She'd touched a soul. Not a geological anomaly, but the spirit of a child who died violently. Her eyes went over the lake again. There were millions, maybe even billions of the lost souls! What were they doing in a lake? Was this what awaited her? To be dropped into a lake while shady Immortals and an unfriendly Death argued silently nearby?
Was this all there was after one died? If they were stressed out, that meant they were aware. Alive.
The sense that nothing was real filled her again. She couldn't fathom the enormity of a billion souls like the one she'd touched. A billion lives. A billion different stories and experiences. A billion consciences sitting under the serene surface of the water. Had past-Deidre lost them and condemned a billion souls to this existence? Were they scared? Trapped? Lonely?
Deidre stood unsteadily. She was breathing hard; it was all she heard. No longer able to register the world around her, she walked numbly towards the first trail she saw.
"Deidre," Gabriel took her arm, halting her.
"Don't touch me," she said.
He released her. She entered the forest, and the darkness was crushing, suffocating her. A few steps past the tree line, she broke into a run, away from the souls, the Immortals, the nightmare her life had become a few days ago. Deidre bolted, neither aware nor concerned where she went or where she ended up. Trees whipped her body, but she drove herself forward.
As fast as she ran, she couldn't escape her horror, her hatred of past-Deidre, her helplessness. Tears blinded her, and her lungs burned. Her legs grew heavy, but she pushed herself onward into the forest, away from everything that could hurt her and everyone who could stop her from ending this nightmare tonight.
The path neared a ravine then ran along it. Deidre's pace slowed as she took in the area. There was no easy way to the edge of the ravine, and it looked too shallow along most places to make a jump pay off.
She spotted the place down the path, a point overlooking the valley. A form melted from the shadows right before she reached it. She slid to a stop, panting and wild. Eyes blurred by tears, she nonetheless caught the flash of silver eyes.
"Let's just calm down and not jump off any cliffs," Rhyn said, holding up his hands. "Okay? Calm?"
Too panicked to care, Deidre whirled and smacked into something solid. It grabbed her, and a small part of her recognized Gabriel. She struggled. It was like throwing herself against a wall. He gripped her wrists and held them behind her back.