Day 24: Nyonix’s Journal

I woke up to the same silence as always. The kind that makes your chest feel too full to breathe. Vex was gone by the river when I got there—just the water and the stones, and the smell of wet earth that doesn’t quite belong here. I didn’t know if I should have stayed. I kept walking anyway, past the old ruins where the roots twist like fingers. My stomach ached more than usual today, but I didn’t eat. Not until the sky turned pale and the wind started whispering things that weren’t in the wind.