The first person turned grey at dawn. Not her skin. Her eyes. Elara found her sitting on a bench near the well, staring at nothing, her irises the color of dead ash.
"Margaret?" Elara touched the woman's shoulder. Margaret did not blink. Did not speak. Did not breathe.
She is still alive, the void said. But her thoughts have stopped. The Grey is inside her.
"How?"
It found a crack. Loneliness. Despair. The Grey does not need fields and rivers. It needs hearts that have forgotten how to hope.
---
Sarah ran to the square.
Margaret sat motionless. Three other townspeople had gathered around her, their faces pale.
"The Grey is infecting people?"
Not infecting. Inviting. They let it in. Without meaning to. Without knowing.
"Can we get it out?"
The same way we stopped it from spreadin
