After the front door finally clicked shut and Loren’s heavy footsteps faded away from the porch, Mom didn't speak. She just stood there, staring at the wood of the door as if she could see right through it. The silence in the living room felt heavy and thick, like we were both underwater.
She looked smaller than she had a few minutes ago, her shoulders hunched as she finally let the exhaustion take over.
“There is one place,” she said at last, her voice barely a thread of sound. “It is the only place left where you can be truly safe, Mayari. A place where no evil eye can track you and no shadow can follow. But it means you cannot stay here. You cannot stay in this realm at all.”
I nodded, my hand instinctively resting over my stomach where the pressure was already starting to feel like
