Page 138 of Seeking Shadows

But it feels like everything is slipping through my fingers.

My heart beats too hard, too fast. My breath comes in short, shaky gasps. The walls around me seem to distort, as if reality is wavering, pulsing, about to crumble.

There is no Olga in the mansion.There never was one.

Tristan’s words echo in my head, mixed with the noise of something much worse: a low, almost imperceptible buzzing, growing in my mind.

I press my fingers to my temples, trying to push away the dizzy feeling, trying to believe what he’s saying.

But if it never existed…

If I invented it…

My lips part, but my voice is slow to come out. When it does, it sounds small.

"Tristan?"

He looks at me, his face serious, but his eyes a little more attentive now.

"Yes?"

I grip the arm of the chair, trying to steady myself, trying to pretend that I still have some control over myself.

"Are you real?" My voice cracks at the end.

Tristan’s chest rises and falls slowly. He doesn’t answer me right away.

Because maybe he doesn’t exist either.

Maybe nothing exists.

The thought hits me so hard that my head spins. My skin tingles as if something is crawling underneath it.

"Mia."

He says my name, as if it can anchor me. As if it can pull my mind back before it falls apart.

But the voices have already started.

"Why worry about what’s real?"

"We will always be with you."

"We never leave."

They whisper, soft and familiar, like old friends who have never left me alone.

Because they never left me.

My muscles lock. My stomach churns. I cover my ears, but it’s no use.

I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to shut out the faces that shouldn’t be there.

The sound of the basement door.

The chains.

The feeling of always being watched, always one wrong step away from punishment.

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