Soraya was fuming as she took a bite out of her moon-honey dessert, her other hand gripping her clutch a little too tightly. Crumbs fell on her dress as she made her way down the hall towards the double doors she had entered through with Lestis.

What in the world made him think she was a sex worker? She was definitely not dressed as one—though, she supposed, they can dress any way they wished. But then how would people know if someone was a sex worker or not? She certainly didn’t introduce herself as one. Did she?

As she fumed, she noticed how silent it was. Even her heels didn’t make a sound, muffled on the ornate carpet.

Her cheeks heated as she realized just how quiet it was in the hallway. No doubt, every person passing by heard exactly what she and Lestis had been up to. Her inner walls throbbed from the phantom feel of his lingering touch inside her.

She swallowed her bite of pie thickly.

Were they the only ones occupying the rooms here? She stopped in her tracks, her eyes flitting to the wall of bronze to her right.

Judging by how quiet it was, she wouldn’t be surprised if they were, in fact, alone. Taking a cautious step closer to the metal latticework, she peeked through the pattern holes. The room beyond was dimly lit, shrouded in a heavy silence. Leaning her head forward, she squinted, trying to make out an object near the floor in the center of the space.

The room seemed identical to the one she had just left—a low table, dark shapes of oversized pillows, and—

Soraya gasped softly, jerking back when the object on the floor began to shift. For a fleeting moment, she thought she saw a pair of eyes glinting in the darkness, flashing directly her way.

Before she could muster an apology for peeping—just in case—the sound of a door creaking open snapped her attention away from the dark room. Her eyes darted toward the direction she’d come, landing on the door to the room she had just vacated. It swung open slowly, moved by a faint, silent wind.

And that was enough adventure for one night.

Without looking back, she spun on her heel, back toward the double doors and pushed her way into the restaurant. Guilt nipped at her as she crossed the threshold. Had she just been spying on someone during an intimate moment? Possibly. To be fair, though, they had been extraordinarily quiet.

Most not be that good, she mused. Then another thought occurred to her, do people often have sex in those rooms?

Shaking her head of that inane question, she let the door shut softly behind her. Taking in the now dark space, she noted how eerily still everything was. The once-bustling restaurant had been thoroughly cleaned and locked up for the night. Her chest tightened with worry. Had the staff locked her in?

How would she leave?

Grumbling to herself, Soraya found solace in her sweet treat as she polished it off, sucking the crumbs from her fingertips. While contemplating her next move, her eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, and she noticed a faint blue glow wavering in the room. Her gaze drifted to the windows facing the street.

At first glance, it seemed like water was running down the glass. The streetlights outside shone through the rippling surface, casting obscure, watery shadows that danced across the room.

Soraya made her way toward one of the front windows to take a closer look. Stopping in front of a cleared table, she admired the beautiful display before her. A silent, thin waterfall rippled down the glass, partially blurring the quiet street beyond. The parked cars and stillness of the scene outside seemed distant, as though separated by a veil, granting the illusion of complete privacy within the space.

She wondered briefly about the purpose of running the waterfall at night when no one was around to appreciate it. How had she missed it when she first entered the restaurant? Then she remembered—her growling belly had consumed her attention until she spotted Lestis...

She shook her head, pushing thoughts of that infuriating asshole aside. All she wanted now was to go home and crawl into bed. Tomorrow promised an early morning workout with Jesmine at the gym, followed by a late-night shift at the community center. Rest was a necessity if she wanted to make it through the day.

Sighing to herself, she trudged toward the partially glass-paneled door. As her hand reached for the handle, her eyes began to itch. Rubbing at them with the back of her hand, she realized just how tired she truly was. The itching gave way to a faint throbbing that she could mostly ignore.

Just as she gripped the doorknob, a sudden pulse of light froze her in place.

Soraya blinked once… then twice, her vision momentarily blurred as another brilliant blue flare burst from the windows. The light lit up the entire space with an otherworldly glow, illuminating every corner of the room before it vanished just as suddenly, leaving her plunged into darkness once more.

Her eyes darted right, expecting to see the water-covered window. Instead, her gaze landed on a different view all together.

Where there should have been the quiet street with its parked cars and gray sidewalks, there now stretched miles and miles of—

“Sand?” she whispered out loud to herself.

As far as her eyes could see, dunes of sand stretched endlessly under a starry night sky. She’d never seen a night sky like that before. Turning her head to the left window, she saw much of the same: rolling sandy hills flowing like frozen waves, stretching far off into the horizon where it met the edge of a vibrant galaxy.

Soraya had dabbled in learning a few star constellations in her life, and she would never consider herself an astronomer by any means…but even she knew the earth did not have this view of a such a colorful night sky. She knew for a fact the galaxy she was looking at with its blues, purples, and pinks was something out of this world.

Her mouth fell slightly open as her gaze snapped back to the partial glass door. Beyond its frame, reality still seemed intact. She could clearly see the familiar downtown street, the parked black car, and the side of a gray building towering above her.

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The windows must be screens, she thought, her rational mind clinging to the most logical explanation. It had to be some kind of high-tech display—a massive LED screen, perhaps. The waterfall effect was a testament to the high-quality tech she was seeing.

Looking out the window once again, gazing through the blue watery effect, she admired the digital artwork.

Then the glass windowpane on the door started to waver.

Like a ripple cascading downward, a slash of the desert night sky quickly fell the length of the glass pane, obstructing the view of the street before disappearing. Then another ripple followed, and another, each one widening the desert image until the window screen was rapidly flickering between the street and that of the vast starry desert.

Letting go of the handle, Soraya reached in her clutch and pulled out her phone. With a quick swipe on the screen, she opened the camera app and brought it to eye level, snapping a few pictures of the mesmerizing display.

As she clicked away, captivated by what she assumed were state-of-the-art LED graphics, she failed to notice something shifting within the desert scenery—a faint, shadowy figure slowly emerging from the dunes.

It wasn’t until she swiped for the video option and hit record, watching the display glitch through her phone screen, that she noticed the dark figure.

Lowering her phone, she watched the silhouette as it swept over the sand. Standing straight, with a slow steady gait, the figure walked unimpeded toward the entrance…toward her until their large frame filled the door, blocking out the image of the starry night desert.

Because of the rippling between the street and the image of this looming figure, Soraya wasn’t able to make out much. She could clearly see it was…a person? She didn’t know anyone who stood so tall. However, she could just make out that this individual was wearing a heavy trench coat and a wide-brimmed hat.

Looking up, she tried to catch a glimpse of their face, but the display was rippling too fast for her to catch any significant details of their shadowed face. The light from the streetlamp didn’t help either, as it was positioned exactly where the figure’s face appeared in the display.

She wondered if the program running the display was AI-generated, and if that were the case, why was it set to display this?

It gave her the creeps as it just loomed there—peering in. On top of that…it felt like it was watching her.

She knew whatever it was, it wasn’t truly there. It wasn’t real.

Her eyes darted down to the raised arm, which was reaching toward the door’s handle. Of course, it wasn’t actually going to open. She knew that. No one was really there.

Eyes furrowing, Soraya glanced behind her, sweeping her gaze across the empty restaurant, looking for an on/off switch or even a panel to turn off the display. Something like this was bound to be racking up a huge electricity bill.

A metal click came from the door.

Swinging her head back to the handle, she watched in stunned silence as the doorknob began to turn.

Without thinking, her own hand darted out to grip the nob. She held it in place, feeling it resist in her hand.

A tingle shot down her spin. Slowly, she raised her eyes to look up—her heart stopped in her chest.

The figure had pressed its face closer, the glass fogging with each of its heavy breaths as it panted on the door. The image of the street came and went…and Soraya could finally see part of its face.

The part she could see—it wasn’t human.

The eyes—she couldn’t look away. Where the whites of the eyes should have been, there was only blood red, and the pitch-black irises were locked on her face, staring straight at her.

As the view of the streetlamp broke their eye contact, Soraya snapped out of her frozen state. Her eyes darted down, and she saw a lock mechanism underneath the handle—it looked to be unlocked. Without a second thought, she flicked it closed just as the door rattled on its hinges.

Jumping back, Soraya watched the figure wrench at the door, making the whole doorframe shudder.

Her throat clicked as she swallowed.

The view of the street momentarily blocked out the creature, and the door fell silent until the next ripple came, and the rattling returned full force. Soraya took another step back as the displays on the windows on either side of the door began to ripple between the desert and the street in odd intervals. The door fell silent again, only for the rattling to return, the creature growing more incensed, determined to break it down.

Banging.

Silence.

Banging.

Silence.

The pounding came faster and faster, each hit more forceful than the last.

The air hummed with a building energy, thick with anticipation. Just as she was about to turn and flee, the door suddenly blew open with such force that the wind it carried sent Soraya flying off her feet.

She landed with a sharp thud, her head cracking against the floor, and she was knocked unconscious.

What could have been seconds or hours later, Soraya jolted awake. Disoriented, she quickly looked around, her heart pounding in her chest. She scanned her surroundings, wide-eyed with alarm.

She was alone.

An empty, bare room surrounded her, the walls cracked and peeling. Paper covered the windows, casting strange shadows on the floor, and empty glass bottles littered the ground. Her gaze drifted to the open door that led to the street. How had she ended up here?

She knew she shouldn’t be in this place.

Her heart continued to race as she stood, collecting her phone and clutch from the floor. Straightening her dress, she wasted no time making her exit.

As she stepped outside, she glanced back at the door. It hung at an odd angle, the hinges bent. She reached for the handle and tried to shut it, but it wouldn’t close properly. After a moment of futile attempts, she gave up, leaving it lodged in a way that made it appear closed.

Walking away quickly before she was seen, she made it to the other side of the street and just as she was about to turn the corner, she looked back at the abandon storefront.

The red door with its broken glass pane, was sitting skewed in its doorframe. She didn’t do that do the door; she was sure. But…why was she in such an abandoned place?

Shaking her head, she tried to clear the cobwebs tangling her thoughts. Her mind was racing with questions she couldn’t answer. She needed to get home, somewhere safe where she could think things through clearly.

~

Entering her apartment in a rush, Soraya made sure to bolt the door and locked it for good measure. The buzz of adrenaline sparked underneath her skin. Blowing out air, she turned on her heel and found Jesmine sitting with her knees clutched to her chest as she watched TV.

“Jesmine,” Soraya called out.

Jesmine grunted out her greeting, eyes glued to the screen.

Walking into their living room, Soraya asked, “What are you watching?” Maybe she should throw on some pajamas and just sit and wind down with Jesmine. She wanted to forget about waking up in an abandon shop—it only made her head hurt to think about how she ended up there. Her mind felt both heavy and empty.

“The news,” she responded.

Jesmine…watching the news?

Soraya, with a raised brow, asked, “Oh yeah, anything interesting happening?” She flicked her eyes to the news host speaking with urgency as a red and white banner scrolled at the bottom of the screen.

A pit of dread opened in her belly as she read the words before Jesmine said, “They found a college kid dead in an alleyway. Some sicko ripped his stomach out, and that’s not even the worst part.” Jesmine paused just as the picture of the victim flashed on screen. “They also found him with his eyes missing. Can you believe that? It happened in downtown, just a couple of blocks from here.”

Soraya could feel the blood drain from her face as she recognized the victim of the gruesome murder. She’d seen him before. At the rooftop bar the other night. He had been harassing her until Sorenth appeared and then…promptly sent him away.

“If you have any information, please call the number on the screen,” the news host informed them.

Without saying another word, Soraya turned and walked into her bedroom, shutting the door behind her with a soft click.