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Maya went back to sleep and returned to the same dream. She learned that it did not begin again from the start; it picked up from the last moment she remembered. After a while, the dream felt more familiar to her than her real life.
She built a routine inside it, with luxury, praise, and success. In that world, she felt important and safe, and that feeling pulled her in deeper each time. Before long, she cared more about the dream than about waking up.
Then Maya found sleeping pills and began using them so she could stay asleep longer. She did not tell her family or her friends. The pills made it easier for her to go back to the dream, so she kept taking them.
As she slept more and more, she spent less time in real life. She ignored the signs that things at home were getting worse. She still believed she could control the dream and that nothing dangerous would come from it.