The sobs came harder now.
She crouched on the ground, her arms wrapped tightly around herself, the mirror still clutched between her trembling fingers.
She couldn't stop.
She didn't want to stop.
Because—
Because it was gone.
The pain.
The exhaustion.
The sickness that had chained her for years, that had clung to her skin like an inescapable curse, that had stolen so much from her.
Gone.
Completely, entirely gone.
A broken gasp escaped her, her shoulders shaking violently.
'All this time…'
All this time, she had been fighting it.
Every breath had been a struggle. Every step had been a battle. Every single day, she had lived knowing she was weak.
That no matter how much she fought, how much she wanted to live, her body would never let her.
She had been dying for so long that she had forgotten what it felt like to be alive.
But now—
Now, she was free.
A strangled cry broke past her lips as the realization sank deep, deep into her bones.
She could breathe.
