I stepped forward, my breath shaky. The cave was massive, swallowing me in its cold, pulsing glow. The deeper I walked, the more the red light wrapped around me, twisting through the walls like veins. My heartbeat pounded in my ears. I didn't know where I was. I didn't know what I was walking into. But something… something was pulling me forward.
Then I saw them.
The walls weren't just rock—they were covered in stones, each one carved with glowing, enchanted symbols. And inside them, floating like trapped fireflies, were orbs. Blue. Soft. Pulsing. Like they were alive.
I stepped closer, my fingers hovering over the nearest stone. The orb inside flickered, and for a second, I swore I felt something—a whisper in the back of my mind, too quiet to understand. I looked around. There were so many. Hundreds. Thousands. A path of glowing symbols stretched before me, twisting deeper into the cave, like they wanted me to follow.
So I did.
With every step, the whispering grew louder, like a thousand voices just out of reach. My fingers traced the carvings on the stones as I passed, feeling warmth beneath my touch. They were leading me somewhere. Guiding me.
And then—I saw her.
At the center of the cavern, floating above a jagged stone pedestal, was a massive red diamond. It glowed like burning embers, pulsing with something ancient, something powerful. And inside it… was her.
She was curled up, her arms wrapped around her legs, her long hair drifting around her like she was lost in a dream. She looked so peaceful. So sad.
I stepped closer, my breath catching. My hand pressed against the diamond—it was warm. Alive.
And then… she moved.
Her eyes slowly opened, locking onto mine. My chest tightened, my whole body frozen in place. I wanted to say something, to tell her I would get her out. But before I could, she closed them again. She pulled her legs in tighter, like she was afraid.
**I recall the fear in her eyes, a mirror of the dread that churned within me. Why had she feared me? Was it the specter of what I had become**
The whispers behind me stopped. The blue orbs flickered, their glow dimming.
I turned back to the diamond, pressing harder. "No. Don't go back to sleep," I whispered. "I'll get you out. I promise."
But the cavern only answered with silence.
I stood there, my hand still pressed against the diamond, my heart racing. She was right in front of me—so close I could almost feel her—but I couldn't reach her. I couldn't help her.
"No, no, no…" My voice cracked. I banged my fist against the surface, but it didn't even shake. "You can't just stay in there. You have to wake up."
She didn't move.
I turned, my eyes darting across the cave. The glowing blue orbs in the stones—the souls—had led me here. They had whispered to me. Maybe they knew something. Maybe they could help.
I ran back to the nearest stone and pressed my hands against the carvings. "Tell me what to do," I begged. The symbols were warm, pulsing, but they didn't answer. "Please! She's trapped! I have to save her!"
A flicker. A spark. The orb inside shivered.
I gasped. The symbols on the stone glowed brighter, connecting to the next stone, then the next, until a chain of light spread across the entire cavern. The whispers rushed back, louder now, filling my head.
And then I understood.
The diamond wasn't just a prison—it was a seal. It was feeding off the energy of these souls, keeping her locked away. If I freed them… I could free her.
I turned back to the diamond, my hands shaking. The path was clear now. I had to break the seal. I had to release them all.
I took a deep breath, reached out And grabbed the first stone, It was time to set her free.
I reached out again, my fingers hovering over the bluish orb inside the stone. It flickered softly, like a tiny flame trapped in ice. I swallowed hard. I didn't know what it was—just that it was _something_.
I took a deep breath and touched it.
The second my fingers met the stone, a _shock_ ran through me. My vision blurred, and suddenly—
**I wasn't in the cave anymore.**
A rush of images exploded in my mind, too fast to make sense of. A boy, maybe a little older than me, running through a golden field. The sun was warm, the sky wide and endless. He was laughing, his arms outstretched like he was trying to catch the wind.
Then—his home. A small wooden house near a river. His mother calling him inside for dinner. The smell of fresh bread filling the air.
Then—darkness.
Fire. Screaming. The house burning. Shadowy figures tearing through the village. The boy running, his face streaked with tears. He tripped. Fell. Hands grabbed him.
Then—chains. Cold stone. A deep, endless fear. A red glow swallowing everything.
And then—**nothing.**
I gasped, my eyes snapping open as I collapsed onto the cold cave floor. My chest heaved, my skin clammy with sweat.
I sat there, my breath shaky, my mind spinning. What I had just seen—was it real? Was it a dream? A memory?
I turned back to the orb, still flickering inside the stone. It didn't move. It didn't react. It just floated there, silent, like nothing had happened.
Maybe I was imagining things. Maybe touching it had messed with my head somehow. But it _felt_ real. Too real.
I needed more proof.
I forced myself to stand, my legs still unsteady. My hands shook as I reached for another orb. I hesitated for a second, then pressed my fingers against the stone.
Another _shock_. My vision blurred—
**And I was somewhere else.**
A woman this time. She was older, sitting by a window, carefully stitching a red scarf. The room around her was small but warm, a fireplace crackling in the corner. She smiled softly as she worked, humming a tune under her breath.
Then—a loud knock on the door. Her smile faded. She set the scarf down and opened it.
Darkness. Hands grabbing her. Dragging her away. She screamed, kicking, fighting, but it was useless.
Then—stone walls. Glowing red symbols. Fear.
And then—**nothing.**
I gasped and stumbled back, falling to the ground again. My chest was tight, my breath coming in short, panicked bursts.
I looked at the orb. Still floating. Still flickering. Just like the other one.
I swallowed hard, my throat dry.
It wasn't a dream. It wasn't random.
These weren't just glowing orbs. They were people.
Trapped. Stolen. _Erased._
I looked around at the thousands of stones lining the cave. Each one had an orb inside. Each one held a story I didn't know. A life that had been taken.
I felt sick.
I turned back to the massive red diamond, my heart pounding harder than before. The girl inside—was she like them? Was she something _more_?
And if these people had been turned into orbs…
What had she been turned into?
I took a deep breath, my whole body still shaking. My fingers twitched as I reached for another orb. I had to be sure. I had to know more.
The moment I touched it—**pain.**
Not a vision. Not a memory. Just _pain_.
It started deep in my chest, spreading through my arms, my legs, my head. Like something was _crawling_ inside me, trying to rip its way out. I gasped, stumbling back, my hands clutching my stomach. My skin felt too tight, my bones too heavy.
"What—what's happening to me?" I choked out.
The orbs around me flickered, but they didn't move. They didn't care. They just _watched_.
I turned to the diamond, to _her_. The girl was still curled up inside, silent, untouched. She was my only focus now. I had to reach her.
I staggered forward, my body aching with every step. The pain was getting worse, spreading faster, burning from the inside out. My hands trembled as I pressed them against the glowing red crystal.
"Please," I whispered, my forehead resting against the warm surface. "I don't want to be trapped. I don't want to disappear."
But my reflection was already changing.
My fingers were fading, turning into light. My arms. My legs. My chest. The pain was gone now, but so was _I_.
I looked down at my hands—except they weren't hands anymore. They were blue. Flickering. Floating.
Just like the orbs.
Pain tore through me, my body breaking apart piece by piece. But I kept moving, stumbling forward, dragging myself toward the diamond. Toward _her_.
Then—something caught my eye.
Not just her.
Beyond the red glow, deeper in the cavern, other diamonds flickered in different colors. Blue. Gold. Black. Each one pulsed faintly in the darkness, trapped inside their own stone prisons.
And inside them—_more figures_.
My breath caught. One of them had long, flowing white hair, but their body was pure black, like a shadow frozen in time. Another had golden hair, glowing faintly like trapped sunlight. Another—black hair, floating around them like ink in water.
They weren't orbs. They weren't souls.
They were _like her._
I opened my mouth, trying to speak, trying to _understand_. But the pain surged again, ripping through me like fire. I stumbled, my legs giving out. My hands hit the stone floor, but they weren't hands anymore. They were light.
Blue. Flickering.
_No._
I reached out, trying to hold onto something, anything—but my fingers dissolved into the air. My arms faded next, my chest, my legs. I felt myself _lifting_, rising weightlessly like mist caught in a breeze.
I looked one last time at the diamonds, at the trapped figures inside.
I needed to know who they were. I needed to _save them._
I opened my mouth to scream, to fight, to _do something_. But it was too late The last thing I saw was the girl inside the diamond, still asleep, still trapped. My vision blurred as I drifted backward, weightless. Small.
Then—darkness.
And then—**nothing.**
**the reality of the blood I had shed to protect her? I had saved her, but at what cost? The lives I extinguished in her name lingered as specters, haunting every quiet moment.
"You carry too much alone," she said, her voice breaking the heavy silence between us. "Every choice you made wasn't yours alone to bear. You saved me because you couldn't let them win. That was not a sin."
Her words pierced through the walls I had erected, yet I could not acknowledge them fully. The irony of our journey was not lost on me: once, I had sought to halt her path, yet now she urged me to persist. The immutable had softened, like jagged stone weathered into something resembling tenderness.
"Even bedrock can feel," I murmured, my voice a fragile echo. "Not after carrying your soul for so long."
"i saved you," she had said once, her voice trembling under the weight of her confession. "And you killed him too."**
**Those words had lingered, haunting in their simplicity, an immutable truth that demanded acknowledgment.
Yet hesitation has no place in our reality. We are bound to this fight, propelled by necessity and the inexorable weight of what must be done. The world allows no room for regret. My existence, my very purpose, has become singular: to shield you from the darkness that surrounds us. Yet to see you now, fragile and vulnerable, rends me in ways I cannot articulate. "You are more than that," she said softly. "You're not just pain and anger. You saved me. That wasn't vengeance. That was something else."**
**The dichotomy of her strength and her fragility defines her, and it is a reminder of why I endure. Her eyes glistened, reflecting emotions I could not parse.**
I see you, **
"Sleep now," she whispered, her tone uncharacteristically tender. "Let the dreams take you, if only for a while."
Even as I spoke, I knew my words were but a fragile comfort. Her dreams, like mine, would be tainted by the shadows we could not escape. Yet, for now, he would sleep, and I would stand vigil. The encroaching darkness would not consume us—not while I breathed, not while I endured.