SOUL DORM

65

I'm still standing...

***

CHAPTER 65:

GRAVITY

There must have been some hypnotic power in the darkness. As I stared into the Void, I couldn't tell if minutes or centuries were passing by. Trapped in an endless night, caught in a frigid nightmare where reality blurred with dreams, until...

"Hey!"

The approaching voice was like a hammer shattering an illusion. It cracked the walls of the invisible cage I was trapped in.

"Olive! Hey!"

I turned slowly toward the voice, barely processing who I was seeing. It was Mars, panting heavily. His shock at finding me on The Void's edge mirrored my surprise at his sudden appearance.

"Stop," he urged, his voice thick with fear. His hands reached out as if he could physically pull me back from the brink. My mind was in turmoil—why was he here? What did he want from me now, after all I had told him?

"Please," he implored, edging closer. As I instinctively stepped back, he halted, his hands raised in entreaty. "Okay," he gasped, "just stop. Let's talk, okay? This doesn't have to end like this."

I took another step back, my confusion deepening.

"Olive, please listen," he pleaded, desperation tinging his voice.

"Go away!"

"No," he responded firmly. "I'm not leaving without you. Please, come here."

He took another step forward and extended his hand, his gaze briefly darting behind me to the precipice. I followed his look, and my stomach churned. How had I gotten so close to the edge? The pain must have blinded me.

My gaze snapped back to Mars, and suddenly, I understood—he thought I was about to jump. But what had I been thinking? Why had I come here? Could despair have so completely consumed me that I was willing to forsake my second chance at life over a broken heart?

"Olive..." Mars took another step. "Come towards me, please. The ground you're on isn't stable."

"I glanced downward, and even the slightest shift sent pebbles skittering into the void, instantly jolting me back to reality. Swallowing hard, I yearned to step back from the edge. Another movement stirred the gravel beneath my feet—a silent warning I'd been too absorbed to notice until now.

"Good!" Mars's voice, filled with hope, reached me. "Just like that, keep coming. Slowly."

He must have been moving towards me, too. I could hear him but didn't dare turn my gaze from the peril just inches away. My legs felt like they might buckle at any moment. Still, I forced myself to take another two steps towards Mars. And then...

"Olive!"

Mars's shout overpowered my scream, the last sound I heard before gravity seized me. The ground beneath my feet crumbled away, and the void yanked everything toward its depths. For a moment, I was suspended in the air—blind, deaf, numb—until a searing pain shot from my wrist through my arm, jolting my senses back to life. Jagged rocks loomed on one side, the abyss on the other. Sounds began to filter back: the raggedness of my breath, the wild pounding of my heart, and...

"I've got you," Mars shouted, hanging from the edge, his body dangling halfway down. His grip on my wrist was like a vise.

I sobbed, my gaze shifting between the endless void below and the faint glimmer of hope above. The pain blurred my vision, though there wasn't much to see. I was hanging between life and death.