Not a nice chair. Not a prop from a movie set. A throne. Massive. Gold,real gold, the kind that catches light and throws it back in your face like a challenge. The armrests were carved into the shape of screaming faces. The back rose above me like a wave frozen mid-crash, studded with gems the size of my fist.
I looked up. The ceiling was a cave of diamonds, glittering like someone had scooped out the night sky and glued it upside down. Each diamond caught the light from somewhere I couldn't see and threw it down in fractured rainbows.
I looked down.
Thousands.
Thousands of monsters.
They filled the floor below the throne like a living sea. Bodies pressed against bodies,scales, fur, chitin, skin that shimmered and skin that oozed and skin that looked like it might peel itself off and walk away.
Some stood on two legs. Some on four. Some on no legs, floating just above the ground with tentacles trailing behind them like wedding veils made of nightmares.
They were screaming. Growling. Chanting.
The sound hit me like a wall. Like standing at the bottom of a waterfall made of noise. My ears rang. My vision blurred at the edges. I caught fragments of words in a language I didn't know but somehow almost understood,sounds that felt like they should mean power and blood and throne.
And in that chanting, I heard my name.
Or someone else's name. I couldn't tell. The syllables were wrong and right at the same time, like hearing your own voice on a recording, familiar but not, close but not close enough.
I was dizzy. Confused. My hands were empty, the diaper was gone, lost somewhere in that mouth or that light or that darkness, and I missed it.
I actually missed it. That stupid diaper with the cartoon animals was the last normal thing I had touched, and now it was gone, and I was here, and everything was wrong.
Three shadows moved in front of the throne.
They were massive. Not fat,massive in the way old trees are massive, in the way mountains are massive. Human-like, sort of. They stood on two legs. They had arms and hands and what looked like heads. But their proportions were wrong.
Shoulders too broad. Arms too long. And their faces, if they had faces, were hidden in shadow that didn't move right, shadow that clung to them like a second skin.
They knelt.
All three of them. Massive, impossible, nightmare creatures. Kneeling. On one knee. Heads bowed.
The one in the middle spoke. Its voice was low and rumbling, like an earthquake trying to say words. Like gravel being crushed under a slow wheel.
"My Queen."
I blinked.
"Your legion is waiting for your command."
The other two lifted their heads slightly. I still couldn't see their faces, but I felt them looking at me. Felt the weight of those hidden eyes like hands on my shoulders.
Behind them, the thousands of monsters went silent. Instant. Absolute. The kind of silence that hurts your ears after so much noise.
Every single one of them was staring at me.
I sat on a golden throne in a diamond-ceilinged cave and thousands of monsters were waiting for my command.
A queen.
They thought I was a queen.
The shadow creature in the middle tilted its head. A gesture that might have been concern, or curiosity, or hunger. Hard to tell when the face is made of living darkness.
"My Queen," it said again, slower this time, like it thought I might be stupid. "Do you not remember?"
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came out.
I tried again.
"What the fuck?" I said.
The monsters did not react. The three shadows did not react. They just knelt there, massive and patient, waiting for their queen to remember herself.
I looked down at my hands. Empty. No diaper. No phone. No keys. No children.
I looked at the throne beneath me. Gold. Gems. Screaming faces carved into the armrests. I looked at the thousands of monsters. At the three shadows. At the diamond ceiling and the purple light that leaked in from somewhere far above.
And I thought about Lily, naked from the waist down on the changing mat. About Mia, hissing like a cat. About Chloe, convinced the world was out to get her.
They were probably still in that apartment.
Or maybe they weren't. Maybe the purple light had taken them too. Maybe they were somewhere in this nightmare, alone and screaming. Maybe they were dead.
I didn't know.
But I was sitting on a throne, and three nightmares were calling me queen, and thousands of monsters were waiting for my command.
So I did the only thing I could do. I stopped saying "what the fuck" and started thinking about what came next.
Then the chanting stopped.
One moment, the cavern was filled with that victorious roar,thousands of monsters screaming for blood, for the human world, for the end of everything I had ever known. The next moment, silence.
Not gradual. Not fading.
Instant.
Like someone had reached into the air and physically ripped the sound out.
Every creature in that massive golden-silver chamber,I still didn't know what to call it, throne room seemed too small, cathedral seemed too holy, nightmare palace seemed about right,every single one of them turned to look at me.
Eyes. So many eyes. Some in faces. Some in places faces shouldn't have. All of them fixed on me like I was the only light in a dark room.
I felt their attention like a physical weight. Like blankets piled on top of me. Like being buried alive in stares.
They were waiting for me to say something.
A mother knows that feeling. The pause after you say "we need to talk." The silence when you walk into a room and your kids freeze, caught in the act of something they know they shouldn't be doing. That weight of expectation, of what happens next depends entirely on you.
I have faced that silence a thousand times.
Never with thousands of monsters involved.
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.
What do you say to a legion of nightmares who think you're their queen? Hi, nice to meet you? Sorry, I think you have the wrong person? Can someone tell me where the bathroom is because I really need to process whatever this is?
None of those seemed right.
So I did what any mother would do when she doesn't understand what's happening to her body.
"I need a mirror," I said.
My voice came out steadier than I expected. Not calm,nothing about this was calm,but functional. The voice I use when Chloe has a fever and Mia has a nosebleed and Lily is crying and I am the only adult in the room.
The three shadows exchanged glances. At least, I think they did. It was hard to tell with the whole "face made of living darkness" situation.
The girl,I decided she was a girl, her shape was leaner, her movements quicker,flicked her hand.
No wand. No incantation. Just a casual flick, like she was shooing a fly.
And a mirror appeared in front of me.
Not a small mirror. Not a hand mirror. A massive mirror, tall as a door, wide as a car, floating in the air like it weighed nothing. The frame was gold,of course it was gold, everything here was gold,and carved with the same screaming faces as the throne. But I barely noticed the frame.
I was looking at the reflection. My eyes widened.