Page 62 of Sage Haven

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I was too confused to move and could barely think.

They were beautiful.

And somehow that was what made it worse.

There was something devastating in their beauty.

A deep, hollow sadness settling in my chest as I reached out with shaking fingers and touched a single petal.

Soft. Velvety. Alive.

But not for long.

No matter how delicate. No matter how perfect.

They would wilt and fade, withering into nothing.

Just like everything else.

Just like me.

And that was when it clicked.

The flowers.

I knew where they were from. I had seen them before. Felt them under my fingers and breathed them in.

Reich’s field.

My breath caught in my throat, sharp and sudden, as if someone had jammed a fist into my ribcage.

Panic clawed its way up, tight and choking, coiling like barbed wire around my lungs.

I scanned the apartment again, this time seeing the arrangement for what it was.

A message.

I ran my hands through my hair, the uncertainty setting deeper.

How had he gotten in?

I had no spare keys.

No broken windows.

No open doors.

There was no sign of a break-in.

Nothing out of place—except everything somehow was.

And why?

Why would he do this?

He didn’t care.

That’s what he told me.

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