Chapter 73: Sleepless
Dillan didn’t sleep.
He couldn’t.
The notebook remained open on his desk.
The elegant handwriting stared back at him.
Sleep well.
I’ll see you tonight.
He had rewritten the same sentence six times.
Compared the strokes.
The spacing.
The pressure.
It wasn’t his.
There was no hesitation left.
Someone had written inside his notebook.
Or...
Something had.
"...This isn’t funny."
His voice sounded hollow inside the apartment.
No one answered.
He slowly closed the notebook.
Locked every window.
Checked the front door.
Twice.
Then three times.
Only after checking a fourth time did he finally stop.
"...I’m really losing it."
The following morning...
The coffee tasted bitter.
Not because of the beans.
Because he’d forgotten how many cups he’d already had.
Three?
Four?
Five?
Even he wasn’t sure anymore.
His hands shook slightly as he reached for another cup.
"Dillan."
He looked up.
Sera gently took the mug away before he could drink.
"...Enough."
"I need it."
"You need sleep."
"I’ll sleep later."
"No."
Her voice remained gentle.
"But not like this."
She reached toward his face.
Her fingertips brushed beneath his eyes.
"...You’re exhausted."
For a split second...
Everything froze.
Sera’s violet eyes...
Turned crimson.
They glowed.
Overflowing with unbearable affection.
"You look tired..."
Dillan flinched so violently that his chair scraped backward.
The vision disappeared instantly.
Only Sera remained.
Confused.
Concerned.
"...Did I hurt you?"
He stared at her.
"No..."
His breathing remained uneven.
"...I’m sorry."
Dana exchanged a glance with Mira.
Neither said anything.
But both had noticed.
"...He’s getting worse."
Dana whispered.
Mira nodded.
"...Much worse."
Later that afternoon...
Mira sat inside the Guardian Network’s surveillance room.
More than thirty monitors surrounded her.
She replayed every recording from the previous three nights.
Normal.
Normal.
Normal.
Static.
She stopped.
Rewound.
Played it again.
Exactly 2:41 A.M.
Every camera inside the headquarters flickered simultaneously.
Not one.
All of them.
Exactly three seconds.
Then...
Everything returned.
"...Coincidence?"
She didn’t believe in coincidences.
She enhanced the footage.
Frame by frame.
The static cleared for only an instant.
Someone stood outside Dillan’s apartment building.
A woman.
Long hair.
White clothing.
Too blurred to identify.
The next frame...
She was gone.
Mira leaned closer.
"...Who are you...?"
Across headquarters...
Lyra stood beside a large window overlooking the city.
She hadn’t moved for almost twenty minutes.
The breeze gently carried her silver hair.
Yuna approached.
"...You’ve been standing here since sunrise."
Lyra didn’t answer immediately.
"...Can you feel it?"
Yuna frowned.
"...Feel what?"
"...Someone..."
Lyra’s eyes never left the skyline.
"...Is touching the Resonance Field."
Yuna’s expression hardened.
"...Impossible."
"I know."
"No one has ever reached the Field."
"I know."
"...Then?"
Lyra slowly closed her eyes.
"...Someone is trying."
Silence.
"...And the Field..."
She finally looked toward Yuna.
"...Is responding."
For the first time...
Commander Yuna Vale looked genuinely unsettled.
That evening...
Dillan forced himself to stay awake again.
He spread Gate reports across the living room table.
Read every page.
Organized documents.
Cleaned the apartment.
Anything...
Anything except sleep.
The digital clock slowly changed.
11:52 P.M.
12:17 A.M.
12:49 A.M.
His eyelids felt heavier with every passing minute.
"...No..."
He stood.
Walked around the apartment.
Splashed cold water onto his face.
"...Stay awake."
His reflection stared back from the bathroom mirror.
Then...
It smiled.
Dillan froze.
He wasn’t smiling.
His reflection was.
Slowly...
The reflection raised one hand.
Pressed a single finger against its lips.
"Shhh..."
The bathroom lights flickered.
Dillan stumbled backward.
The reflection became normal again.
Only his own terrified face remained.
His heartbeat pounded so loudly he could barely hear himself breathe.
"...I’m awake..."
He whispered.
"I’m awake..."
Then why...
Was reality beginning to look like the dreams?
Back in his bedroom...
He opened the notebook again.
This time...
He wrote a new sentence.
If this is another dream...
Wake me up.
He closed it.
Placed it beside his pillow.
Then sat against the wall.
He wouldn’t sleep.
He refused.
Five minutes later...
His head slowly tilted.
The notebook slipped from his hands.
Darkness welcomed him once again.
He opened his eyes.
A classroom.
Old wooden desks.
Morning sunlight streamed through dusty windows.
Children laughed happily.
The chalkboard read:
Class 3-B
"...School?"
His voice echoed softly.
Everything felt...
Normal.
Peaceful.
Almost comforting.
A little girl sat beside the window.
She quietly drew with colored pencils.
Long dark-red hair covered part of her face.
He couldn’t see her clearly.
"...Excuse me..."
She continued drawing.
"...Do I know you?"
She stopped.
Without turning around...
She answered.
"...You used to."
Silence.
"...Before you forgot."
A cold shiver crawled down Dillan’s spine.
He slowly walked toward her desk.
Every step felt heavier than the last.
"...Forgot... what?"
The girl gently picked up a red crayon.
Across the paper...
She drew two children holding hands.
Then...
Without hesitation...
She drew a thick red line through one of them.
"...You left me alone."
The classroom became silent.
The children’s laughter stopped.
Every student slowly turned their heads toward Dillan.
None of them had faces.
Only glowing crimson eyes.
Watching him.
Smiling.
Blue windows erupted violently across his vision.
[WARNING.]
[Oneiric Malformation Progression: 11%]
[External Consciousness Synchronization Increasing.]
[Host Mental Stability Declining.]
[Recommendation: IMMEDIATE AWAKENING.]
For the first time...
The final notification flickered.
Then changed.
[WAKE UP...]
[WAKE UP, DILLAN.]
The System had never called him by name before.
Dillan’s heart stopped for a single terrifying beat.
The blue windows trembled.
One after another.
They overlapped until the classroom disappeared behind countless translucent notifications.
[WARNING.]
[Oneiric Malformation Progression: 11%]
[External Consciousness Synchronization Increasing.]
[Host Mental Stability Declining.]
Every window flickered.
Then...
A new notification forced itself to the front.
Larger.
Brighter.
Unlike anything Dillan had ever seen.
[WAKE UP.]
His breathing caught.
The classroom around him continued to darken.
The faceless children slowly stood from their desks.
One.
Then another.
Then all of them.
Every pair of crimson eyes turned toward him.
Watching.
Smiling.
Waiting.
The little girl still hadn’t moved from her chair.
She continued drawing.
Almost peacefully.
"...Who are you?"
Dillan asked again.
"...Tell me."
She quietly placed another red crayon onto the desk.
"...You’ll remember."
The classroom lights shattered.
Darkness flooded the room.
Every desk dissolved into black ash.
Only the little girl remained.
She finally stood.
"...I waited..."
One step.
"...For so long..."
Another.
"...Why did you forget me?"
Her voice trembled.
Not with anger.
With sadness.
A sadness so genuine...
That it hurt to listen to.
The blue windows exploded again.
[CRITICAL WARNING.]
[ONEIRIC MALFORMATION PROGRESSION ACCELERATING.]
[HOST CONSCIOUSNESS SYNCHRONIZATION: 15%]
The notifications glitched.
Letters vanished.
Returned.
Corrupted.
Then...
For the first time since the World Gate Protocol had appeared...
The System ignored every protocol it had.
[WAKE UP, DILLAN.]
Everything froze.
Even the girl stopped walking.
Her glowing crimson eyes slowly lifted...
Not toward Dillan.
Toward the floating notifications.
A tiny frown appeared.
"...Don’t..."
She whispered.
"...Take him away."
The System responded immediately.
[EMERGENCY INTERRUPTION INITIATED.]
The dream collapsed.
Dillan’s eyes snapped open.
He shot upright so violently that he fell off the bed.
His shoulder struck the floor.
Pain exploded through his arm.
He didn’t care.
His breathing was completely out of control.
His heart felt ready to burst.
The digital clock glowed.
2:58 A.M.
Only fourteen minutes.
"...No..."
He pressed both hands against his face.
"...No..."
His entire body trembled uncontrollably.
The dream...
It felt real.
Too real.
For several long moments...
He simply sat on the floor.
Trying to convince himself...
He had actually woken up.
A knock echoed through the apartment.
...
...
...
Three slow taps.
His blood ran cold.
Knock.
...
Knock.
...
Knock.
The exact same rhythm.
Again.
Dillan slowly stood.
Every instinct told him to ignore it.
Instead...
He walked toward the front door.
One cautious step at a time.
His hand reached the handle.
He looked through the peephole.
Nothing.
Empty hallway.
He opened the door.
Silence.
No footsteps.
No neighbors.
No one waiting.
Just an empty corridor lit by a flickering fluorescent light.
"...Who’s doing this?"
His voice barely rose above a whisper.
No answer came.
Only...
A single white lily lying neatly on the floor outside his apartment.
Fresh.
Its petals still carried tiny droplets of water.
Dillan stared at it.
He hadn’t bought flowers.
No one knew where he lived except the people closest to him.
Slowly...
He picked it up.
The moment his fingers touched the stem...
A faint whisper drifted through the hallway.
So soft...
He almost convinced himself he imagined it.
"...Good morning..."
He spun around.
Nothing.
The hallway remained empty.
Yet...
The flower was warm.
As though someone had been holding it only moments before.
Morning arrived.
Or at least...
The sun did.
Dillan looked even worse.
His eyes were bloodshot.
His movements sluggish.
Even his dry humor had disappeared.
Dana didn’t wait.
She walked straight toward him.
"...Enough."
He blinked.
"...Enough what?"
"This."
She pointed directly at him.
"You haven’t slept."
"I’ll be okay."
"No."
Her voice cracked slightly.
"You won’t."
Silence.
For the first time in years...
Dana looked frightened.
Not because of a monster.
Because of him.
"...You’re disappearing."
Those words lingered in the room.
Dillan wanted to laugh.
To make another joke.
Nothing came.
Because...
Part of him wondered...
If she was right.
Across the room...
Lyra quietly watched the white lily resting on the table.
She had said nothing since Dillan brought it home.
Now...
She slowly reached toward it.
The instant her fingertips touched the petals...
Her expression changed.
Not fear.
Recognition.
Very quietly...
Almost too quietly for anyone to hear...
She whispered,
"...Someone crossed the edge..."
Commander Yuna looked at her immediately.
"...What did you say?"
Lyra didn’t answer.
Her silver eyes remained fixed on the flower.
For the first time...
The normally gentle guardian looked...
Uneasy.
Far away...
Beyond the city’s lights...
A young woman stood beneath the branches of an old tree.
She looked toward Seoul.
Toward the place where Dillan slept.
She gently folded her hands against her chest.
Closed her glowing crimson eyes.
And smiled.
"...Sleep well..."
"...I’ll find you again tonight."