Jeremy had fallen asleep leaning against the stone wall of the monastery, the journal still clutched in his hands. The moment his eyelids closed, darkness fell—thick, heavy, unlike anything he had known before.
Suddenly, a slender figure shimmered into view within that darkness. The being moved fluidly, as if not bound by gravity. Dressed in black robes woven from smoke, their face remained hidden for a long moment behind a veil of silver light.
"Jeremy."
The voice was low, androgynous, like stretched metal mixed with a whisper of wind.
"Who are you?" he asked, though his own voice echoed strangely in the void.
"I am the one your mother wrote of at the end of the journal. The one she feared… and the one she trusted."
The figure raised a hand. Burning symbols appeared in the air—glyphs Jeremy couldn't read, but his body recognized them. His veins pulsed as if responding to a forgotten language.
"You are bound to two worlds. You suffer because of their rift. But when the time comes, you will choose one name. And one fate."
"And if I don't choose?"
"Then others will choose for you. And what you love… will be destroyed."
The being moved closer. Jeremy could now make out part of their face—one eye. Silver, pupil-less, but filled with infinite depth.
"Rosalie is not the darkest shadow that awaits you. But she calls to it. She's already seen it."
The being placed a hand on his chest, and a mark ignited on his skin—a circle of intertwined symbols glowing with pulsing fire.
"I've opened the gate. Now they all see you. And you… can see them."
Jeremy opened his eyes.
He was back in the monastery. His chest burned with a searing heat. He looked down—the mark was still there, glowing faintly beneath the skin like a tattoo of living flame.
Henry slept in the corner, unaware.
And Jeremy had just become visible to creatures that knew no boundaries between worlds.
*
The night was quiet. Julie lay asleep in her room, tucked under a blanket, a book fallen to the floor beside her. Jeremy lay in the old monastery, his back to the wall, the heat of the mark still smoldering on his chest.
At that same moment, they both began to dream.
They found themselves in a space unlike anything familiar. The air shimmered with both light and shadow. Tall trees with silver leaves grew from black soil. The sky… didn't exist. Instead, swirling, milky ribbons moved above them like fog in constant motion.
Jeremy walked slowly, staring at his hands, which kept shifting—sometimes human, sometimes something far more... demonic.
Julie stood across from him, dressed in a simple white dress. Her hair floated as if stirred by an invisible wind.
"You see this too?" she asked, eyes wide with fear—and a glimmer of relief.
"Yes. What is this?" Jeremy looked around. "How did you get here?"
"I don't know. But I'm here with you. And I feel like… we've been here before."
As they stepped closer to each other, the ground beneath their feet began to glow. Chains of light rose from their shadows and twisted above them into a spiral.
Suddenly, a symbol appeared in the air—the same one burned into Jeremy's chest. It hovered between them, recognizing something in them.
Julie shivered.
"I know that symbol… I dreamed of it before I met you."
Jeremy reached for her hand. The moment their skin touched, their bodies lit with pulsing light, and they heard the same voice that had haunted Jeremy's dreams:
"Two bound by blood and shadow. Love is not a reward. It is a test. You will either survive it together… or be torn apart."
The ground began to crack open. A rift emerged, filled with whispers—thousands of voices. Jeremy clutched his ears. Julie collapsed to her knees.
In the final moment, just before darkness consumed them, their hands held tighter than ever.
And then they both awoke—at the same time.
Julie bolted upright, screaming. Jeremy clutched his chest, where the mark now blazed brighter than before.
They knew it hadn't been a dream.
*
Julie sat on the edge of her bed, clutching the blanket. Her heart pounded like a war drum, breath shallow and trembling. She could still feel the cold from that place—that dream-realm where she hadn't been alone. She had been with him. With Jeremy.
She still saw his hand under her eyelids, touching hers within that spiral of light. And that voice. It wasn't human. It wasn't angelic, either.
Love is not a reward. It is a test.
She stared at her fingers, half-expecting to find the imprint of his touch. Nothing. But inside… everything had changed.
When she later ran into Jeremy at school, near the vending machine, she couldn't speak. He looked calm—maybe a little paler than usual, maybe a bit more distant—but otherwise… normal.
Julie couldn't stand the thought that he might have dreamed the same thing. That they could talk about it and… everything would change.
But she wasn't ready.
So when Jeremy looked at her with a question in his eyes, brow slightly raised, as if sensing her tension—she gave him a faint smile and shook her head.
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah… just didn't sleep well," she lied, too softly.
"I had… a weird night too," he admitted quietly, looking away.
Julie froze but quickly recovered. She couldn't. Not yet.
She nodded, then turned her gaze away. She didn't notice that Jeremy was still watching her—not with suspicion or anger, but with instinct.
Because something in her had changed. And he could feel it.