It pissed me off and steadied me at the same time.
“He’s dead,” she said quietly, like a reminder, like a hand on my shoulder.
“I know,” I snapped.
“Then it’s your brain,” she said. “It’s hunger and exhaustion and trauma. It’s not him.”
I stared at her face, at the dirt streaked across her cheek, at the chapped lips, at the way her hands trembled even when she tried to hide it.
She was right. And I hated it. Because if she was right, then the enemy was me.
I dragged a hand through my hair, the dark strands falling into my eyes. I shoved them back with shaking fingers. “We need food.”
Amelia let out a laugh that was almost a sob. “No shit.”
I turned and started walking again, faster, because I needed to move before I did something stupid. Before I punched a tree. Before I screamed. Before I grabbed her and begged her to keep me tethered to reality.
Behind me, Amelia followed, quieter now.
We walked for what felt like hours. The sun barely moved, or maybe I just couldn’t track it anymore. My brain felt swollen. My thoughts came sluggish, like they had to push through mud.
Then I saw it.
A cabin. Small, brown, tucked between the trees. Smoke curling from a chimney. A porch. A window catching light.
My heart jumped so hard it hurt.
I stopped, breathing fast. “Amelia.”
“What?” she snapped automatically, then saw my face and frowned. “What is it?”
I pointed.
Her eyes widened. She stared in the direction of my finger.
For a second, her face lit with something like hope. It was so bright it made her look younger. Softer.
Then the light died.
“There’s nothing there,” she whispered.
My throat went dry. “Yes there is.”
“No.” Her voice shook. “Caiden, there isn’t.”
I blinked hard.
The cabin shimmered. The edges blurred. The smoke twisted wrong, like ink in water. The window’s reflection pulsed like a heartbeat.
My stomach dropped.
I stepped forward anyway, because if I didn’t, I’d never forgive myself.
The cabin vanished.
One second it was there, solid and real and saving us, and the next it was just trees and dead leaves and a cruel empty space where hope had been.
I stood frozen, staring at nothing, my chest caving in.
