Leaning against the rough stone wall, Kaya tilted her head back, her gaze drifting up toward the narrow strip of sky. Her steps had carried her up the worn stairs without her even noticing, her body moving in a daze while her mind lingered somewhere far away.
She had dreamt again. A strange, aching dream.
In it, she saw herself utterly alone, walking a world without end. The silence was unbearable until—like a whisper—came the truth she had always known: no one can walk alone forever. To survive, you need hands to catch you, voices to remind you that you still belong. People to lean on. People to stay.
But for Kaya, that truth was only salt in a wound. She had always struggled with this—always failed. That was the reason for her dream. A desperate reaching for the sense of continuity, of warmth, that she had lost the moment she was torn from her family.
