Instead…another sharp pulse hits behind my eyes.
Concrete floors.
Children crying.
A priest whispering:
Don’t look at the walls.
I gasp softly.
“Hannah?”
“I’m okay.”
Lie.
Complete lie.
Gabriel watches me carefully from the opposite seat.
He knows it too.
The overlap episodes are getting worse.
Faster now.
Like something inside my brain is forcing doors open all at once.
Rain streaks down the church windows as Mason kills the engine.
Nobody moves immediately.
The entire block feels wrong.
Too quiet.
Russ scans the street through the windshield.
“No movement.”
Lucas mutters,
“That doesn’t mean empty.”
No.
It doesn’t.
Because Wu trained us all to hide in silence.
Clay reaches over and brushes his thumb against my wrist.
Grounding.
Always grounding.
“You don’t have to go inside,” he says quietly.
