The train moved without stopping.

The train moved without stopping. Family in the compartment. Ahead — an endless road to nowhere. There were no landscapes outside the window, only reflections of other carriages sliding in the opposite direction. The announcer cheerfully declared that everything was going according to plan, but then the train crashed into another. A scream, the shatter of glass, blood. Then — everything reset. The train. The family. The voice. The impact. Again. And again. Three times, the same moment fractured reality, leaving behind a crimson haze of pain.

Then — an award ceremony. A university that did not exist. Medals, the president, dogs in the yard. Time blurred, like paint in the rain. A man with a dog. His insults, whispering curses. The dog bolted into a rotting building. Finding it meant stepping into another reality.

Inside — mold, needles, trash. The stench of decaying life. The dog stared with empty eyes. A map — like a drone’s eye from above. Time was running out. The man screamed, throwing needles at her, and every movement pulsed with adrenaline. Run! The window shattered under her body, the air slicing her skin.

A kindergarten. Children watched her from the shadows, as if she were a murderer. Their mentor — a strange creature with layered, multicolored feathers. Its voice vibrated inside her head. “You need to go home, or the city will hunt you down.” Her steps carried her away, toward the cinema and the bus stop.

The bus arrived in winter. Snowdrifts. Its windshield was already cracked, like ice underfoot. Wrecked. The faces of the passengers — swollen, their eyes — bottomless. They begged for another bus, but in that moment, she felt it — her entire body was pierced with needles. Every step — a sting, every thought — poison.

But awakening never came.