Chapter 136 Crawling Shadows

• I shook her, harder this time, my hands gripping her shoulders, pleading for her to break free. “Victoria! Please!” I cried, my voice filled with desperation. But she remained unresponsive, her head limp, her eyes glassy and empty. The petrification was creeping further up her body, inch by inch, and I knew I was losing her.
• Then, a spark of an idea ignited in my mind—a desperate, reckless plan. The only way to snap her out of this was to shake her to the core, to say something so heartbreaking, so devastating, that it would force her out of her endless spiral of guilt. I had to lie, had to make her believe something worse than what she thought she had done. Maybe, just maybe, it would shock her back to reality.
• “Victoria,” I whispered, my voice trembling as I leaned closer, “if you don’t wake up… his sacrifice will mean nothing.”