0 March Secret Agent #20

TITLE: OF NIGHT AND STONE
GENRE: YA FANTASY

Every stone in this damn castle looks the same. The walls practically crumble beneath my touch as I trip down the corridor, my dying phone a flicker against the darkness. Back home, the sun guided me, and even in the deepest parts of the woods, I never got lost.

There is no sunlight here.

Words carved in the stone whisper at the stroke of my fingertips, the hiss of forgotten history. I should have stayed in bed, waited for Dad, but a dim glow edging the stained glass woke me, and I couldn't get back to sleep. Because today is the day.

And I need it to be over, already.

My phone dips, its weak light dropping onto the small wooden box clutched in my other arm. Oval-shaped and carved into a blooming rose on top. Too light to believe there's anything in it at all.

"You're home, Momma," I whisper to the box.

After all this time… I'm here without her.

And I can't find a damn light switch.

I break into a trot, my legs wobbling like a newborn colt. Six hundred years of stagnant air catches in my throat, and cold sweat beads in the scar that slicks along my hairline, dripping like blood. Memories best kept locked away ooze into the shadows.

Blood and flame and nighttime sky. Her hand, so still.

No. Those memories don't belong here. I crossed an ocean to leave them behind, to lay her to rest. To help her find peace at last.