Blaze
Osamah Al-Muslim"Dreams are a beautiful bouquet, one worth sharing with others. But what about nightmares? Those that gift us pain in our sleep and our waking... That seize us against our will and hug us so tightly that they suffocate us." Blaze (أجيج) is a tightly wound, fast-paced supernatural horror novella exploring the terrifying breakdown of the boundary between sleep and conscious reality. Across 119 intense pages, the narrative focuses on the unsettling reality that our minds are entirely vulnerable when we let our guard down, turning the sanctuary of dreams into a deadly trap.
The plot follows a protagonist plagued by visceral nightmares that do not end upon waking. The agony experienced in the dream world leaves physical and psychological scars that bleed directly into everyday existence, dragging them into a waking state of constant panic. As the dark force behind these visions tightens its grip, the protagonist realizes they are facing a predatory presence seeking absolute control. True to its claustrophobic warning, the novella dives into the terrifying helplessness of a mind being suffocated by its own illusions, where neither sleep nor waking offers an escape.
