The night was thick.
The darkness was like ink, so dense it seemed impossible to thin, draping over the land like a heavy black veil. Everything around was silent, a deathly stillness. There was no chirping of insects, no rustle of wind through the treetops; it was as if all living things had been swallowed by this profound quiet.
I walked alone through the silence, my feet pressing into the soft grass, each step yielding to the elasticity of the blades and the dampness of the earth. My footsteps sounded exceptionally sharp in the hollow night, each thud like a drumbeat against my heart, a constant reminder of my own existence.
Chapter 454