NOVEL WEB Chapter 16: Chapter 16 — Dream of the Dead
Location: Ashtashram Shelter, Inner Meditation Room
Date: October 5, 2029
Time: 2:12 AM
Yash hadn't slept properly in weeks.
When he did — it wasn't rest.
It was like falling into a frozen lake.
Soundless.
Suffocating.
But that night…
the dream felt different.
He saw his childhood house.
Not the real one — a memory.
The broken ceiling.
The dusty fan.
The faded walls stained with time.
And sitting at the table…
His mother.
His father.
They were smiling.
Too much.
Eyes wide.
Too wide.
Mouths not moving — but he heard them.
"Yash… you've done well."
"You finally lived."
He stepped forward.
The floor didn't make a sound.
The world was wrong.
Colors shifted slightly with every blink.
His mother reached for his hand—
—but her fingers bent the wrong way.
"You didn't save us," she said, still smiling.
"You just ran."
Yash froze.
His father stood up.
"We died so you could live."
"So why are you still dying inside?"
Their voices overlapped.
Merged.
Became one voice.
"Do you think your gods chose you because you're strong?"
"No.
They chose you…
because you're broken."
The walls began bleeding ash.
The room began to burn from the inside out.
And Yash saw his own reflection in the cracked window—
—but it wasn't him.
It was a version of him with black eyes.
Smiling.
"You think you're alive?"
"You're just the last scream in a dead world."
Then the voice came.
Not his parents.
Not the shadow.
But her.
"Wake up, my Vira," Kali whispered.
"Even the dead are being used to unmake you."
"This is not a memory."
"This is an attack."
Yash gasped awake.
Sweating.
Shaking.
But something had changed.
On the wall, behind him — in the ash —
two figures had been drawn.
One looked like his mother.
The other… him.
And a thin, black line connected their hearts.
He didn't know what it meant yet.
But he knew one thing:
Even death isn't safe anymore.
If the enemy could crawl into your dreams…
Then no one in Ashtashram was safe.
Not even the broken.
Especially not the strong.