Chapter Eighteen
I didn’t answer.
I couldn’t.
Because how do you choose something you don’t even understand?
The space around me felt endless, stretching into nothing, like I was standing in the middle of a thought that hadn’t fully formed yet. The figure stood across from me, still, patient—like it knew time didn’t matter here.
Like it knew I would break first.
“You don’t have forever,” it said quietly.
My chest tightened.
“I didn’t ask for this,” I shot back. “I didn’t ask to be part of… whatever this is.”
“No one asks,” it replied. “They either accept it… or they fight it.”
“And what happens if I fight it?”
A pause.
Not long.
But long enough.
“You already are.”
That answer didn’t help.
It only made everything worse.
Because it was right.
I was fighting.
But I was also
