Page 51 of Us Dark Few

“She got sick.” Anguish bracketed her eyes. “Winnie took her to the doctor. He told her the infection was spreading to Sarah’s lungs. Winnie didn’t have enough money for medicine, and they sent her home. Sarah died in her arms that night,” Winnie’s voice broke.

Tears formed in Khalani’s eyes at the sheer sadness and unfairness of it all. Winnie was someone who was made for color. For light and happiness. She wished she could bottle her pain, throw it at the wall, and destroy the hurt. But nothing could erase that.

“I’m so sorry, Winnie,” she whispered.

“Do you want to know why Winnie still smiles and keeps going?”

Khalani nodded, her chest rising with shallow breaths.

“Because the dead don’t want you to die with them,” Winnie stated. “Love transcends space and time. It holds no bounds or limits. Dear girl, love is stronger than death because if you love someone, they cannever truly die. Sarah lives on. In me. And your parents live on in you, too.”

Khalani’s hands trembled as her head bowed. She tried to contain her emotions, but the burden was too overwhelming. Her failings, torments, and regrets weighed down on her frail body like an endless stone slab. It was too much.

A sob escaped her mouth. Another. And another, until the sounds of her cries resounded through the room, and she nearly crumpled to the ground.

And then strong arms wrapped around her, holding her up. “It’s okay. It’s okay, sweet girl,” Winnie whispered continuously, gently rubbing her hair.

Khalani buried her face in Winnie’s shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably. She gripped her tight, holding on for dear life.

If she could cry out to the heavens and tell her parents one thing, it would be that she was sorry. She was so sorry for not telling them to stay home that day. For not showing them how much she loved them. For hating them when she was left alone. For giving up, year after year. She was sorry for wanting to die.

Khalani had been alone for so long. Her youth had been stolen, and every ounce of pain and suffering had piled high at her feet, with no one to lighten the load. No one had been there to hear her cries or to tell her it wasn’t her fault.

Before Braderhelm, Khalani had been a walking machine. Wound up to march without direction, purpose, or conviction.

She thought her life was over when she was sentenced to prison. But something prevented her from giving up. She didn’t understand before—the pain and misfortune were worse, the agony remained, but the suffering wasn’t what mattered.

Shehad changed.

The transformation had begun the moment she opened Douglas’s book. Poetry introduced her to a world filled with art and rapture, showing her the beauty of embracing the fall and defying adversity.Poetry showed her things worth fighting for, surviving for.

Her heart, so broken yet full, threatened to spill over daily with the missing pieces. Every inch of her body ached for her parents’ touch and their voices. Like any moment, she’d explode in a raw spectacle of feeling. She didn’t believe anything could describe the depth of those emotions.

For how can words encapsulate the universe?

Because it too is infinite.

It’s the one power that can tear you apart and reconstruct you all at once. The pure sentiment will have you rage at the world one moment and stand on her highest peaks with wonder and awe the next.

To love is to go on.

Thatis why she asked Takeshi to train her to fight.

Her impartial existence extinguished and erupted into something so much more powerful. Khalani clutched Winnie tighter as the force of her emotions burst out of her chest like a tidal wave.

And Winnie never let go.

When Khalani returned to her cell that night, words flowed from her body as if they were embedded in her skin. She wished she could shout them into space and expand along with it, for eternity.

Monster in Me

There lay wounds in me

Open scabs, bleeding marks, decrepit lines

Possessing transparency with the weight of mountains

Pressure cascades down my spine

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