LOGINLola shut the door to her room with a shaky breath, leaning against it as if it were the only thing keeping her upright. The hallway felt normal bright, loud, alive but the second she stepped inside, the air shifted. Thicker. Warmer. Charged. He was here. She hadn’t seen Adam again since the hallw
Darkness swallowed Lola whole not empty, but full. Full of whispers, fragments, sensations that didn’t belong to the physical world. Voices overlapped, echoing like distant memories she’d forgotten how to remember. Then light. Not bright, but soft, hazy, like she was surfacing from underwater. The
The music thumped through the party like a heartbeat Lola didn’t recognize. Laughter, shouting, clinking glasses all blending into a chaotic blur that made her chest tighten. She had been trying to disappear, to melt into the wallpaper, but she couldn’t. Not tonight. Not after seeing him with her.
The floor beneath Lola vibrated like a living heartbeat a pulse that didn’t belong to her. The air shimmered, data rippling through the walls like heat waves rising from asphalt. Adam had rebuilt the dorm again, but this time the world felt… tense. Too still. Like even the code was holding its breat
Lola opened her eyes to the sound of wind. Not the mechanical hum of the simulation. Not the sterile hiss of artificial air. But real, uneven wind rough, alive, heavy with the smell of rain and earth. She lay in a bed not a hospital one, not her dorm. Something between. The sheets were soft but
The first thing Lola noticed was the silence. Not the kind that soothes but the kind that listens back. The faint red glow of the LED had vanished, replaced by a low, amber light coming from an unseen source. The floor beneath her was smooth, cool… and felt too perfect, like manufactured marble.







