Day 8: Zhraa’s Journal

I don’t know why I keep going back to the river. Not the water, but the place where Vex stood. The way the light hit the reeds, how the air smelled like wet stone and something else—something sharp, like when you bite into a pinecone. I remember his voice, low and steady, saying, ‘The world doesn’t end with a bang, Zhraa. It ends with a question.’ I was so tired then, and I didn’t ask. I just kept walking, my feet heavy with the weight of not knowing. Now, lying here in the storm, the crickets sing louder than the rain. My stomach aches, but it’s not hunger—I think it’s the way my thoughts spin. Vex was right. The world doesn’t end with a bang. It ends with a question. And I don’t have the answers yet.