Ellara gasped as the suffocating darkness dissolved.
She stood in the cemetery clearing once more.
The fog thicker than before, swirling like restless spirits.
A sharp, metallic scent filled the air, and she stumbled back, her breath hitching.
Her trembling eyes scanned the eerie expanse until they locked onto a figure in the distance.
He stood amidst the gravestones.
His red hair vivid against the pallid glow of the moon.
His clothes, noble in design and pristine in their original state, were now tattered and stained.
The base of his neck glistened with fresh blood.
Crimson rivulets spilling down his collar and pooling at his chest.
More blood seeped from his mouth and nose.
But his face remained eerily calm, save for the piercing gaze of his red eyes that bore into her.
Her heart pounding in her ears.
The boy tilted his head slightly.
His lips parting as he spoke in a voice both soft and haunting.
"Why did you do it, Elara?"
The question struck her like a thunderclap.
Her lips trembling as she took a step back.
Her body moved instinctively, but her mind was paralyzed, unable to process the weight of his words.
She stammered, her voice barely audible.
The boy's gaze didn't waver.
But something in his expression seemed to twist with sorrow and accusation.
"Why did you leave me?"
Her chest tightened painfully.
Tears welled in her eyes.
Spilling over silently as her legs gave way, and she sank to her knees.
She couldn't breathe, couldn't think.
The boy's words dug into her, carving out a pit of guilt and confusion she couldn't escape.
She whispered, her voice cracking.
"I didn't… I wouldn't…"
Her eyes darted around, desperate for some explanation, some answer to this nightmare.
They landed on a shard of glass glinting faintly in the moonlight, half-buried in the dirt.
Trembling, she reached for it, her fingers brushing against the cold surface.
When she lifted the shard, the reflection staring back at her wasn't her own.
She saw a young girl.
No more than eight or nine—with tangled, filthy red hair and wide, tear-streaked red eyes.
Her small, fragile frame was clad in a tattered, dirtied dress that hung loosely on her.
The girl in the glass stared back at her, her lips quivering as more tears spilled down her pale cheeks.
Elara's breath hitched.
She dropped the glass shard as though it burned her and clutched her face with trembling hands.
Her fingertips brushed against smooth, youthful skin, not the face she'd known for sixteen years.
She choked out, shaking her head violently.
But when she looked down at her hands—small and delicate, smeared with dirt—the reality of it sank in.
Her body had shrunk, stripped of its adolescence and returned to that of a child.
The boy took a step closer, his bare feet silent against the cold, mist-covered ground.
His presence was suffocating, and yet, Elara couldn't look away.
He asked, his voice softer now, almost pleading.
"Do you remember what you did to me?"
Ellara's mind was a storm of fractured memories.
Her tears flowed freely as she clutched her head, her nails digging into her scalp.
She cried, her voice breaking.
"I don't know who you are!"
The boy's expression shifted, a flicker of sadness crossing his face.
He knelt before her, his bloodied face inches from hers.
He whispered, his breath cold against her skin.
"You've always known."
Her body shuddered violently as she tried to pull away, but his eyes held her captive.
In their depths, she saw flashes of something she had tried so hard to bury—
Shards of moments, fragments of memories.
A boy's laughter echoing in the distance.
And then it all shifted instantly.
A child's scream that cut through the air like a blade.
Ellara gasped, the memories searing into her mind like fire.
She clutched her chest, her heart feeling as though it might burst.
The boy reached out, his cold, bloodstained fingers brushing against her cheek.
He said, his voice barely a whisper.
"You left me all alone."
His touch was like ice, sending a shock through her body.
Her small hands digging into the dirt as she tried to put distance between them.
She screamed, her voice echoing through the cemetery.
"I don't remember anything!"
The boy stood slowly, his expression unreadable.
The blood at his neck and mouth seemed to flow more freely now, staining the ground beneath him.
He said, his voice calm but filled with an ominous certainty.
"You do remember everything..."
Ellara's gaze darted around the cemetery, desperate for some sign of escape.
But the gravestones loomed like silent sentinels.
Their inscriptions blurred and unreadable.
The fog thickened, curling around her like a living thing, trapping her in its cold embrace.
The boy began to walk away, his figure fading into the mist.
"Come find me, sis..."
He said, his voice carrying through the eerie stillness.
"Come find me… and remember."
She tried to call out to him, to demand answers, but her voice caught in her throat.
The cemetery seemed to close in around her.
The shadows growing darker and more oppressive.
She clutched her chest, her breathing ragged as the world spun around her.
And then, just as suddenly as it began, the world went still.
The fog receded, the shadows softened, and Elara was left alone, kneeling in the dirt with her small hands trembling in her lap.
Her mind raced, her heart pounding as she stared at the empty space where the boy had stood.
His words echoed in her mind, carving themselves into her very being.
"Come find me… and remember."
Ellara's tear-filled eyes flicked toward the shard of glass lying nearby.
She hesitated, then picked it up once more, her small hands clutching it tightly.
The reflection of the young girl stared back at her, wide-eyed and afraid.
She whispered to the girl in the glass, though she already knew the answer.