🦋ALTHEA
I let the Mist swallow me whole.
For the first time, this plague that I had been raised to fear became my salvation. But as it took me, the nightmares began to sing their song. Without the amulet, the occasional whisper became a chorus of eerie voices—a cacophony that did not only assault my ears but wrapped around my body like tangible tendrils, pulling, dragging, suffocating.
I could not see ahead of me, and as the voices grew louder, I felt as though I was running in place. My legs moved, pumping desperately, but the ground beneath me felt wrong—thick, resistant, like I was wading through something viscous and alive.
Then I heard them. The gammas. Their howls tore through the Mist, sharp and hunting, and my terror spiked so violently I thought my heart would burst.
