Chapter 16

(Amiriah Nightmare)

Darkness. It always starts with the darkness.

I can feel it curling around me—heavy, cold, endless. My breath is shallow, ragged, as if the weight of it is crushing my chest. And then the eyes appear. Dark purple, glowing like embers in the void, watching me. Always watching. They burn through me, clawing at my soul, devouring every piece of who I am.

I try to run, but there's nowhere to go. The shadows twist and stretch, pulling me deeper.

"Amiriah!" The voice echoes—a memory long buried. My mother's voice, sharp and cold as winter frost.

I spin around, desperate to find her. My heart pounds against my ribs as I reach for her, but she stands just out of reach. Her face is a mask of disappointment. "It wasn't me!" My voice trembles, a broken whisper against the crushing dark. "I didn't try to hurt Lenna—I would never—"

"Lies." My father steps forward, his expression unreadable, but his words are a blade across my skin.

"No! Someone else did this—please, you have to believe me!" I scream, throat raw, tears burning down my face. I turn to my brothers and sisters, searching their faces for something—anything—but they look through me like I'm nothing.

I try to run toward him, but the shadows drag at my ankles. "Mama, please—please, you know me. You know I would never hurt her!"

He says nothing. Just watches as I sink deeper.

"Lenna!" Her name tears from my throat like a broken thing. My twin, the other half of me—I need her to see the truth. But when she steps into the light, I recoil. Blood stains her hands, her neck, her face. Her eyes—once warm, once mine—are filled with fear.

"Why did you do it?" she whispers. "I trusted you."

"I didn't—I swear to you, Lenna, I didn't!" My knees hit the ground, the world spinning in cold chaos.

A new voice breaks through. "She needs help," Father says, his tone clinical, detached. "This isn't something she can recover from alone."

I shake my head, panic flooding my veins. "No—no, I'm not crazy! I didn't do it! Please, don't send me back there—" SMAK

I look at my father her slapped sobbing. My vision blurry from the tears I see a shadow going towards I flinch and ran locking myself in my bathroom.

But the shadows are already shifting, pulling me toward the hospital's cold, sterile walls. The smell of antiseptic fills my lungs, sharp and suffocating. The walls close in, a prison I cannot escape.

Waiting for my family or anyone to come and save me from these hell.

They never come.

And the purple eyes—they are still there, waiting. Watching. Eating me alive from the inside out.

I try to scream, but the darkness swallows my voice whole.