Home Are you sure? Elijah's Journal
September 6th, 1837
The puppets blink out of sync.
They stared at me again today. Not with suspicion, but with absence. Like they didn’t recognize me. Like I wasn’t in the script. The butcher repeated the same sentence three times before his eyes rolled like marbles and he reset. The baker burned her hands and didn’t flinch. And when I touched the priest’s sleeve, I swear to God his mouth opened without breath and whispered, “He sees.” They don’t feel real because they aren’t. But Julian does. Julian... he dreams like a person. He apologizes like he bleeds. And when he smiles, the noise in my head quiets. They want me to forget. They want me to behave. But I remember. I remember what it felt like to wake up choking on ash when I was six. I remember the man with my face in the mirror. I remember the book that told me I was written. I will find the core. I will burn it. And if Julian burns beside me, at least he’ll be free. — E.V.