adel

If anything happened, you would've heard it. The walls in the gosiwon were paper-thin. You hadn't heard any knocks, scratches, or footsteps outside all night, so maybe you could finally let your guard down.

Sleep crept upon you slowly, and you drifted into a thick, murky, dreamlike state. It hardly even felt like you were in your own body.

Your nightmare was not only horrifying but its sequence was completely incoherent—running through the woods, being chased while sharp tree branches sliced at your ankles; screams in a basement that got louder and louder as you tried to cover your ears; and whispers in tongues you couldn't understand, and you weren't entirely sure the source was human, either.

Your fingers felt brittle, as if frost had seeped into your bones. When you blindly reached for your blanket again, it wasn't in your proximity at all. You felt around for it for a moment, thinking, fuck, it must've fallen off the bed, before breathing in sharply.

Then your blood ran cold.

The rich smell of soil filled your nose. There was a growing heaviness, pushing down on your chest. You felt dry clumps of earth brushing against your cheek and lips before your eyes snapped open.

You were being buried alive.

Darkness pressed in around you, and you could barely make out a sliver of the night sky before dirt was shoveled over the opening.

You were outside. You were outside and no one could hear you. No one could hear you screaming for help.

No one was going to save you.

You started to panic, gasping and thrashing about to loosen the dirt. Fear swelled in your chest, but the adrenaline pumping through your veins was overriding every fiber in your body that wanted to freeze. You tried to scream for help, but your mouth was full of dirt. Your throat. Your lungs. All you could do was thrash around wildly, hoping you could loosen the earth, but it was to no avail. You were going to die at this rate—helpless and alone.

Just when you were about to slip into sweet unconsciousness, you shot up straight, breaking into a cold sweat as you heaved air back into your lungs.

You were back in your room, exactly as it had been when you fell asleep.

It wasn't real.

It was just a nightmare—a lucid dream maybe. A really bad one. You were just shaken up.

But when you reached to pull your blanket over you again, your heart dropped to your stomach.

Your body was caked in dirt.

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