Midnight Whisper

ed under an ancient stone and mist. In this town the time seems different from the normal earth time, it moves slower, people hardl

et letter that had been soaked from the rain. It had arrived four nights earlier, sealed with a m

17th Moon. What you lo

e is not even a signature on it, to trace t

the person he or she?

question echoed like a ghost.

art in one terrible night that was filled with fire, smoke, screams, and shadows. Everything she loved, her parent

sweet couple disappeared that same night, slipping away like smoke into

she has no one left. Nobody she coul

a new injury that cannot be healed, a sharp pa

old doors, that ache stirred once more,

n her cheeks, she didn't know

ingering magic," she said. Velmira was the kind of town that pretended not

d forward, and pushed the heavy

hug. Books full of more mysteries than stories fill the tall shelf, almost reaching the ce

grew lively again and the f

s Ra

ppeared, her hair streaked with gray and pinned up casually

Lyra whispere

arian said gently. "Your

ou'd still be her

shifted to the letter in Lyra's h

r eyes. "The le

tly. "But I knew you'd find your wa

, what could have caused it, how does it happened, and a

d toward the back of the library. "Then you

years. She remembered warnings scrawled in the margins of her childhood bo

own she would come back in searc

ountain, her brother chasing fireflies, Ethan telling stories under a flickering lantern. And then, the night when everything change

through th

d from deep stone, lined with mirrors that distorted their reflect

ly those touched by the fire may enter," she said, placing the

at the key

whispered. "And you're not the frightened girl w

and stepped toward the d

hat felt like it had been trapped for years. The heavy door open

strange symbols. The floor beneath it was coated in a fine, grayi

lence enve

ot only saw her current self but also a younger version of herself, just eight y

." she w

darker. Shadows seemed to swirl around her feet, not threatening, but curious. A gen

Something's hide until we're brave

re. It was a silver necklace with a moonstone in the center, a gift from E

pulsed wi

of the room, s

urned

stood

ey eyes, and a scar above his brow that she didn't recognize. Yet there was so

?" she

s voice low and raw with

Her lips shuddered with questions. But all she

n. "I was stuck between what I had to d

d with a sense of urgency.

accident. It was planned. Someone or so

echoed, confusion

ne. We are the

ead spin. "That

y. "It's our history. And