The courtyard had been full of whispers. Whispers that cut through me like blades, sharp and unforgiving. Every passing glance, every fleeting pitying look from students who thought they knew something about me—it felt like I was suffocating beneath it all. Ingrid’s words were still fresh in my mind, echoing with the weight of something cruel, something final.
I needed space. I needed to be alone.
My chest tightened with every breath, my heart pounding in time with the frantic whirl of thoughts racing through my mind. I moved without thinking, just putting one foot in front of the other, determined to escape the suffocating weight of the Academy's gaze. Ingrid's words clung to me like a second skin, each one a fresh wound that I couldn't scrape away. My stomach churned, my body felt like
