Chapter 1

The alarm clock in my room didn’t just ring; it shrieked. It was 6:00 AM, the start of my final birthday before Selection Day. In Oakhaven, that’s not just a birthday. It’s the day the government decides your entire life. You pass the test, you become a Scholar and live in the high towers. You fail, you work in the mines until your back breaks.

I rolled out of bed, my feet hitting the cold floor. My parents were already in the kitchen, their faces pale. They were terrified for me, even if they tried to hide it behind forced smiles and burnt toast.

"Eat up, Maya," my mother said, her hands trembling as she poured my tea. "You need your strength for the prep school today."

I nodded, but I couldn't swallow. My stomach felt like it was full of jagged glass. For the last three nights, the dreams had been worse. Vivid, terrifying flashes of things that felt like memories but hadn't happened yet. Last night, it was a bridge. A bright red bridge snapping in the middle of a thunderstorm. The sound of metal screaming against metal was so loud I woke up crying.

I grabbed my bag and headed out the door before they could ask me if I was okay. I couldn't tell them. If the government sensors in our walls picked up on my "instability," I’d be marked as a failure before I even took the test.

The city was already waking up. Thousands of us, all seventeen-year-olds in identical grey uniforms, walked toward the Academy. The cameras were everywhere, perched on top of buildings like mechanical birds, watching our every move, measuring our heart rates, recording our eye movements.

I kept my head down, staring at the sidewalk. *Just act normal,* I told myself. *Be the perfect girl. Pass the test. Forget the dreams.*

But then, I saw it.

I was walking past the Transit Station when the air around me turned freezing cold. A sharp, stinging pain shot through my forehead, like someone had jabbed a needle behind my eyes. I stumbled, clutching a cold brick wall for support. The world started to blur, then sharpen into a terrifying vision.

I saw the Number 4 train pulling into the platform. I saw the track shifting. I saw the sparks, the terrified faces of the commuters, and the massive weight of the steel carriages tumbling off the rails. It was happening right in front of me, but the station was empty. It was a premonition. A warning.

"No," I whispered, my voice shaking.

I looked up. The real Number 4 train was pulling into the station. It was exactly as I had seen it in the dream. The same silver paint, the same conductor waving from the window.

I couldn't just stand there. I didn't care about the cameras or the rules. I bolted toward the platform, my lungs burning.

"Stop!" I screamed, waving my arms at the conductor. "You have to stop the train! The tracks are failing!"

People stopped to stare. I looked like a crazy person, a girl in a grey uniform losing her mind. The conductor looked at me with annoyance, his hand resting on the throttle. He didn't believe me. Why would he?.

He started to move the train forward. I saw the tracks shuddering. The vision was coming true. My heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to burst. I didn't think; I just ran to the emergency lever at the end of the platform, a device we were strictly forbidden to touch.

I yanked it down with all my strength.

The alarm system began to wail, a deafening, piercing sound that paralyzed the entire station. The conductor slammed on the brakes, the train screeching to a halt just inches from the section of the track that began to buckle and collapse into the pit below.

Silence followed. Then, chaos.

Passengers poured out of the train, confused and terrified. People were shouting, pointing at me, the girl who had stopped the transit system. I stood there, trembling, my hands still on the red lever.

I looked up at the main camera on the wall. The red light, usually a steady pulse, was now flashing rapidly. They had seen everything. My face, my ID number, my interference.

*I just ruined everything,* I thought, the cold dread setting in. *I didn't pass the test. I failed the system.*

I turned and started to run. I didn't go toward the Academy. I ran into the dark, narrow alleys behind the station, where the cameras had blind spots. I had to get away before the Peacekeepers arrived. I had to disappear.

My heart was racing, but for the first time in my life, my head was clear. The dreams weren't a sickness. They were a truth. And I was the only person in Oakhaven who could see it.

I ducked behind a dumpster as a black armored vehicle roared past the alley entrance. The sirens were everywhere now. I held my breath, pressing my back against the wet brick. I was seventeen, I had one day left until Selection Day, and I had just become the most wanted girl in the city.

A shadow detached itself from the wall beside me. I gasped, ready to scream, but a hand clamped firmly over my mouth.

"Don't make a sound," a boy’s voice whispered in my ear. He smelled like ozone and damp earth. "If you want to live, follow me."

I looked up. He had messy dark hair and eyes that looked like they had seen just as much darkness as mine. He wasn't wearing a grey uniform. He was dressed in black, with a patch on his sleeve I’d never seen before.

"Who are you?" I whispered, as he pulled his hand away.

"Someone who knows what you just did," he said, glancing toward the sound of the approaching sirens. "And someone who knows that your dreams are just the beginning. I'm Leo. And if you stay here, they will erase you."

I looked back at the main road, where the agents were already swarming the station. I looked at Leo, the boy who seemed to understand my nightmare. I had two choices: stay and face the consequences of my "incompetence," or go into the dark with a stranger and find out why my mind was haunted by the future.

I took a deep breath. The fear was still there, but there was something else too, a spark of anger. Anger at the cameras, the tests, the life that was never really mine.

"Lead the way," I said.

We moved fast, jumping over pipes and slipping through the shadows of the old city. Oakhaven was built on layers of history, and Leo moved like he knew every secret stone. We reached a heavy steel grate near the city’s drainage system. He pulled it open, and a rush of cool, stale air hit my face.

"Down there," he commanded.

I hesitated for a second. This was leaving everything. My parents, my room, the path my life was supposed to take. But then I remembered the way the train tracks looked in my dream, broken, just like my life was about to be.

I climbed down into the darkness. As Leo followed me and pulled the grate shut, the light of the city faded away. I was underground, in the veins of the city, hidden from the eyes of the government.

"Why are you helping me?" I asked, my voice echoing in the tunnel.

Leo stopped and turned, his face barely visible in the dim light. "Because you're not the only one who has seen the future, Maya. There are others. And the government is terrified of us because we're the only ones who can see that the future they're building is a lie."

He held out a hand. "Welcome to the real world."

I took it. My palm was shaking, but my grip was firm. I was a girl who had once feared a test, but now, I was a girl who had stopped a catastrophe. The dreams were no longer just a burden. They were a weapon.

And I was going to use them to tear the whole system down.