The stakes are higher than ever.
It's been months since the four managed to temporarily defeat and escape Laurel, Amber, Kali and the others but the four's problems are far from over. Forced to live with their guilt and still plagued by nightmares o...
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Oliviera (Livy's) POV: Hearing what Zanna said terrifies me. It terrifies me since I think she may be right but now is not the time to be thinking about superstitious nonsense like how we could be so wrong it's not even worth playing any longer. Because as soon as we do that we're saying that all the people who had fought before us had also wasted their time. Had wasted their lives.
"We - we can't afford to think like that Zan," I had been about to speak before Dana beat me to it, her voice oddly sombre and low. Almost as if she was fighting back tears or keeping inside something that was eating her up. Looking into her eyes I clock the same emotion in those dark blue orbs, the gold flecks seeming to shine like falling stars and seeming just as bright to me. "We can't think like that for the reasons Livy was thinking about. Because then it would be saying that this was all a waste. All the fighting, the loss, the sacrifices. All the pain would have been for nothing and all the change was without a reason. And that's not only unfair to do to our parents but also our grandparents. Their friends, our friends. All the people we would have lost. It would be unfair and a disgrace to their memory if we gave up now."
"Especially since we would be so close to the end it would be the coward's way out," Zanna gives me the sad smile then and I hug her awkwardly to the side, letting her rest her head on my shoulder so she could lean on me for support. "I wish we had another way to do this Livy. I'm afraid for what we're going to find at the end of this." My friend's voice shakes and it's only then that I clock just how afraid she is of what we're walking into. How terrified we all were since we'd become adept at pushing down the fear until we could no longer feel it. We no longer sense it unless we looked hard enough.
But I also have no words to comfort Zanna and I can tell she knows it when she doesn't press for the conversation to continue. She just walks side by side with me, her eyes on the pathway ahead since we were now at the front of the walking group, the others behind us. We're nearly there, about a few miles north and we'll see it clearly on the horizon. Zanna tries to stay strong but I can tell it's difficult for her since she's afraid like the rest of us.
That is until Dana's poorly timed humour saves the situation with a bad joke. That is if the jewels don't give it away first. Her tone is upbeat and going for jovial but I can tell how much strain it puts on her to attempt to make it look like everything is normal. How hard the loss of the last of her family has hit her since it's not sure if Kalli is alive or dead, even with the feeling of her power vanishing a few days before. Because we all refused to lose hope since it would break our side even more than before. That's a point though, why haven't the other pieces started to shimmer or some shit. Are we sure this is the right place? I thought that coming closer to it would have triggered the other pieces to react. Her words make sense but I'd been so in tune with the people around me that I'd forgotten the place itself. Forgotten even for a second why we were journeying this far when we'd all already lost so much. So many loved ones and friends. Liv? Don't you and the others feel anything? Any of you?
