[Music suggestion: The path of silence.]
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The three of them walk through the mud path toward the river. The sun is now almost straight above their head and the heat has started to prickle inside Micah's thin layer of clothing. But the breeze is alarmingly cool, like a wind in the winter.
Ken and Severo keep chatting and laughing without a pause, making Micha feel like left out even though they clearly don't mean to make her feel that way.
Every time she takes a whiff of Ken's sickeningly sweet lilac scent, her jaw clutch in resentment. Severo seems delighted, his smile a lot brighter and his eyes shining like a star when he stares at Ken. Something in Micah's chest tightens at the very sight of it.
