Sarissa walked alone beneath a sky with no stars, her bare feet sank into ash with every step, and the air tasted like the moment after lightning strikes too close.
But she wasn't afraid, yet.
What stretched before her was a long road paved with fragments, and though she did not look behind her, she felt with certainty that to do so would mean death. And so, she moved forward.
The fragments littering the ground – pieces of memory and moments trapped in frozen panes – caught the dim light that hung over everything. One blinked softly as she passed, a vision of herself, her hands red with her own blood, dying a gruesome death before returning to her starting point in the next turn.
Another one was her younger self huddled in a dark alley, knife drawn, staring down a snarling beast twice her size, knowing she couldn't win. But knowing she wouldn't have to if she could just survive long enough to rewind.
She knelt by a larger shard, brushing it off with her fingertips.
