Katherine presses her hand to the glass, feeling the coldness as the world around her stretches and bends. She stares into the nothingness, dropping her precious tools to the ground where they clatter and float without a pattern. A bright flash of light stretches towards the horizon, illuminating two figures floating in the nothingness before her. It sears her hand and she tears it away. Tears well in her eyes, the light saturating their pigment. Her entire being tells her to fight, but with what? The sound crescendos. She screams and punches the glass, shards entering her blood. 

Nothing. Nothing but the void.

—

K A T H E R I N E. She holds on as starlight encapsulates. Darkness promising memory, the void promising rebirth.

They pull from end to end. K A T H R I N. Tear the end, rip the center, piece by piece until it collapses.

Seering light and frozen dark coalesce around the letters. K A T R I N. Cut the heart away. Make it conform. 

Why me?

K A T R Y N. Bend it into the name. Slice it into its very being. Y? The ultimate question.

Pull it through the void. KATRYN. A child of the empty. A child of pure potential. Conform. Conform to me.

Gasping into the light, a face hiding the sky, eyes of fire. “Who are you?”

I had a name. What was it? I inspect my hand. Burning light and darkness cold. They dance beneath my skin. A rope extending out into the abyss. Hold on. Hold on to what?

“I am Katryn,”

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