(... Continued)
Amara took a slow, careful step towards the ghostly settlement.
Then another.
And another.
Each footfall felt like she was sinking deeper into someone else's memory… someone else's grief… that felt like hers…
The air around her shifted.
A tremor passed through the weeds.
And then…a gust of wind hit her.
Not cold.
Neither warm.
But it pierced her soul.
It slammed into her chest like a thousand unheard cries… like a wave of grief so old, so known…like a deja vu she couldn't recall…that her breath shattered in her throat.
Her knees buckled.
Her eyes stung.
A sound tore out of her before she even knew she was making it…
"Ah….!"
Her hands flew to her chest.
Her lungs seized.
Tears burst forward, uninvited, uncontrollable.
"That…" she gasped, voice breaking. "What…What was that? What… what is happening to me?"
Another step and she felt it again…
This wasn't pain or fear.
This was heartbreak that she was feeling…
A foreign heartbreak.
