𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐃𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐑, luke castellan

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞

Keira continued her path through the door indicated by Egocentrism, terrified.

She always enjoyed spending hours in silence with her thoughts, taking a moment to delve into her mind. However, the encounter with her Flaws had been terrifying. She couldn't shake the horrifying feeling of being cornered and forced to navigate her thoughts where they wanted.

Keira exerted every ounce of her willpower to reassure herself that it was all a mind game orchestrated by her Flaws, a cruel deception within Hades' sanctuary. However, the harsh truth was that the words of her flaws resonated with a disturbing clarity, providing explanations for many aspects of her inner struggles.

Above all, Keira's aversion to any kind of serious relationship and anything beyond casual encounters. She always sought physical relationships without involving emotions, at least on her part. Moreover, as she walked again through a dark and damp path like the previous one, she realized that her mind had a defense mechanism to avoid falling in love.

Keira easily found things in her flings that generated rejection at some point. It was like her brain had a way of saying that the other person had flaws and manners she didn't like, and therefore, they ended up boring or bothering Keira. This gave her reasons to distance herself from the person or stay but knowing that the relationship was only carnal.

It happened with George, when she found his sweet manners and excessive attention irritating.

It happened with Sebastian, when she got overly upset hearing him call her "weird" and pushing him off the edge in response.

Her mind was constantly looking for ways to convince herself that it was better not to get involved beyond the physical and superficial. And Keira genuinely felt that way, not knowing if there was anything she could do to change that feeling. She couldn't force herself to fall in love or truly love someone just to contradict her Three Flaws. But she also couldn't ignore the fact that this was a natural reaction of her brain to the possibility of her fear of falling in love coming true.

As she ventured deeper into the sanctuary, the physical and psychological fatigue weighed more heavily on her body. Despite her good physical condition, her knees struggled to bend, her legs felt like jelly, and her arms lacked strength. Keira felt how her body gradually stopped responding properly, and she wondered how many hours had passed inside the sanctuary. It might have been days.

Being alone with her own thoughts turned out to be the worst torture Hades could have imposed on her. She was certain the Knee had to be there because, somehow, the path was too tortuous and harsh to hide nothing at the end.

Suddenly, the path led to another large chamber, similar to the Chamber of Truth. Upon entering, Keira saw several paths converging into the chamber, besides her own, and she supposed that this was where the various entrances to the sanctuary met— the car wash being one, the butcher shop another, and there could be more she was unaware of. On the other side, where Keira was supposed to advance, there was a rocky wall about thirty feet high, resembling the climbing wall at the camp but without lava.

Keira assumed she had to climb, but she didn't think she had the necessary strength to do so. Exhausted, she leaned her back against the wall, facing the path she had come from. She spent several minutes in silence, reflecting on all the revelations she had experienced since entering and how her soul seemed to be laid bare at every step, becoming more disconnected from her body.

She wanted to cry and scream for Jon, her father, her stepbrother, and herself —for her way of being and for not letting anyone into her life. She wasn't sure if these were long-term feelings or if she was only experiencing them because of the influence of the sanctuary, but she couldn't endure a second more without crying.