Page 66 of Broken Shadows

Alone.

Alone.

You are alone forevermore.

The whispered voices hook into my mind and send pulse after pulse of anguished sorrow filtering into my thoughts and mutating them until I no longer know the difference.

Memory after memory pelts unwantedly into my mind’s eye like spattered paint. In the first, I’m watching myself playing dolls by myself after my only three friends vanished without saying goodbye.

The scene unfolds into the next. Flames engulf my visions, my family. Burning. Dead. Because of me.

If it wasn’t for my brothers dying in that fire, their souls at least savable still then, I’d be glad for the fire that got rid of my family. The rest of them were nothing but a stain on this earth.

The scene swiftly shifts into a spiral of smoke as the fire dissipates, and I stare at myself. The sole survivor among blackened corpses.

The last memory comes with a migraine. The scene, our bedroom, white pillows, and my brother, Caden, my adopted sibling, and the only family that loved me, exploding into thousands of gory pieces.

All alone. As it should be.

I dry my damned tears with my sleeve, tired of crying, then lift my head and stare into every one of the statue’s twisted faces.

The reel of memories assaults me once more, but something is different, like a dimmer switch in my mind crawls toward an understanding I can’t quite grasp.

But I know this—I can’t let the statues touch me.

With the revelation, time seems to stop. No, the statues still come for me, but their movements are so slow it seems like they aren’t.

Icy pain sears through my toes and creeps up my legs. I claw at my pant leg, but my jeans are reluctant to glide against my skin. An expanse of rough gray appears as I finally tear the stitches off the hem.

My eyes widen and vomit burns the back of my throat. I reach out with shaking fingers, but instead of skin greeting my fingertips, it’s solid stone.

“No! I will not become like you!” My chest inflates as I gasp. The realization in my mind sparks, and awareness floods my stagnant thoughts with light.

This is a fucking trial! I need to get out of here.

My stomach swoops when I think the words.

My hair flings around me as I dart my head around. There must be a way out of this cage of stone bodies.

I’m okay with being alone. I have people who love me and they’re waiting for me. The pain quickly disappears from my foot, and I’m free.

I risk a glance over my shoulder and immediately regret it. The five statues turn, stone dust peppering the air as their joints grind against themselves, then step forward as one.

Nope.

My tongue throbs as I bite it, swallow my scream, and sprint away. Gods, I really don’t want to move deeper into the thick fog, but there are no other options.

How am I ever going to find my way out?

Whirls of fog whip toward me as wing beats join the melody of my panicked flight.

“Oh, thank Gods. Gomez!”

My night puppy flies into view, then glares over my head and hisses.

I catch a glimpse of something gray moving quickly toward me in my peripheral, then shriek as a stone hand reaches toward my hair as it ripples behind me like a sail.

Shit, shit, shit!

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