Nicolas

The chapel had become a skeleton of its former self, shattered stone and dust hanging in the air like a storm frozen in time. My lungs burned with every breath as I stumbled over broken tiles and splintered wood. The walls groaned around me, echoing Vera’s name in whispers I could barely follow.

“Vera!” I shouted, voice raw. “Vera, where are you?”

The words hit the rubble and vanished, swallowed by the empty dark. The faint scent of candle wax and iron lingered, but beneath it ...