Chapter 26 The Dream

Chapter 26 The Dream
Lyra

The dream didn’t feel like a dream.

It felt like home.

I was standing in the kitchen, the same one I had grown up in, where the walls were a little too plain and the table had that small crack on the edge I used to trace with my fingers when I was bored. The air smelled familiar, warm, like something cooking on the stove, like safety.

Like before everything broke.

My chest tightened before I even saw him.

“Dad?”

My voice sounded smaller than I expected, like I was afraid if I spoke too loudly, he would disappear.

He stood by the sink, his back turned to me, just like he used to when he washed the dishes after dinner. His sleeves were rolled up, and the faint sound of running water filled the silence between us.

For a moment, I didn’t move.

I just stared.

Because this—this was impossible.

“You’re not…” My voice cracked, and I swallowed hard. “You’re not here.”

He didn’t answer.

My heart started to race, panic creeping in slowly. “Dad?”

I stepped forward.

The floor didn’t creak like it should have. The air didn’t shift. Everything felt too still, like the world was holding its breath.

“Please,” I said softly, my voice trembling now. “Turn around.”

He didn’t and the water kept running.

My chest tightened painfully. “Why won’t you look at me?”

Still nothing.

Something inside me began to break.

I moved faster this time, closing the distance between us, my hands shaking as I reached for him. “Dad, please… I need you to talk to me. I don’t understand anything anymore.”

My fingers brushed his arm and it was cold not the kind of cold from a room or the weather.

The kind that felt wrong, he stopped moving.

Slowly… too slowly… the water turned off.

The silence that followed was suffocating.

My breath hitched as he finally began to turn.

“Tell me what’s happening,” I whispered quickly, the words rushing out now. “Why are they chasing me? What am I? You knew, didn’t you? You knew all of this and you didn’t tell me anything..”

He faced me and for a second… I couldn’t breathe.

It was him, exactly him.

But something was missing.

His eyes, they weren’t warm or kind.

They were… empty.

Like he was looking at me, but not seeing me.

“Dad?” I said again, softer this time, my voice shaking.

His lips parted slightly. “You should have run farther.”

The words hit like a knife.

I froze. “What?”

“You didn’t go far enough,” he said, his voice calm, too calm, like he wasn’t talking about my life, like it didn’t matter.

Tears burned my eyes instantly. “I tried! I did exactly what you told me to do!”

“It wasn’t enough.” The way he said it—

No emotion. No regret. Just fact.

My chest tightened painfully. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth?” I asked, my voice breaking. “Why didn’t you tell me who I am?”

He didn’t answer.

He just looked at me.

That empty, hollow stare that made something inside me twist.

“I needed you,” I whispered, tears slipping down my cheeks now. “I still need you.”

Nothing.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” I admitted, my voice shaking uncontrollably. “Everyone keeps talking about me like I’m some kind of weapon or problem or… something else, and I don’t even know what that means.”

Still nothing.

The silence felt louder than anything.

“I’m scared,” I said finally, the words breaking apart as they left my lips. “I’m so scared, Dad.”

For a moment, I thought—

I hoped—

Something would change.

That his expression would soften.

That he would step forward.

That he would be him again.

But he didn’t.

He just stood there.

Watching me fall apart.

“You don’t have time to be scared,” he said.

That broke me.

A sob tore out of my chest before I could stop it, my hands shaking as I wiped at my face. “Then what am I supposed to do?” I cried. “Tell me! Just tell me what to do!”

The room shifted subtle but wrong.

The walls seemed darker.

The air heavier.

“You were never meant to live a normal life,” he said.

My heart dropped.

“I had a normal life,” I whispered. “I had you.”

“No,” he said.

The word echoed.

"That life was borrowed.” The kitchen flickered.

For a split second, something else bled through the edges of the room. Darkness. Stone. Something far from home.

My breath came faster. “What does that mean?”

He stepped closer.

Too close. "You were always going to be found.”

Terror curled in my chest.

“By who?”

His eyes didn’t change.

“They’re already coming.”

The lights flickered again. This time, the sound followed.

A low… distant… echo. Not from the kitchen but from somewhere deeper.

My heart started pounding wildly. “Dad… what is that?”

He didn’t look away from me.

“They can smell you now.”

Fear crashed over me so fast it made my vision blur. “Make it stop,” I begged. “Please, just make it stop!”

“I can’t.”

The sound grew louder.

Closer.

Like something moving just beyond the walls.

I shook my head, backing away. “No… no, this isn’t real.”

“You don’t get to choose what’s real anymore.”

My chest tightened, panic flooding every part of me. “Then wake me up!” I cried. “Please—just wake me up!”

His gaze didn’t soften.

But his voice dropped slightly.

“Run.”

The same word in the same way and everything shattered.

I woke up gasping.

My body jerked forward as I sucked in a sharp breath, my chest rising and falling too fast as reality slammed back into me. The room was dark, the faint light from the window barely cutting through the shadows, but it was enough.

Enough to remind me where I was.

Not home. Not safe. Not before.

Tears blurred my vision before I could stop them.

I pressed my hand against my mouth, trying to steady my breathing, but it didn’t work. The ache in my chest only grew stronger, heavier, like something had settled there and refused to leave.

“Dad…” I whispered, my voice breaking.

He was gone.

He had been gone.

And now, even in my dreams, he felt… distant.

Wrong.

I pulled my knees closer to my chest, wrapping my arms around them as I tried to ground myself, but it only made the memories come faster.

Him laughing over something stupid.

Him reminding me to lock the door at night.

Him sitting across from me while I did my homework, pretending to understand physics just to keep me company.

Simple things.

Normal things.

Things I didn’t even realize mattered until they were gone.

“I just want it back,” I whispered, tears slipping down my face again. “I just want my life back.”

But deep down...I already knew.

That life was gone and whatever was waiting for me now…

It wasn’t going to be kind.