Just the void.
I started to see things.
At first, it was just flashes. Sparks of color in the gray.
A burst of red—Ivy's dress at the gala.
A flash of gold—Rhett's eyes when he laughed.
A smudge of green—the greenhouse where Kai grew his impossible roses.
I reached for them, desperate for color, for life. But my fingers passed through them like smoke.
"Please," I whispered, my lips moving without sound. "Please, don't leave me."
The colors swirled, twisting into shapes.
I saw my mother. Not as I remembered her, tired and worn, but young. Laughing. She was holding a baby—me?—and pointing at a storm.
Look, Lina. The lightning isn't scary. It's just the sky dancing.
"Mom?"
The image dissolved into static.
Then I saw Rhett. He was standing with his back to me, shirtless, the moonlight gleaning off his scars. I reached out to touch his shoulder, to feel the heat of his skin.
Rhett.
He turned. But he didn't have a face. Just a smooth, blank expanse of skin where his eyes and mouth should be.
You're empty, Lina,the Faceless Rhett said. His voice sounded like grinding stones.You were always empty.
"No," I whimpered, squeezing my eyes shut. "That's not real. That's not him."
Are you sure?whispered a voice that sounded like Lucien's, but colder. Crueler.What are you without us? A broken circuit? A failed experiment?
I saw myself. I was standing in a mirror, but my reflection was fading. My hands were turning transparent. My heart was a black hole in my chest, sucking everything in.
Just a battery,the reflection sneered.Just a container for other people's power.
"Stop it," I sobbed, the tears feeling hot and strange on my frozen cheeks. "Stop it, stop it, stop it."
I don't know how much time passed after the hallucinations started. It felt like a lifetime. It felt like an eternity of ghosts and whispers.
My body was heavy. So heavy. It would be so easy to just... let go. To stop fighting the cold. To let the gray unravel me completely.
Why struggle?the void whispered.Peace is quiet. Peace is empty.
I drifted. I felt myself thinning, stretching, like butter scraped over too much bread. My memories were getting fuzzy. What color were Rhett's eyes? Gold? Or amber? Or black?
I couldn't remember.
Let go,the void crooned.
I closed my eyes. I relaxed my hands.
Thump-thump.
