Julie shot up in bed, her breath ragged and shallow. The ceiling above her was familiar. Her room. The walls she'd known since childhood. The bedspread with a pattern she could draw from memory.
But everything felt different.
Just a moment ago, she could have sworn she felt Jeremy's warmth beneath her palms. His presence. His anger.
And Rosalie.
She touched her temple, trying to sort through the chaos, but the images kept slipping away. The voice of the girl with red eyes still echoed in her mind like the ghost of a dream—too clear to ignore.
"There's no such thing as an ordinary girl in your world, Jeremy."
Julie swallowed hard.
Why had she said that with her in the room?
She slid her legs off the bed and walked to the mirror. Her eyes looked a little different. As if she were seeing herself from somewhere deeper. As if something inside her had awakened—and she didn't know what.
A memory of touching the earth. Roots. Trees swaying in rhythm with her emotions.
This hadn't been just a dream. Not just a vision. She had felt it—like she had really been there.
"What's happening to me?" she whispered.
And then something else came back.
Jeremy.
He knew she was there. He had been with her. He'd protected her. Just like he promised.
And now she couldn't deny it—there was something more between them than chance encounters and a shared school. Something deeper than words.
One thing became clear: Rosalie was afraid of her.
Not as a rival.
But as a force.
As something, she couldn't control.
Julie took a deep breath and reached for the notebook on her desk. She opened to a blank page.
She started to write. Not knowing yet if it would become a journal, a spell, a map… or a confession.
But she knew one thing: she had to begin.
*
Julie pulled on her jacket and slipped quietly out of the house. The sun hadn't risen yet. Dawn whispered in soft pink along the horizon. The air was cool and crisp, but not biting. Perfect for thinking.
Or maybe—for no longer being afraid.
She had no specific plan. She followed a hunch. Something had been stirring inside her since the dreams and the silent glances she'd shared with Jeremy. Something was changing—not just because of him. As if Rosalie had accidentally shattered a barrier that had kept her in the shadows.
Now, the world spoke louder.
In the rustle of leaves.
In the tremble of the earth.
In her own pulse, carrying more than just blood.
She stopped in what used to be their old school park—now overgrown, forgotten, fog-kissed. She used to play here as a child. Now she stood there, feeling that the ground beneath her feet knew something. Remembered something.
She knelt down and touched the dew-damp moss.
"I know you're here." Her voice was soft but steady. "I don't know who I am yet… but I've stopped pretending I'm no one."
She trembled.
And then—it happened.
The water on the leaves shifted, as if something silent brushed against her soul. For one breathless second, the world held still.
And Julie—for the first time—felt like part of something greater.
Not just a girl in love with someone extraordinary.
But someone who was extraordinary herself.
She wasn't going to wait for Jeremy to find her.
She would find the answers.
*
Julie brushed her hand over a moss-covered stone. She felt more than just the cold beneath her fingertips—there was a hum there, like a memory. She slid her fingers slightly to the side and then noticed it: a thin, almost invisible carving etched into the rock. A symbol.
Three intersecting lines. At the center—a small tear. Or a drop of blood.
She didn't know how she recognized it. But she did. From old dreams. From some forgotten version of herself.
In the same moment, the ground beneath her trembled.
Gently, dreamlike—like the breath of someone sleeping beneath layers of roots and memory.
A fragment of bark broke loose from the stone. Beneath it—an opening. A small hollow, as if it had been waiting just for her.
Julie reached inside carefully. Her fingers found something cool and metallic.
She pulled out a slender chain with a pendant. An old, intricately carved locket. Inside it—a tiny, tarnished crystal that shimmered blue for a heartbeat when her skin touched it.
Her heart pounded. The world spun.
For a moment, she saw herself in another place, another time—beside a woman with silver eyes, speaking a language Julie didn't know, yet understood completely.
"Before you forget… I'll leave you the light."
Julie staggered—but didn't fall.
She slipped the pendant over her head. It was heavy, as if it carried not just power, but memory.
From that moment, she didn't just feel it.
She knew.
It wasn't an accident that she found Jeremy.
It wasn't an accident that she dreamed those dreams.
She was not an accident.
*
Julie returned home in the late afternoon. Her hands still trembled slightly, though she wasn't sure if it was from what she'd found… or from what might come next. She hid the pendant beneath her sweater, close to her heart. She could feel it constantly—as if it had its own pulse, slowly syncing with hers.
She glanced at her phone. A message from Jeremy. Short. Just one word:
"You?"
She replied: "Yes. I'm okay."
It was a lie. But she didn't know how to tell the truth. Not yet.
Part of her wanted to tell him everything—about the symbol, the hidden space, the woman from the vision who might have been her mother or something more. But something held her back.
That something wore Rosalie's face.
And there was a tension in the air now, like time itself was tightening.
Jeremy could wait. One more day. Maybe two.
Because Julie had to find out who she truly was—before she let anyone else see into that mirror with her.