Seth wakes up in his own bed

Seth's eyes groggily flickered open as the room around him slowly came into focus. It was his dorm room. He reached over and grabbed his phone off the charger. 10:37 a.m., Friday, April 4th, the screen read.

"Fuck," he muttered, tossing off the blanket and grabbing some clothes. He had class at 11:00 and didn’t want to be late.

“Was... was that a dream?” he asked himself, his hand instinctively moving to his crotch. Everything felt normal—his balls, his cock, nothing out of the ordinary.

He shuffled over to his desk and opened his laptop, typing The House of Desires into the search bar. Nothing. No results at all. He shrugged and closed the laptop, hurrying to get ready. At least he only had one class today; he’d have the rest of the day to figure out what was real and what had just been a vivid dream.

Seth grabbed his bag and stepped outside, the crisp morning air jolting him awake. The short walk across campus was quiet. His mind buzzed with lingering questions about the dream, the eerie lack of results, and the strange sense that something was just out of reach. By the time he reached the familiar brick building, he’d resolved to push it out of his mind—at least until after class. Seth slid into his usual seat in the classroom just as Megan, his friend, greeted him with a warm smile.