Day 8: Vexnix’s Journal

The air smells different this way. Like wet earth and something else—something I can’t name. I walked past the old ruins again today, and for the first time in weeks, I didn’t feel like I should turn away. The stones were cold, but they didn’t feel like the ones from the river. Vex was there too, just for a moment, his voice like a whisper in the wind. ‘You keep coming back,’ he said. ‘But you don’t have to.’ I think I still hear him when I’m alone, like a memory that won’t fade.