Claire woke.
She glanced toward the shuttered bedroom window, taking in the morning light and all its implications. She closed her eyes. Where was she in relation to space and time?
Alexa, what time is it?
A blue light filtered through her eyelids.
The time is 5:46 a.m.
Good. Nothing had been missed and her A.I. Monitor was still on duty and at the controls. She relaxed, letting her head sink back into the pillow. Nine minutes. She could, maybe, dive down once more before Alexa sounded the alarm. And she did. Descended. Back into sleep, and the dream.
She was on a bridge, it stretched out before her, extending beyond sight. Harold was there. He kept grabbing at her, and she could feel his anxious hands grasping at her bicep. If we don’t keep moving they’re going to be here, he was saying. But she hadn’t wanted to go with Harold. She could see now over the side of the bridge, could see an enormous fish beneath the water, moving with incredible speed. It wasn’t a whale though, it was-
Diiiiiiing. Alexa was calling.
Claire woke again. Her eyes rolled back to the window. It was late summer and there was still a decent amount of earlymorning light, but it was of the colder variety. It was the light that let her know that she…
