woke up late.

Again.

Her alarm had been ringing for nearly ten minutes before she finally surfaced from sleep, and when she opened her eyes, she stared at the ceiling with the exhausted realization that she had somehow managed to lose another battle against time.

“Gwen!”

Her mother’s voice came from downstairs.

“I’M UP!”

“You said that five minutes ago!”

“I’M ACTUALLY UP NOW!”

“You better be!”

Gwen threw the covers aside.

She grabbed her phone.

7:36.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

She jumped out of bed.

Her phone buzzed.

She glanced at it.

JI-WON: You alive?

Gwen smiled despite herself.

GWEN: Barely.

JI-WON: Again?

GWEN: Don’t judge me.

JI-WON: I am judging you.

Gwen laughed as she hurried toward her closet.

She threw on a pair of jeans, a fitted top, and a jacket, grabbed her bag, ran a brush through her hair, and somehow managed to make herself look presentable enough to pass as someone who had not just been fighting for her life against an alarm clock.

She ran downstairs.

Her mother was standing in the kitchen with her arms crossed.

“Seven thirty-six.”

“I know.”

“You’re going to miss breakfast.”

“I’ll eat later.”

“That’s what you said yesterday.”

“And I survived.”

“Barely.”

Gwen kissed her cheek.

“Love you.”

Her mother tried to look annoyed.

It didn’t work.

“Take something with you.”

Gwen grabbed a piece of toast.

“Happy?”

“Very.”

She headed for the door.

“Gwen!”

She turned.

“Umbrella.”

Gwen looked through the window.

The sky was blue.

“Mom, it’s sunny.”

“Take it.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so.”

Gwen sighed.

“Fine.”

She grabbed the umbrella.

She didn’t know why, but the moment her fingers wrapped around the handle, she had the oddest feeling that she’d done the exact same thing before.

Not recently.

Not yesterday.

Just…

before.

She frowned.

Then shook it off.

“Too much school,” she muttered.

Her mother looked at her.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

And she left.

By the time Gwen reached school, Haley was already complaining.

“You’re late.”

Gwen checked the time.

“I’m two minutes early.”

“Late emotionally.”

“That’s not a thing.”

“It is now.”

Terra appeared beside them.

“What are we arguing about?”

“Gwen’s inability to respect time.”

“I respect time.”

“You were born late.”

Gwen stared at her.

“What?”

Terra shrugged.

“I don’t know. I needed something.”

Gwen burst out laughing.

They walked through the school doors together.

It was a normal day.

A completely normal day.

Classes.

Notes.

Teachers.

Lunch.

Haley stealing half of Gwen’s fries despite having her own.

Terra complaining about an assignment she had definitely procrastinated on.

Gwen checking her phone between classes and pretending she wasn’t hoping to see a message from Ji-won.

She did.

At 11:43.

JI-WON: Lunch?

GWEN: Obviously.

JI-WON: Where?

GWEN: Cafeteria.

JI-WON: I’ll find you.

Gwen smiled.

Haley noticed.

Of course she did.

“Oh my God.”

Gwen locked her phone.

“What?”

“You have that stupid smile again.”

“I don’t have a stupid smile.”

“You do when she texts.”

Terra leaned over.

“Let me see.”

“No.”

“Gwen.”

“No.”

Haley reached for her phone.

Gwen pulled it away.

“Back off.”

They both laughed.

For the rest of lunch, Gwen tried very hard to act normal.

She failed.

Ji-won joined them halfway through.

She sat beside Gwen, said almost nothing for the first five minutes, and somehow still managed to become the center of Gwen’s attention.

When their knees accidentally touched beneath the table, Gwen immediately moved hers.

Ji-won glanced at her.

A tiny smile appeared.

Gwen narrowed her eyes.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re smiling.”

“I know.”

“You’re annoying.”

“I know.”

Haley looked between them.

“Oh, this is painful.”

Gwen threw a fry at her.

By the time Gwen arrived at the fashion house that afternoon, she’d almost forgotten about the strange feeling from that morning.

Almost.

The fashion house was busy.

Very busy.

A fitting was taking place on the main floor, three assistants were rushing around with garment bags, someone was arguing with a courier, and Maya was standing at her desk holding what appeared to be seventeen pieces of paper and questioning every decision that had led her to that moment.

“Gwen!”

Gwen smiled.

“What’s wrong?”

“Everything.”

“That’s dramatic.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Maya handed her a stack of folders.

“Take these to archives.”

“Okay.”

“And bring back the blue collection files.”

“Where are those?”

“Old storage.”

Gwen stopped.

“Old storage?”

“Top floor.”

“I thought that area was closed.”

“It is.”

“Then why am I going there?”

“Because the files are there.”

“Why are the files there?”

Maya stared at her.

“Do you want the philosophical answer or the practical one?”

“The practical one.”

“Because someone put them there.”

Gwen laughed.

“Fair enough.”

Maya pointed toward the elevator.

“Top floor. End of the hall. There’s a storage room beside the old design studio.”

“Got it.”

“And Gwen?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t get distracted.”

Gwen smiled.

“No promises.”

The elevator carried her upward.

The fashion house had several floors, but the top floor was barely used anymore.

Gwen had been there once.

Maybe twice.

It felt different from the rest of the building.

Quieter.

Older.

The polished modern interiors disappeared, replaced by faded walls, wooden doors, and dusty windows.

She stepped out.

The elevator doors closed behind her.

Silence.

Gwen looked down the hallway.

“Okay.”

She walked.

Her footsteps echoed.

She found the storage room.

The door was slightly open.

She pushed it.

Dust floated through the sunlight.

Gwen coughed.

“Wow.”

The room was packed with old furniture, garment boxes, rolled-up fabrics, outdated mannequins, and shelves filled with folders.

She found the blue collection files quickly.

They were sitting on a shelf beneath a handwritten label.

She reached for them.

Then stopped.

Something had caught her attention.

A narrow staircase.

It was tucked behind a wooden divider at the far end of the room.

Gwen frowned.

She had never seen it before.

She moved closer.

There was a small sign hanging from a chain.

ATTIC

The word had almost faded away.

Gwen stared at it.

Then at the stairs.

She glanced behind her.

Nobody.

She knew she was supposed to take the files and go.

That was the responsible thing.

She should have listened.

Instead, she whispered,

“Just one minute.”

She placed the files down.

Then climbed.

The stairs creaked beneath her feet.

The higher she went, the darker it became.

At the top was a wooden door.

Gwen placed her hand on the handle.

It was cold.

Much colder than it should have been.

She hesitated.

Then turned it.

The door opened.

Gwen stepped inside.

And stopped.

She didn’t know what she expected to find.

Old clothes, perhaps.

Furniture.

Boxes.

Something boring.

Instead…

She found something else.

Something she couldn’t immediately explain.

Her eyes moved slowly across the room.

There were shelves.

Hundreds of them.

Old books.

Paintings.

Photographs.

Jewelry.

Maps.

Objects she couldn’t identify.

Some looked handmade.

Others looked ancient.

In the center of the room sat a large wooden table covered with papers.

Gwen walked toward it.

There were drawings.

Stories.

Fragments.

A painting of a place she had never seen.

A castle surrounded by blue trees.

A woman wearing a silver crown.

A strange symbol repeated across several pages.

Gwen picked up one of the papers.

The writing was faded.

She could make out only a few words.

The kingdom…

The rest had been torn away.

She looked at another.

The chosen…

Again, the page ended abruptly.

Another photograph had been ripped directly through the middle.

Another map was missing an entire section.

It was almost as though someone had deliberately removed every piece that might have made sense of what she was looking at.

Gwen frowned.

“What is this?”

She reached for another page.

Nothing.

Another.

Nothing.

The stories were incomplete.

The pictures were damaged.

The dates were either missing or impossible to read.

Whatever this place was, someone had made sure nobody could understand it.

Or maybe…

Nobody had ever understood it in the first place.

Gwen looked toward the painting of the castle.

For a moment, she felt something.

Not fear.

Recognition.

Her fingers tightened around the paper.

Then she blinked.

The feeling disappeared.

She laughed quietly at herself.

“Okay. Definitely too much school.”

She placed the paper back.

Her eyes continued wandering.

And then she saw it.

A bracelet.

It rested alone inside a small glass case on the far side of the room.

Gwen walked toward it.

It was beautiful.

Pearly blue.

Not bright blue.

Not turquoise.

Something softer.

Almost like the color of the sky just before sunset.

The bracelet was delicate, made of tiny pearl-like beads with a small silver clasp.

It should have looked old.

Everything else in the attic looked old.

The case was dusty.

The table was dusty.

The books were dusty.

Even the glass itself had a thin layer of age on it.

But the bracelet looked untouched.

Perfect.

Gwen leaned closer.

There wasn’t a single scratch.

Not one discolored bead.

Not one sign that it had spent years—or decades—sitting there.

She looked around.

There was no label.

No name.

No explanation.

Just the bracelet.

She opened the case.

She knew she probably shouldn’t.

But she did anyway.

She lifted it.

The moment it touched her palm, she felt a strange warmth.

Gwen frowned.

The room suddenly seemed very quiet.

Too quiet.

She looked around.

Nothing.

She turned the bracelet over.

Beautiful.

She liked it.

That was enough.

Gwen slipped it onto her wrist.

It fit perfectly.

She stared at it.

“Well…”

She smiled.

“Mine now.”

She picked up the files she’d come for and headed toward the stairs.

Before leaving, she glanced back.

The attic looked exactly as it had before.

Old.

Forgotten.

Unimportant.

Gwen closed the door.

She didn’t think about it again for the rest of the day.

At least, she tried not to.

That night, Gwen was in bed when she noticed the bracelet again.

She was scrolling through her phone when the pearly blue beads caught the light from her lamp.

She smiled.

She still couldn’t believe how perfectly it fit.

She lifted her wrist.

The bracelet shimmered.

For half a second, Gwen thought she saw a tiny blue light beneath the beads.

She blinked.

Nothing.

She rubbed her eyes.

“I’m tired.”

She turned off the lamp.

Five minutes later, her phone buzzed.

JI-WON: You awake?

Gwen smiled.

GWEN: Unfortunately.

JI-WON: Again?

GWEN: Don’t start.

JI-WON: I wasn’t going to.

GWEN: Liar.

There was a pause.

JI-WON: I like your bracelet.

Gwen stared at the message.

She looked at her wrist.

GWEN: You saw it?

JI-WON: Yes.

GWEN: When?

The typing bubble appeared.

Disappeared.

Appeared again.

Then:

JI-WON: Today.

Gwen frowned.

She couldn’t remember Ji-won seeing it.

She typed:

GWEN: I don’t remember showing you.

There was no immediate response.

Then:

JI-WON: You didn’t.

Gwen sat up slightly.

Before she could reply, another message appeared.

JI-WON: Goodnight, Gwen.

Gwen stared at the screen.

Something about the exchange felt strange.

But she couldn’t explain why.

Eventually, she put her phone down.

She fell asleep.

The next morning, Gwen woke up before her alarm.

That never happened.

She lay still for a moment, staring at the ceiling.

Then she sat up.

Her wrist felt warm.

She looked at the bracelet.

It was there.

Exactly where she’d left it.

Gwen smiled.

She had forgotten to take it off.

She got ready for school.

Nothing seemed unusual.

Until she reached the kitchen.

Her mother was standing by the counter.

“Where did you get that?”

Gwen looked down.

“The bracelet?”

“Yes.”

“Yesterday.”

Her mother stared at it.

“It’s pretty.”

“Thanks.”

“Where?”

“At work.”

Her mother was quiet.

Gwen noticed.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re doing the face.”

“What face?”

“The one where you’re pretending not to be concerned.”

Her mother looked at her.

“I’ve just never seen it before.”

“Because I just got it.”

Her mother nodded slowly.

“Right.”

Gwen grabbed a piece of toast.

“I’m keeping it.”

Her mother smiled.

“Okay.”

Gwen kissed her cheek and left.

Neither of them noticed that the moment Gwen stepped outside, the bracelet seemed to catch the morning sunlight.

And for the briefest second, the beads glowed.

At school, Gwen’s day began normally.

Haley immediately noticed the bracelet.

“Cute.”

Gwen held out her wrist.

“I found it yesterday.”

“Where?”

“Work.”

Terra touched one of the beads.

“It’s actually really pretty.”

“I know.”

“Expensive?”

“I have no idea.”

“Probably.”

Gwen shrugged.

“I didn’t pay for it.”

Both girls looked at her.

“What?”

“You stole it?”

“No!”

“You just said you didn’t pay.”

“It was abandoned.”

“That doesn’t make it legal.”

“Relax.”

They laughed.

The morning passed.

Until Gwen walked into history class.

She stopped.

The teacher was writing something on the board.

A date.

A name.

A place.

Gwen stared at the words.

Her stomach dropped.

She knew that name.

She didn’t know how.

It was gone almost immediately.

She blinked.

“What?”

The teacher turned.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah.”

Gwen sat down.

She looked at the board again.

Nothing.

Just a normal lesson.

She shook her head.

Maybe she’d seen the name somewhere.

Maybe online.

Maybe in a book.

She didn’t know.

She didn’t think about it again.

Not until lunch.

Gwen was sitting with Haley and Terra when her phone suddenly died.

She frowned.

“It was at sixty percent.”

Haley looked over.

“Your phone hates you.”

“Apparently.”

Gwen pressed the power button.

Nothing.

She tried again.

Nothing.

Then, without warning—

The screen turned on.

But it wasn’t her lock screen.

For less than a second, Gwen saw an image.

A field.

Blue flowers.

A distant castle.

Then the screen went black.

Gwen froze.

“Did you see that?”

Haley looked up.

“See what?”

“My phone.”

Terra leaned closer.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know.”

Gwen pressed the button again.

Her normal lock screen appeared.

Everything was fine.

Haley shrugged.

“Glitch.”

“Yeah.”

Gwen looked at her bracelet.

The pearly blue beads were warm.

She pulled her sleeve over it.

She didn’t know why.

At the fashion house that afternoon, Gwen couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

Not wrong.

Just…

different.

The building looked exactly the same.

Maya was at her desk.

The designers were working.

Music played softly from the studio.

Someone was laughing in the fitting room.

Everything was normal.

Ariana walked past Gwen without saying anything.

Gwen returned to her work.

For an hour, nothing happened.

Then Gwen heard someone call her name.

“Gwen.”

She turned.

Nobody was there.

She frowned.

“Hello?”

Silence.

She looked down the hallway.

Empty.

Then she heard it again.

“Gwen.”

This time it sounded like a whisper.

She stood.

“Who’s there?”

Nothing.

Maya appeared around the corner.

“Gwen?”

Gwen turned quickly.

“Yeah?”

“Did you call me?”

“No.”

Maya frowned.

“I thought I heard you.”

Gwen smiled awkwardly.

“Maybe someone else.”

“Probably.”

Maya walked away.

Gwen remained still.

Her wrist was warm again.

She looked down.

The bracelet was perfectly still.

She touched it.

Nothing happened.

She laughed under her breath.

“Okay.”

She returned to work.

Later that evening, Gwen was sorting fabric samples when a small object fell from a box.

She bent down.

It was a photograph.

Old.

Black and white.

She picked it up.

There were several people standing in front of a building.

She couldn’t make out their faces.

The photograph was badly damaged.

Someone had torn the right side away.

Gwen turned it over.

Nothing.

Then she noticed something written on the back.

Three words.

Don’t let her wake.

Gwen stared.

Her heart beat once.

Hard.

She turned the photograph over again.

There was nothing.

She looked around.

The room suddenly felt colder.

“Gwen?”

She jumped.

Maya stood behind her.

“Sorry.”

Gwen laughed nervously.

“You scared me.”

Maya looked at the photograph.

“What’s that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where did you get it?”

“It fell out of this box.”

Maya took it from her.

She stared at it for a moment.

Then frowned.

“I’ve never seen this before.”

“Me neither.”

Maya placed it on the desk.

“Probably trash.”

“Probably.”

Gwen nodded.

But she didn’t feel like it was trash.

She couldn’t explain why.

That night, Gwen dreamed.

She was standing somewhere unfamiliar.

There was wind.

She could hear trees moving.

Someone was calling her.

Not her name.

Something else.

A title.

A word she couldn’t understand.

She turned.

There was a woman standing far away.

A crown rested on her head.

Gwen tried to move toward her.

The woman lifted her hand.

“Wait.”

Gwen stopped.

“Who are you?”

The woman looked terrified.

“Don’t let him find you.”

“Who?”

The woman looked behind Gwen.

Her face changed.

Fear.

Pure fear.

“He knows.”

Gwen turned.

There was someone standing in the distance.

A man.

She couldn’t see his face.

Gwen tried to move.

She couldn’t.

The man began walking toward her.

Closer.

Closer.

Closer.

And then—

Gwen woke up.

She sat upright.

Her breathing was heavy.

Her room was dark.

Her heart raced.

She looked around.

Nothing.

Just her room.

Her books.

Her desk.

Her curtains.

Her normal life.

Gwen touched her face.

“It was a dream.”

She took a breath.

Then another.

She looked down.

The bracelet was glowing.

Not brightly.

Just enough.

A faint blue light pulsed beneath the pearls.

Gwen stared at it.

Her breathing stopped.

The light disappeared.

She blinked.

Nothing.

The bracelet was ordinary again.

She slowly reached for her phone.

2:17 a.m.

Gwen stared at the time.

Then laughed nervously.

“Okay.”

She lay back down.

She closed her eyes.

And for a long time, she didn’t sleep.

The following morning, Gwen returned to the fashion house earlier than usual.

She had told herself it was because she needed to finish some work.

That wasn’t entirely true.

She kept thinking about the attic.

About the old stories.

The torn pages.

The photographs.

The bracelet.

And especially the strange feeling she’d had when she first walked inside.

She needed to see it again.

Not because she believed there was anything supernatural about it.

She didn’t.

She wasn’t crazy.

She just wanted answers.

Even if the answer was simply that the attic contained a collection of bizarre old things belonging to some eccentric former designer.

That made sense.

Much more sense than anything else.

Gwen waited until the main floor became busy.

Then she slipped upstairs.

The hallway was quiet.

She reached the storage room.

The door was still open.

She stepped inside.

The staircase was exactly where she’d left it.

She climbed.

The attic door was closed.

Gwen hesitated.

Then opened it.

The room looked untouched.

She walked inside.

Her eyes moved across the shelves.

The books.

The maps.

The paintings.

The photographs.

She went directly to the table.

The papers were still there.

She began digging.

One story was about a kingdom surrounded by forests.

Another mentioned a royal family.

Another described a girl who would return when the kingdom was at its darkest.

But every story was incomplete.

Pages had been ripped out.

Sections had been cut away.

Photographs had been destroyed.

Maps were missing pieces.

Gwen found another painting.

A woman standing beside a young girl.

The girl’s face had been scratched away.

Gwen stared at it.

She couldn’t explain why it made her uncomfortable.

She moved on.

Another photograph.

Torn.

Another book.

Missing its final chapters.

Another page.

Only half a sentence remained.

When she finally opens her eyes…

Gwen stopped.

She stared at the words.

Her fingers slowly tightened around the paper.

Then she shook her head.

“No.”

She put it down.

Coincidence.

It had to be.

She searched for another few minutes.

Nothing.

No answers.

No explanation.

Just fragments.

Pieces of stories that seemed to belong to a world that shouldn’t exist.

Eventually, Gwen sighed.

“I’m wasting my time.”

She turned toward the door.

Then stopped.

Her bracelet felt warm.

She looked down.

The pearly blue beads were glowing again.

Very faintly.

Gwen stared.

The light disappeared.

Her he