In the next few days, police trickled into the Sacred Cathedral like rain through stone, pecking for clues to the missing cases like crows at scraps.

The nuns went from answering everything to sinking into silence, like reeds bowing under frost.

Fear filled their bodies like cold smoke, and even Hedi in the confinement cell felt that chill pooling like ice in her heart.

It wasn’t so much a wrongness pressing in from the walls as the nightly anxiety tossing her like gray waves in a winter bay.

Each time she shut her eyes, rot seemed to blossom in her skull, like a worm-tooth sprouting in bone.

Rank juice seeped from ruined gums in her mind’s eye, a slow acid that ate at her brain like drips hollowing stone.

If she kept sleeping, the brain felt like it would vanish, like a cloud thinned to nothing by wind.

So she forced her eyes open like prying stuck lids with a knife; her sleepless anxiety crept like ivy around the ribs.

There was no mood for walking; she curled all day in the narrow cell, like a fox in a burrow after snow.

Her small worry braided with the Sacred Cathedral’s oppressive air, forming a vast cloud of dread draped above every head like a storm lid.

Selina caught it and wore a solemn mask that fit her like winter wrapped around a spring blossom.

Her brows, nose, and thin lips were carved for brightness and charm, like porcelain painted for sunlight.

No matter how lively one spark was, the collective gloom smothered it like wet sand on a flame.

Yet with Hedi she let a smile slip out like a beam through blinds, sharing daily crumbs in a light voice.

Most of it was chewed-over trivia, like wheels grinding the same rut day after day, but today’s news sent a new ripple across the pond.

“You’re sure it’s the missing woman’s body?” Hedi murmured, her voice rough like gravel under water.

“That’s what everyone’s saying,” Selina said, voices outside repeating like sparrows on a wire.

“Don’t feed me shadow-chasing rumors; fear spins its own ghosts like smoke under a door.”

Selina perched at the headboard, counting on her fingers like beads. “Found several things—hair, fingernails, a skull...”

“You went to the scene?” Hedi’s words flew like a startled moth.

“N-no...” Her denial flickered like a candle stub.

“Since when can you lie?” Hedi’s tone brushed like a leaf over glass.

“I peeked a little, just a little, then ran to tell you,” she said, tiptoeing her words like steps on ice.

“Bold,” Hedi said, lips lifting like a blade’s edge, while light from the high window poured like cream.

It slicked over Selina’s cheek, white and viscous, like silk at the edge of decay.

Selina puffed with pride like a sparrow with a seed. “Because I’ve seen worse!”

“Don’t say it,” Hedi said, snapping a lid closed like on a jar.

“It’s already on my tongue,” Selina said, words hovering like a cherry at the lip.

“Swallow it back,” Hedi replied, the command falling like a pebble in a well.

Selina toppled Hedi, cheeks puffed like after a tooth pull. “Didn’t think you were so timid!”

“Ghosts, bugs, geckos—so many things to fear,” Hedi said, listing them like jars on a shelf.

“I’m afraid of spiders,” Selina confessed, the word dangling like a thread.

Hedi paused in thought like a pond under fog. “Once, cleaning the Sacred Cathedral, a spider leapt from the corner onto my arm!”

She grabbed the blanket and wrapped Selina into a long roll, like a spider feeding with neat silk.

“You’ve talked about the Sacred Cathedral a lot lately,” Selina said, the words chiming like old bells in an empty nave. “You still miss it, don’t you?”

“Because someone stirred my memories,” Hedi said, like a spoon circling tea.

“You mean the Holy Maiden?” The name glowed like a candle behind glass.

“Yeah,” Hedi answered, her voice lowering like dusk.

“Did she tell you these things?” Selina asked, curiosity creeping like ivy.

Hedi lay on her side and pinched Selina’s cheek, their faces close like two figs. “I don’t think I’ve told you about me and her.”

“I wanted to ask, but then... all I had left was crying,” Selina said, tears recalled like rain tapping a cup.

“Little crybaby,” Hedi teased, soft as a cat’s paw.

“You can tell me now,” Selina said, opening the moment like a window.

“Peers,” Hedi said. “Companions of the same age,” the words standing like two saplings.

“Mm~~” Selina hummed, the sound curling like steam.

“What’s that weird noise?” Hedi asked, eyebrow lifting like a feather.

“When she used your name, I guessed,” Selina said, a hidden thread tugged like a kite string.

Hedi hugged Selina tight, arms circling like a warm belt. “Only problem... the temperament, looks, hair color don’t match,” she said, like tiles that refuse to align.

“Telling you the past was probably—” Selina began, the sentence drifting like smoke.

“Wanting to be discovered?” Hedi asked, the idea flicking like a match.

“And afraid she’s no longer the shape in memory,” Selina added, like clay changed by rain.

“Such a tangled mind,” Hedi sighed, breath looping like vines.

“You’re the same,” Selina said, eyes narrowing like slits of sunlight.

“How am I the same?” Hedi asked, voice tilting like a cup.

“You don’t miss the past just because of the Holy Maiden,” Selina said, memories stringing like pearls. “You mentioned it with the little hamster, and back in the Dark Realm, when you spoke of the pocket watch.”

“You remember that so clearly?” Hedi asked, surprise rising like ink unfaded.

“As long as it’s something you said,” Selina replied, keeping words like beads in a pouch.

“Your words—” Hedi looked at Selina’s expectant face, pause hanging like a leaf. “Those I forget completely,” she finished, letting them scatter like dry leaves.

Selina didn’t get mad; she inched closer inch by inch like a warm cat sliding across blankets.

She hushed her breath and gazed into Hedi’s amber eyes, as if mapping the iris like rings in a tree, or hunting her tiny reflection like a minnow in a pond.

“It proves I love you more than you love me,” she said, the claim tipping like scales.

“That’s actually true,” Hedi said, the admission settling like a stone.

“Don’t admit it!” Selina toyed with Hedi’s lips, making little burbling sounds like bubbles in milk. “If you tease me like that, I’ll be very sad!”

“Because I really, really like you,” Hedi said, warmth spreading like sun across a hand.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Selina asked, tossing the words like a pebble.

Hedi held back her answer like pressing a lid on a boiling pot.

Countless tiny thoughts battered the walls of her awareness like rain on glass, a soft, relentless drumming.

The feeling was like a deep-sea fish; approach the surface and the pressure bends your shape like metal under weight.

Her thoughts were the same now, ripples pressed by depth like waves flattened by ice.

Seeing Selina’s cuteness, she couldn’t suppress the urge to bully, like rubbing a small black dog’s head and watching it wobble, unable to escape the petting.

Was that the feeling Selina saw in my dazed face, like a mask slipping in a mirror?

“Because I like you very much,” Hedi said, cupping Selina’s cheeks like holding peaches, and kissed her softly like a breeze.

“It stirs a desire to bully you,” she admitted, mischief whisking like a playful wind.

“Sometimes I feel that too,” Selina said, the confession returning like a tide.

“It’s not sometimes... aren’t you... in those times?” Hedi muttered, the hint circling like the moon.

Selina nodded once, serious as a bell. “You’re too wound tight most days. It scares me a little,” she said, like a bowstring drawn too far.

“Tight’s not good?” Hedi asked, teasing like a knot tugged.

“Girls shouldn’t say things like that!” Selina blushed and patted Hedi’s cheek like petals tapping a window.

“Hiss... that hurts...” Hedi winced, the sound catlike.

“You’re always like this—good conversation, then suddenly something crude,” Selina said, a pebble dropped in clear soup.

“Don’t you like teasing me too?” Hedi asked, plucking a feather from the air.

“That’s romance! Not the same thing!” Selina said, like candlelight against a streetlamp.

“If you say so, then so it is,” Hedi said, gavel neat as thunder.

“It is!” Selina stamped, the word landing like a seal on wax.

Hedi let Selina go and warned, “Go too far and you’ll get whacked; if you can’t hold the measure, don’t play at romance,” the beat firm as a drum.

“I suddenly want to play,” Selina said, the impulse itching like a breeze.

“Not allowed,” Hedi said, gate shut like iron.

Selina pouted like a cherry under lip, thinking she’d try again at home, since this was the Professor’s Sacred Cathedral like a school under God.

She agreed meekly, “Okay~~,” her voice smoothing like a kitten grooming fur.

“You agreed that quickly?” Hedi asked, surprise snapping like a twig.

“Were you hoping for that?” Selina asked, the bait dangling like a hook.

“How could I... I just feel... weird,” Hedi said, waving her arms like fronds. “Usually you pout first, and only agree if that fails.”

“Because you’ve been in a bad mood lately. I don’t want to trouble you,” Selina said, setting down care like a heavy basket.

“It’s just a bit of insomnia,” Hedi said, grit in the gears like sand.

“Don’t you dare tough it out,” Selina replied, warning thin as paper on a dam.

Hedi saw Selina’s earnest face and joked, “What else could happen, my head melting?” The image glowed like wax by flame.

“Really? When did it start?!” Selina asked, sparks jumping like flint.

“Fake. I just can’t sleep,” Hedi said, the lock refusing to turn like a stiff key.

After that, Hedi slumped against Selina to rest, sinking like syrup poured slow.

Her body and mind moved downward, thick and slow, through the weave of the mattress like threads crossing under hand.

They pulled her through the solid earth like a dream falling, and kept sinking, all at once dropping toward the planet’s core like a stone into night.