Selena.
I didn't remember making the decision to leave the cave, only that one moment I had been standing there, listening to them choose her, and the next I was outside, the air colder against my skin as though the world itself had shifted to match something inside me.
Their voices followed me at first, not in sound but in memory, replaying with a clarity that refused to fade, pressing into something deeper than anger until it settled into a quiet, suffocating weight.
They had believed her.
Not hesitated, not questioned—believed her.
The thought circled endlessly as I walked, my steps carrying me deeper into the forest without direction, without purpose beyond the need to put distance between myself and that moment.
It was already night now, and despite the ordain I have gone barely few hours, I was willing to risk everything for some space from them.
I had promised myself that I would not break before them. They would not see my tears, no matter how hard they tried.
