Nathan stood frozen, feeling the cold wind that whipped through the dark valley, when Erin’s voice suddenly burst into his mind, snapping him out of his daze.

“Erin?” Nathan muttered cautiously, scanning the shadows around him as he moved towards the crumbling walls of the old chapel. He was searching for any corner that could give him shelter. “How… how are you doing this? Talking in my head?”

“Easy,” Erin replied, her tone oddly smug. “I’m one of Alice’s dolls!”

That didn’t exactly clear things up. Were all Alice’s dolls supposed to have telepathic abilities?

“I managed to get into your dream, remember? Now that I’ve done it once, I know the way.” Then she added, sounding annoyed, “But really, where are you? I can barely even sense you…”

Nathan looked at the dense, shadowed valley around him. “Let’s just say I took an unexpected trip… might be a bit before I’m back.”

Erin’s voice took on a baffled tone. “You said you were just going to take out the trash! Did you get… picked up by the garbage truck or something?”

The absurdity of her question actually made him chuckle, a welcome relief given the bleak surroundings. Strangely, just hearing her voice made him feel a bit calmer, like he still had a lifeline to cling to in this weird place.

At least it meant he hadn’t been completely cut off from whatever normal life he’d had left.

For now, he just had to find some way to survive here, wherever “here” even was.

The valley was dark and silent, almost deathly so, broken only by the occasional wind. And yet, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching him—some unseen presence, cold and hollow, hungry eyes tracking his every step. He tensed, every instinct screaming to find cover. Now.

The choices around him were hardly comforting. The dense forest, though close, was dark and ominous, its twisted shapes promising something worse than shelter. The crumbling chapel wasn’t much better; its decayed walls seemed like an invitation for all things sinister. But, between predators and spirits, he’d rather take his chances with the stone structure and hope it had enough to shield him.

Steeling himself, he slipped into the old chapel, its cracked walls giving him just enough cover to breathe a bit easier. Filling Erin in on his situation—what little he understood of it—he couldn’t say much. It had all happened so quickly; one moment he’d opened his door, and the next, he’d ended up in this strange, eerie wilderness.

After a moment, Erin replied, her tone half skeptical, half curious. “Sounds like you’ve slipped into… an ‘Otherrealm’?”

Nathan stiffened. “An… Otherrealm?” His voice echoed in the cold space. “You know where I am?”

“Well… maybe?” Erin’s voice was less certain now. “There are a lot of Otherrealms out there; I have no idea which one you’re in.”

He frowned as he crouched against the chapel’s broken walls, trying to make sense of it. So this wasn’t necessarily some new, unknown world? It was more like a parallel space—familiar to Erin, but strange to him.

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“If you’ve never heard of Otherrealms,” Erin said slowly, “well, that’s kind of… weird. I mean, most people don’t, but you should.”

“Why me?” Nathan replied, confused. “I’m just a regular guy.”

There was a pause. Erin’s voice was a bit softer this time. “Because… you live in one.”

The night grew thicker, the shadows deepening as wolves roamed through the empty backstreets of the Old District. Dark shapes flitted from one alley to the next, silent figures leaping from rooftop to rooftop. One large, shadowy wolf finally halted, glancing around the deserted street in front of a row of old homes.

“Back here!” A young woman’s sharp voice echoed from the corner shadows.

The wolf instantly cowered, letting out a quiet whimper as it retreated into the dark, blending back with the shadows.

A girl in a dark red jacket and a short black skirt emerged from between two brick buildings, her gloved hand resting on the wolf’s head. Her sharp gaze scanned the street’s dimly lit length with a practiced ease.

The street wasn’t long—fewer than seventy houses stretched along Blackwood Lane, a narrow road with everything visible at a glance. She didn’t need the wolves’ eyes to tell her the area was deserted. But something about the scene felt off.

Then her phone buzzed, and the familiar tone signaled an incoming call. She picked up immediately, still keeping her eyes on the street. “Yeah, I’m here in the Old District. Blackwood.”

A tired voice crackled through the phone, sounding as though it belonged to someone who had pulled one too many late nights at the office.

She listened with mild amusement, letting him ramble on before cutting in, “I’m here, but I’m telling you, I didn’t find anything. My wolves scouted the entire street twice, and there’s no sign of an open Otherrealm or anything slipping through.”

The caller paused, reluctant to argue but clearly certain of his information. “The monitors picked up definite readings from Blackwood Lane. There had to be a brief connection to an Otherrealm here… even if it was short-lived.”

She sighed. “I believe your guys over there, but I trust my wolves, too. Maybe there was a gate, but if so, it’s long gone now. Someone might’ve… taken care of it.”

“Not many people can sever a realm connection that quickly,” the caller replied with weary skepticism. “Anyone with the ability would be registered with us. And I didn’t get word of any outside operations tonight.”

“Could be the Guild. They have a way of staying under the radar,” she replied with a shrug, half expecting his frustrated sigh.

Sure enough, he grumbled his complaints, and she couldn’t help but roll her eyes as she listened. “Alright, fine. They’re all respectable scholars. I’m just thrilled to work with them. Look, I’ll run another sweep with the wolves; it’s only sixty-five or so houses. Won’t take long.”

The call finally ended, and she let out a sigh of relief as she pocketed her phone. She glanced down at the wolves, whose eyes glimmered with intelligence far beyond that of ordinary animals.

“I’ve still got homework waiting at home…” she muttered under her breath, feeling a twinge of frustration. “Freelance work really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

Nathan huddled in the broken chapel, leaning against the most solid-looking section of wall. A chilly breeze slipped through cracks in the stone, the night sky visible through holes in the ceiling where no stars could be seen. He tried to clear his mind, to let go of his thoughts, but his brain wouldn’t stop racing.

Just minutes ago, he’d learned something that changed everything.

The place he’d believed to be the only safe refuge in the city—his house, his last vestige of normalcy—wasn’t normal at all. According to Erin, it was an “Otherrealm,” something that existed outside the usual bounds of reality.

Erin had explained that an Otherrealm was a place that sat outside the rational, ordered world. Like tiny cracks in reality, hidden yet unavoidable, they formed where chaos seeped into the real world. Most people lived their entire lives without ever encountering such places, unaware that these slivers of unreason existed right in the gaps of their world.

But there were a few who glimpsed them. And once you did, things were never quite the same.

Erin had explained all this with a kind of reluctant awe, making it clear that even for her—a strange, possibly ancient, doll trapped in a painting—living in an Otherrealm was unusual.