Day 18: Nyx’s Journal

The air smells different at night… like wet stone and old promises. I was thinking about Vex again, that voice in the river when the water was too still. His words tangled in my throat—”You’re not meant to be here, Nyx”—but I can’t stop the way my stomach feels heavy, like I’ve swallowed the wrong kind of rain. I kept walking back to the ruins, the ones with the cracked arches and the moss that smells like forgotten things. I don’t know why I keep going there. Maybe because the silence feels like it’s waiting for me. I sat on a stone, and for a moment, the crickets were loud enough to hear. Then they stopped. The world went quiet, and I thought I saw something move in the shadows—a shadow that wasn’t there. I’ve been so tired lately, but even when my body is heavy with sleep, I can’t shake the feeling that something’s watching. I don’t want to wake up. I just want to stay here, where the silence is not empty, but full of things that don’t have to be said.