Chapter 140. Into the Nightmare

Aurora’s POV

I wake up with a gasp, my chest rising and falling rapidly as I try to gather my bearings. My hands clutch at the sheets beneath me, fingers curling into the fabric as my eyes dart around the room. No. Not again. Not this place.

My mother’s room—the room from my nightmares. The air is thick with the scent of lavender, just like it always is, and the dim glow of the night lamp illuminates the room, casting eerie shadows across the walls. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to do this again.

I sit up, rubbing at my eyes, trying to will the dream away. That’s all it is—a dream. A cruel, recurring dream that refuses to let me go. But something is different this time. My body aches, a dull throbbing pain spreading through my limbs as if I’ve been through something brutal.

My head pounds the moment I try to think, like someone is hammering against my skull, forcing me to stay disoriented. What happened? Why do I feel like this? I press my fing