Entry One
📓 Valentina’s Journal — Entry One
*Time: 2:03am
Mood: caffeine-powered and chronically curious*
Willow’s passed out across my homework. Again.
I should be revising for the quiz. Instead, I made a “fact file,” because stress + ink makes weird things happen.
`
FACT FILE – Valentina Reus
(written by me while sleep-deprived and probably making questionable choices)
Name: Valentina
Age: 16
Eyes: Green, like stormy moss
Hair: Brown. Basically chaos in strands.
Height: Debatable.
Current situation:
✓ Doing too well at a school I hate
✓ Weekend nurse at East Ward (good practice for emotional triage)
✓ Keeping my family afloat with instant noodles and mild existential dread
✓ Talking to Willow more than people. Still not sure if she’s listening.
Mysteries I wish were fiction:
— Heard my name whispered in an empty stairwell
— Willow showed up with red dust from nowhere
— I keep doodling symbols when I’m stressed
— I don’t think I have magic… but these symbols feel ancient
Strengths
— Don’t give up
— Being sensible and smart
— I don’t break
— Being me
Weaknesses
— Being a disappointment
— Being boring
— Being me
`
Pages contain scribbled sigils in the margins:
🌙 A spiral ringed by crescent moons
🔺 A triangle split by lightning branches
🜂 A fire glyph that looks like it’s burning through the paper
🜃 Earth stacked beneath a crown shape
🕯️ One I draw in my sleep—a symbol made of curled thorns and stars
🐾 Willow’s paw once stamped one. It shimmered for a second. Then disappeared.
I don’t know what they mean.
But I know they’re not just decoration.
And I know something’s changing.
💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫
🌌 Dream Fragment — The Whisper of Something Ancient
I didn’t mean to fall asleep.
But something called me anyway.
I was in a hallway made of breathing parchment and distant stars.
Symbols floated like fireflies—bright, pulsing, then gone.
One glowed when I stared. I think I’d drawn it once.
The air whispered truths I couldn’t hold.
Then I saw it.
Suspended above obsidian and silence…
A shape like an inverted star.
Twisting. Crying light.
Pearl. Shadow. Alive.
It didn’t speak. It recognized me.
And I felt something inside me shift—like a gate unlocking.
I woke up gasping.
The sigils still glowing behind my eyes.
