Drowning in sorrow and dreams

Cindy woke up with a start, her heart pounding furiously against her chest. The echo of her own voice lingered in the darkness of the room, and for a moment, she was disoriented, trapped between the remnants of her dream and the reality of her dimly lit bedroom. Her breaths came in ragged, uneven gasps as she clutched the sheets tightly, trying to steady the whirlwind of emotions that surged through her.

In the dream, she had been floating in an expanse of water, vast and endless, the surface stretching out in every direction as far as she could see. It was an unsettling place, both tranquil and eerie, and she could feel the coolness of the water licking at her feet as she stood at the edge of some unseen shore. The sky above was a washed-out gray, neither day nor night, and the silence was deafening, broken only by the rhythmic lapping of gentle waves.