[Third Person].
Meredith stopped at the edge of a riverbank, the surface of the water reflecting the pale light filtering through the canopy above.
She stared at it for a long time.
Her thoughts tangled—Draven's eyes, his voice, the way he had walked away without looking back. The bond still hummed faintly, wounded but not broken, like something alive that had been bruised.
Before Meredith could talk herself out of it, she stepped forward.
The cold water swallowed her feet, then her calves. She kept walking. The water swallowed her knees, then her waist.
Her breath hitched as the chill seeped into her skin, but she didn't stop. When the water reached her shoulders, she hesitated only for a second, then bent forward and let herself sink beneath the surface.
The river closed over her head.
Sounds vanished, and thoughts blurred. The cold wrapped around her like a ruthless clarity, forcing everything else away.
For a moment, there was only the water and her heartbeat.
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