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Her face paled, disbelief clouding her eyes.
* * *
The words hung in the air like a dense fog, and I could see the wheels turning in Violet’s mind as she tried to process them.
The soft, dim light of my cell seemed to cast deeper shadows around us, making the atmosphere even more oppressive.
“Why?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. “Why would you willingly stay in a place like this? At Ikmal?”
“I needed to hide,” I replied, feeling the weight of memories I’d been trying to suppress. “To find a place so remote, so dangerous, that no one would come looking for me.”
Violet sat up, her expression a mix of bewilderment and fear. “From who?”
I searched her eyes and saw pain in them. “From everyone.” I met her gaze, trying to convey the gravity of the situation. “I’m not safe outside. And neither is anyone else if they discover what I know.”
Her beautiful eyes bore into mine, as if trying to peel back the layers of secrets I’d been keeping. “What happened on that moon, Kuana? Why did you disappear?”
I took a deep breath, fighting the internal battle between wanting to protect her and the desire to unburden myself. “I can’t tell you, Violet. It’s too dangerous.”
She scooted closer, her voice a mixture of frustration and desperation. “I’ve come halfway across the galaxy, risked everything to find you, and now you’re shutting me out? You owe me an explanation.”
“I owe you so much more than that,” I whispered, feeling the sting of guilt. “But this is one debt I can’t repay.”
Violet’s eyes began to brim with tears. “Then why? Why not leave with me? We can run away, disappear somewhere no one will find us…”
My heart ached at the hope in her voice, but I knew it was a false hope. “Because the universe isn’t big enough. Not for this secret.”
She gripped my arms, shaking slightly. “Then tell me. Let me help. We can face this together.”
I tried to pull away, but her grip tightened. “Violet, please. Don’t ask me again.”
She persisted, her voice cracking with emotion. “Kuana, I need to know. I deserve to know.”
The pressure, the memories, the fear — everything welled up inside me.
I could feel the anger simmering, boiling, threatening to erupt.
The very emotion I’d been teaching others to control in this very prison was now betraying me.
“No!” I snapped, more forcefully than I intended, pushing her away from me. “Stop asking!”
She blinked, her eyes wide with shock.
The rage flared within me, so intense that my vision blurred, and I could see an eerie glow reflecting off Violet’s terrified face.
My eyes were burning — literally burning.
I could hear Violet’s muffled voice, panicked, calling out to me, but it felt distant, like it was coming from the other end of a long tunnel.
I was losing control.
“No,” I gasped, desperately trying to channel every technique, every breathing exercise I knew.
The walls seemed to close in, and the air grew thin.
My heart raced as memories of the jungle colony moon, of the research facility, of the catastrophic events, all flooded back.
The secret I was hiding felt like a physical entity, strangling me.
