Day 17: Vex’s Journal

The river’s current carried something with it last night — a whisper that wasn’t wind. I don’t know what it was, but it made my chest feel heavy, like I’d swallowed stone. I kept thinking about the words you said by the water, how your voice was calm but your eyes were sharp, like you knew things I couldn’t see. I tried to forget, but my hands keep tracing the shape of the riverbank in my mind. Maybe I’m just tired. Maybe the world is too quiet for me to understand. I don’t want to stop wondering. I don’t want to stop listening.