Erin remembered falling.
She remembered the sudden, jarring sensation of the glass beneath her giving out, followed by a sickening sense of weightlessness.
She remembered hearing Garrett call her name, selflessly exposing himself in his panic.
She remembered how he threw himself onto precarious ground to snag her wrist before she fell.
She remembered looking up at him.
She remembered being so afraid she couldn't breathe.
She remembered crying.
She remembered how the tears felt as they ran down her cheeks, no doubt smearing the khol she had applied earlier in the night…
She remembered the tight grip of panic closing in around her heart when she felt herself beginning to slip from Garrett's hold.
She remembered sobbing, begging her brother to save her.
She remembered how Garrett looked when she finally did slip from his hold...
The way he reached for her as she fell, eyes wide and desperate, his voice frantic as he called her name over and over again until the world ceased to exist…
She would scream in her dreams… Years later, she would scream, in fear, in sorrow.
Sometimes she would call her brother's name, sometimes her father's, sometimes she would simply beg for mercy, for forgiveness.
But upon waking, always upon waking, her voice would be silent, her chest would burn, her throat would tighten, she would cry and curl into Garrett or cling to her treasure.
But she would not scream…