Nobody gets hurt in Dreams

You learn her order before you learn her name.

She comes in so late that Café Dérive feels like it’s holding its breath.

“Hi,” you say, already reaching for a cup.

“Anything warm,” she murmurs.

When you hand it to her, her fingers brush yours.

Ice cold.

“Thanks.”

You see her again that night.

Just not in a way you’re supposed to.

You had rules. Don’t stay too long. Don’t let them remember. And never, ever step into the dreams of someone you’ll meet in real life.

But some dreams don’t ask.

They pull.

And hers drags you under.

It’s dark.

Not just empty, but suffocating.

Karina stands in the center of it, her back to you. Someone is in front of her, but you can’t make them out. Their faces keep shifting, blurring.

The way her voice breaks tells you everything.

“Go,” she says, shaking. “Please… just leave me before I get you killed again.”

Her hand trembles.

The knife doesn’t.

“Please, just go. I don’t want to do this again.” She sobs out.

Her arm lifts anyway.

“I said go!”

You move without thinking, grabbing her wrist before it comes down.

The world stutters.

Like it doesn’t know how to continue without what was supposed to happen.

Her breath shatters, sharp and uneven.

For a second, everything holds.

Then she gasps.

Like she didn’t know there was another ending.

She turns to you, eyes wide, like you’re something that shouldn’t exist.

You leave before memory takes root.

The next night, she comes back.

But when you hand her the drink, she pauses.

Her eyes linger on yours, searching for something she can’t name.

You see it.

Recognition, faint and flickering, like a dream she almost remembers.

You tell yourself that was enough.

You broke your rules once. That should’ve been it.

You don’t try to go back.

But sleep doesn’t come.

Not when you remember the way she begged, how her voice sounded like it already knew how it would end, what happens if you’re not there.

You keep going back.

You arrive earlier. Before the figure. Before the knife.

Sometimes there’s someone there. Sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes it takes a while before the nightmare finds her again.