Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Keane
Day who the fuck knows . . .
If my therapists from the center were to see this journal, they would be disappointed. I still do daily entries as I’m required. Half the time, it’s just random scribbles to prove I exist—like a simple good morning to myself, as if I’m waiting for a reply that never comes. Other days, it’s fragments of lyrics that drift into my mind, incomplete and hollow. There’s no music anymore. Just words, and even they don’t stick the way they used to.
But this one—this one is different.
Today, something strange happened.
I was on my evening walk, the same route I’ve taken a hundred times, the one that’s supposed to clear my head, keep me grounded before I head to bed. It’s routine, predictable. But then, out of nowhere, I see her—a little girl, running ahead of me.
She was small, darting between the trees like she belonged there, like the forest was hers. I called out, my voice breaking the quiet. But she didn’t turn around.
I don’t know why I followed her. Maybe instinct, maybe curiosity, maybe something deeper that I don’t want to name. My pace quickened, the crunch of leaves under my boots louder than it should’ve been, and yet she didn’t stop, didn’t flinch, and didn’t even slow.
And then she was gone because I couldn’t keep up.
At least that’s what I think, because what’s the alternative?
I stopped, standing there in the middle of the trail, my breath uneven, my heart racing like I’d just run a marathon. The trees loomed around me, their shadows stretching long as the sun dipped lower in the sky.
Was she real?
Is it me thinking my daughter is haunting me?
Or am I losing my fucking mind?
I keep replaying it in my head, the way she moved, the way she didn’t look back. Was she a ghost? Was it my brain, short-circuiting after too much solitude? Or is this some kind of sign, some clue that I don’t understand?
There’s this gnawing feeling in my chest, a mix of dread and something else I can’t name. Like maybe I’m being followed, or maybe I’m chasing something I’ll never catch.
And the worst part? I don’t even know which is scarier.