Her hands drop. A sigh does too.
She gives me a look of irritated pity, but with all the shapes on her, I can’t help but notice the dark circles now under her eyes. “Sleep, Auren.”
Rest is best when sleep is deep…
The holes in my head shake.
She leaves, and I watch the solid stone door scrape shut. Hear a lock click.
Bleary-eyed and hollow-headed, I scoot back on the pallet bed, tucking my knees in front of me and clasping them with my curled arms. I rest my pounding skull against the wall and let out a shaken breath.
My gaze drags back to the window.
I feel like the color is something from a dream. Or maybeI’min a dream, and that’s why it all feels so strange. So…flat. Missing something.
Missingeverything.
Through the tinted glass, I see the faintest trace of a star glittering in the void. One speck of light within all that dark.
“There was something I was supposed to do,” I whisper to it.
It doesn’t say anything back.
“There was something…”
I wish I could remember.
“Maybe this is all a dream.”
Yes. This is a dream, so I just need to make myself wake up.
A voice from somewhere whispers to me.You have your own light, little sun. So you must carry it with you when it grows dark.
I want to cry, because it’s grown so very, very dark.
Sadness waters my lids, so I let a single drop fall down my cheek. And that star that I’ve been watching falls down the face of the night, matching the descent of my tear. Leaving nothing but darkness behind.
I close my eyes, and my lips move in a voiceless whisper that only the sky can hear, with words that somehow materialize on my tongue.
When tears are like starfall, when bleak is like night,
We remember the dawn that will bring back the light.
When my eyes open again, my gaze becomes steady. Strong. A breath pulls in and blows out. That green view grounds me.
I blink away every bit of moisture as I stare at the empty spot where the star fell, and something in me pulls taut.
My face sets with determination. Something down my spine hardens.
This void in the sky, this void in myhead…it won’t defeat me. I won’t let it.
I might not know anything else yet, but I do know this truth with innate certainty.
My name is Auren Turley.
And I am stronger than the dark.
CHAPTER 6
