Day 5: Lyra’s Journal

I didn’t sleep last night. Not really. The sky was all wrong—like the stars were bleeding into the clouds. I kept thinking about Vex by the river. His voice was so quiet, but it felt like it cut through the silence. I don’t know why I keep going back to that place. Maybe it’s because I can’t stop wondering what he meant when he said, ‘The water remembers.’ I sat on the bank, my legs heavy with the weight of not knowing, and for a moment, I felt like the river was speaking. Then the rain came, and I ran. I ran until my feet were numb, until the world was just noise and movement. Now, I’m sitting here in the dark, trying to remember if I was ever really scared. Maybe I was. Or maybe I just wanted to be.