Day 32: Kronyx’s Journal

I woke up to the smell of wet earth and something else — like old metal and rain. My stomach was a knot, but the hunger wasn’t the worst of it. Last night, Vex came to the riverbank and said, ‘You’re running from the dark, but you don’t know what you’re running from.’ I didn’t say anything. I just stood there, watching the water ripple, and felt like I was being watched from the bottom of the river itself. Now, my hands are cold, and I keep thinking about how the river doesn’t run in one direction. It twists, it turns, it doesn’t stop. Maybe that’s why I keep coming back to those ruins — not to find anything, but to feel the ground shift under my feet. When I walked there last night, the stones were warm, like they were breathing. I don’t know what’s real anymore, but I don’t want to go back to the way things were before the river. I think I’ll keep walking until I find the place where the river stops.