His legs were stone.
Everything around him was burning and people were screaming and he couldn't move, couldn't even breathe properly. People were running everywhere—some running from things he couldn't even see, and some were attacking each other with this horrible empty look in their eyes like they weren't even people anymore.
The smoke was so thick it felt like drowning. Black and choking. Someone screamed nearby and the sound went right through him.
Move. He had to move. His brain was screaming at his legs to RUN but his body just... wouldn't.
Then he looked up.
There was this massive tree in the center of the village. And I mean massive—its branches spread out so far they looked like they were holding up the entire sky. For just a second, seeing it there made him feel... safer? Like maybe everything would be okay.
That's when it spoke.
Help... us...
It wasn't a voice. It was worse than a voice. The words just appeared inside his head, scraping against the inside of his skull. It felt old. Ancient and in so much pain and breaking apart. He wanted to throw up. Wanted to claw the voice out of his mind.
He tried to scream for help, for his mom, for anyone, but the chaos just swallowed it. There were bodies on the ground. Too many bodies. The huge stone walls around the village that were supposed to keep everyone safe just made it feel like they were all trapped in here.
Something was pressing down on him. He couldn't explain it. Like the air had turned solid and heavy and was trying to crush him.
Through the smoke, he could see figures. Couldn't make them out clearly—they kept flickering and shifting like they weren't fully real. His vision was starting to blur. Everything sounded far away now.
One of them pointed at him.
Another one pulled out a sword. The firelight caught the blade and it looked like it was glowing.
And then—
He woke up.
The screaming stopped. The heat was gone. Just... normal morning sunlight coming through his window. He could hear his mom in the kitchen making breakfast. The smell of spices and oil.
"Sumit! Wake up! You're going to be late for school!"
He sat up. His heart was still pounding so hard it hurt. The dream was still clinging to him, making his skin feel cold and wrong.
It wasn't the first time. God, he'd been having this same nightmare his whole life. Every night or almost every night since he was little. He'd gotten used to it. Sort of. But this time it felt different. More real. Like he'd actually been there.
He pushed it away. He was good at that.
Washed his face. Ate the breakfast his mom made. Packed his bag. The normal routine helped. Made it feel less real. School was fine. Boring classes, hanging out with friends, the usual stuff. By the time he got home that evening, he'd almost forgotten about it.
And then... the dream just stopped.
For weeks, nothing. No nightmares at all. He'd wake up in the morning and realize he didn't remember dreaming anything. It was weird. After having the same nightmare basically his entire life, suddenly it was just... gone?
Part of him was relieved. But another part of him kept waiting for it to come back. Like when you know something bad is about to happen but you don't know when.
Three weeks later, it came back.
Same burning village. Same screaming. Same impossible tree with its branches spread out like it was trying to protect everyone even though everything was already destroyed.
But this time something was different.
This time he realized he was dreaming.
The moment he understood that, something changed in him. If this was his dream, didn't that mean he had some control? He didn't have to just stand there frozen. He could move. He could actually look around. Maybe he could figure out what this place was. Why he kept seeing it.
He turned toward a part of the village he'd never looked at before.
Pain hit him like a truck.
It felt like something was tearing him apart from the inside. Like invisible claws digging into his skin and pulling. He gasped but forced himself to keep moving. One step. It hurt so much but he was tired of being helpless. Another step.
That's when he saw the gate.
It was huge. Made of smooth stone, arching up high overhead. No door. No opening. Just solid stone. And sitting on top of it was a statue of a lion. He could only see its back—it was facing into the village like it was guarding something.
Looking at it made his chest feel tight. Not from fear. From something else. Something he hadn't felt in any of these nightmares before.
Hope.
Please, he thought. Help me.
The tree screamed again in his mind, louder than before, desperate and dying—
"SUMIT!"
His dad's voice ripped through everything.
He jerked awake and both his parents were there, leaning over him. His mom grabbed him immediately, hugging him tight. She was shaking.
"What happened? What's wrong?" she asked. Her voice was scared.
"Tell us what you saw." His dad's voice was weird. Too calm. Like he was forcing himself to sound normal.
Sumit's voice came out rough and shaky. "There was a tree. A village with really high stone walls around it. And a lion statue sitting on a gate. And people... in the smoke. Everything was burning."
His dad froze.
Just completely froze. And the look on his face—it wasn't confusion. He knew something. Sumit could see it. His dad knew what he was talking about.
His parents looked at each other and even though they didn't say anything, Sumit could tell they were having some kind of conversation with just that look. His mom's face went tight. She tried to smile at him but it didn't work.
The whole room felt wrong suddenly. Heavy.
They knew something about his dream. About that place.
And from the fear in their eyes, Sumit wasn't sure if he actually wanted to know what it was.