Chapter Sixteen - The Ones Who Watch

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The Ones Who Watch

I NEVER PICKED a side.

Not because I couldn’t. Not because I wouldn’t.
But because I was watching.

I watched people pray on mountain tops and in basements.
I watched incense curl through cathedrals and sunlight pour through temple gates.
I watched men chant, women sing, and children sit cross-legged under stars, asking questions they didn’t have words for yet.

And I saw something underneath all of it.

Not a god in robes. Not a single truth.
Just the same eyes looking up.

Names change. Stories change.
But love doesn’t.
And neither does the ache to understand why we’re here.

Maybe I’m not here to decide which flame burns truest.
Maybe I’m just here to show that they all reach for the same sky.

If you made it here, if you read this far, maybe you were watching too.