The sky was vast that day. A deep, warm blue stretched across the valley, broken only by the soft flutter of two birds, moving like dancing shadows over the lake.
Veyr stood barefoot in the shoreline grass. The water was cold, but not unpleasant; the sun reflected on its surface like a trembling smile. Behind him, Ellie laughed — a bright, untamed laugh that cut through everything: the silence, the wind, the world itself.
"If you beat me again, you have to make my snacks for a whole week!" Ellie puffed, hands on her hips, pretending she hadn't cheated.
"You started running before I even said go," Veyr said flatly.
"That's called initiative."
"That's called cheating. And you still lost."
He laughed under his breath.
She was ten. Loud, unstoppable, and forever convinced the world would bend to her rules.
A faint buzzing hung in the air. Bees, maybe. Or flies. Or…
He didn't know. It was… different.
He raised his gaze.
The lake vibrated. Just a little. As if someone had stretched an invisible, thin string — and plucked it.
Then came the sound.A dull, distant cracking, somewhere deep beneath his feet. It didn't echo. It sang.And the sky… flickered.
Ellie fell silent.
Veyr turned to her.
Then the world tore apart.
The ground warped. Grass turned to dust. The lake vanished, as if something swallowed it. Not exploded. Not evaporated. But… erased.Water became emptiness. Trees became edges. Birds fell like broken feathers from the sky.
For one heartbeat he could only stare — stunned, uncomprehending — something raw and jagged clawing inside his chest. A numb, terrible wrongness that almost froze him where he stood. Then something in him snapped back into place.
"Ellie!" he shouted.
He ran. The earth trembled under his steps, splitting open, fissures flickering through it like veins of light.
He found her between two roots, pressed into the dust. Her eyes wide, full of questions no one had words for.
Something like wind pressed out of the void — but it wasn't wind. It was cold without temperature. Hunger without sound. A feeling that shouldn't exist.
Veyr shivered. Not from fear — but because his body didn't know what else to do.
Still, he wrapped his arms around Ellie. Held her tight, as tightly as he could.
"I've got you," he whispered. "I've got you. I…"
He heard the house. Or what was left of it. His parents' voices. Just for a second. Then: nothing.
And in the midst of this all-consuming silence — one realization:
Something had seen them.Something had chosen them.