Cranice Mate\u00a0<\/p>\n
But maybe I can change that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cListen to me,\u201d I say, but I\u2019m not talking to the people in the room. I\u2019m talking to the power itself, trying to reach it through the chaos in my mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to be afraid. You don\u2019t have to take. I\u2019m not going to hurt you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The power pauses for just a moment, like it\u2019s listening to me, but then it surges forward again with renewed hunger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s talking to herself,\u201d I hear Serah say. \u201cThe power is making her lose her mind.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But I\u2019m not losing my mind. I\u2019m trying to save it, and Tristan\u2019s life along with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I need to go deeper. I need to find the source of this thing and talk to it directly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
H\u00a0<\/p>\n
Closing my eyes even tighter, I let myself fall into the darkness that the power has created in my mind. I stop fighting against it and let it pull me down into whatever place it comes from.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The physical world around me disappears completely. I can no longer hear the voices of my family, can no longer feel the mattress beneath my knees or the air moving through the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m falling through layers of darkness, each one deeper and colder than the last, until I find myself standing in a place that\u2019s not really a place at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s dark here, darker than anything I\u2019ve ever experienced, but somehow I can still see.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s like the darkness itself is a living thing, pressing against me from all sides, trying to smother me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m in what looks like a vast empty space, with no walls or ceiling or floor that I can make out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just endless black stretching in every direction, going on forever and ever with no end in sight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The silence is complete and oppressive, like being buried alive. No sound, no movement, no sign of life anywhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And then I hear it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Crying.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Soft, heartbroken sobbing that echoes through the darkness like it\u2019s coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the sound of someone who has given up hope, who has been crying for so long they\u2019ve forgotten what it feels like not to cry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1 start walking toward the sound, my footsteps making no noise on whatever surface I\u2019m walking on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As I get closer, the crying gets louder, more desperate, more filled with pain and loneliness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finally, I can see a small figure huddled on what might be the ground. It\u2019s a little girl, maybe six or seven years old, with long dark hair that covers most of her face.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She\u2019s wearing a simple white dress that looks like it was once beautiful but is now torn and dirty.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
17:52 Tue, Jan 13 GRM.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 218\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her small shoulders shake with each sob, and she has her arms wrapped around her knees like she\u2019s trying to hold herself together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHello, I say softly, not wanting to startle her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The crying stops immediately, as if someone has just turned off a switch. The little girl looks up at me with eyes that are far too old for her young face.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They\u2019re my eyes, I realize with a shock. The same green color, the same shape, but filled with pain and loneliness and despair that makes my heart\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWho are you?\u201d she asks, and her voice is small and scared and fragile.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m Athena,\u201d I say, moving closer slowly and carefully. \u201cWhat\u2019s your name?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have a name,\u201d she says, and fresh tears start flowing down her cheeks. \u201cNobody ever gave me one. Nobody ever wanted me around long enough\u00a0<\/p>\n
to give me a name.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I sit down next to her, being careful not to move too fast or do anything that might scare her more than she already is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long have you been here?\u201d I ask gently.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAlways,\u201d she whispers, and her voice breaks on the word. \u201cSince the beginning. Since the first time they were scared of me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memories Drifted Into Soft Silence by Kyx Frost 218 Cranice Mate\u00a0 But maybe I can change that.\u00a0 \u201cListen to me,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-second-gear-of-love-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}