Chapter 20: The River
Alex
I walked deep into the woods until the bright lights of the palace finally faded away completely behind the thick trees. The further I went into the forest, the quieter the world became. It felt as if the woods themselves were slowly letting me go, wrapping me in a cold, silent blanket. The snow was deep here, and it muffled the sound of my footsteps as I moved. Above me, the bare branches of the trees creaked softly in the wind, sounding like old bones.
The river lay just ahead of me. It was running slow and black beneath a thin, fragile skin of ice that looked like glass. The water looked endless and very cold. It felt honest to me. Unlike the people in the palace, the river didn't pretend to be something it wasn't. It was just cold, dark, and indifferent to
