CHAPTER ONE55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlONMHy0CvG
“Colonial Codes”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmSoWRqZho6
The rain had stopped hours ago, but the scent of damp earth clung to the halls of Kisumu Boys’ like an old hymn. Jabari stood in the archive room of St. Theresa’s Missionary Annex, a dusty brick wing that had once served colonial officers and now housed forgotten files and moth-eaten school trophies. Light filtered through high, grilled windows, illuminating swirls of dust around him like the ghosts of policy-makers past.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYisK82jdU1
He wasn’t alone.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiBXfNgltHw
Musa sat crouched by a dented cabinet drawer marked “Education—Boundary Acts: 1920–1970”, flipping through yellowing folders. The pages crumbled at the edges but still bore the insignia of the British protectorate: a lion crouching beneath a palm tree.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOnKsrLTP7w
“I’ve found it,” Jabari said quietly, pulling out a single, sealed envelope tied with faded red tape. In ink barely legible, it read:55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEkcEvlycRU
‘Edict 17B – Joint Custody Regulations – Kisumu Educational Districts – Dated: 1925’55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKzV8qgBCLg
Musa looked up. “You sure that’s the one?”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDBk16VT5Yg
Jabari didn’t answer immediately. He sliced the seal open with the edge of his prefect’s badge. Inside was a sheet of official parchment and a typewritten letter.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtsXhORDhxZ
By decree of the Provincial Office of the Protectorate, any institution found to be in violation of Gendered Custody or Moral Formation Standards will be segregated and bound by enforcement walls. No intermingling of students is to be permitted except during externally authorized national functions. The boundary shall be physical, symbolic, and cultural.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwJLnOXcDd1
Jabari’s grip on the page tightened. “They didn’t just separate the schools. They erased the idea of unity.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXGjQtNqvhc
“And enforced silence,” Musa muttered, pulling out a second page. “Listen to this clause: ‘Failure to comply shall result in withdrawal of national funding, erasure from examination boards, and immediate restructuring of administration under colonial discretion.’”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZNGAAjVUsT
It made sense now. Why the two schools had been split. Why the wall had been built. Why even now, decades later, rebellion felt like a sin instead of resistance.
“Under the third stone from the left, by the old bell,55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4q55T78mj0
Names are written that never rang.”
That night, long after lights-out, Jabari walked alone beneath the cloisters. He carried no torch — he knew the angles of this place by heart. Juma had offered to join him, but Jabari waved him off. Some discoveries had to be earned in solitude.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOpwjufBwcZ
The old bell tower was half-swallowed by creepers now, its spire cracked near the tip. Few students ever came here. There were no schedules to monitor, no records to file. Only silence, wind, and stone.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKpbYj3CMNl
He stood before the base — a squat square of worn masonry. At the base was a row of foundation stones, uneven and chiseled rough. He counted softly.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS4uKiM0sRw
“One... two... three.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzwiivIAhcW
The third stone was looser than the others. His fingers, calloused from years of fencing practice, felt for the edge and pried gently. The stone shifted with a reluctant groan, revealing a small cavity beneath.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZoggXp1YkH
Inside was a roll of thick paper bound with twin cords — one red, one blue.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN8kAkDTbgq
Jabari unrolled it slowly. His breath caught.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI4RwRvJbdG
It was a map.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYcA88Fq8yL
Faint, but clear enough: the outline of the school compound. Except… it was too broad. It stretched beyond the wall. It showed both schools.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTcyrOUE67V
His pulse quickened.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVuWOSre9IG
Drawn in graphite and ink, careful as a surgical diagram, was a narrow channel. It began beneath the Kisumu Boys borehole, ran beneath the bell tower’s foundation, and continued — dotted like a breath held — under the wall.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR0RlLVP7As
It reemerged somewhere beyond, marked only with a symbol: a water droplet inside a flame. No labels. No words.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpr2KBQFlib
And then there was the note, in the same hand as before:55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPOmpXSgQNz
“Built before the split. Sealed after the first betrayal. Still dry. Still waiting.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPs2cL8PTnR
Jabari sat back on his heels, mind racing. This wasn’t part of the Order’s archives. It wasn’t even in the protected cipher vault. Whoever had drawn this had known how to vanish — and how to leave only what mattered.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBtNqYe6X2l
He thought of what it would mean for their order — to have a corridor that didn’t just pass messages under the wall, but moved bodies through it.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSWERnTHt8B
“Movement,” he whispered. “Not just contact. Exchange.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDDjCMosANg
He rolled the map back tightly, tucked it inside the hollow of his jacket, and replaced the stone as best he could. It no longer sat flush. That would have to do.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMsUr0RiqWT
Back in his dorm, Juma was waiting at the window, arms folded.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqibMLCHisJ
“Well?”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpZ5YVqIIuP
Jabari answered with a look, and a word neither of them had said aloud in months:55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzTz6wYQi7b
“It’s real.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8g2brDD0T8
They didn’t speak of it again. Not yet.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCRHyGXF0eL
But that night, for the first time in years, Juma dreamt not of climbing over the wall—but of passing through it.
**********55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhFfB3Q0GGQ
Long before anyone admitted it — before the Order had its map, before Mercy returned with her black ribbons, before the prefects began whispering about breaches — the Shadow Walkers had already crossed.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuyg0US5Swd
They did not leave names. Only echoes.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwZAZlwMPXA
They did not follow rules. Only shadows.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡonklG6auqs
They did not ask permission. They moved.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWUO7sppOY5
And on one night, two terms ago, Kim had seen them — though she didn’t yet understand who or what they were.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT638o0GjZG
She had crouched in the dark near the bougainvillea, and she’d seen the wall bend. Not break. Not fall. Just... give. Slightly. Like a breath held and released.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzpk9S0RQcy
She’d seen them — boys — fleeing across the red-dust path behind the dormitory. Moving like shadows cut loose from curfew. Moving with the urgency of those who had risked everything to deliver a message.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv0PyWumEcL
And they had.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX77rakdZcY
To her.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLteFyXHW26
The Shadow Walkers don’t meet in daylight. They don’t record rosters. They don’t kneel to prefects or care for the rituals of the old Orders.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Zw2DmdLmY
They meet underground, in a forgotten crawlspace beneath the collapsed greenhouse, where mildew clings to concrete and the walls sweat memory.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNwfZrhT6Vw
Only a few know the way. Fewer still survive it.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxpS6viJJ9P
Kwame sat cross-legged on the cracked floor, back to the tunnel hatch, fingers brushing the map that had guided them on that first crossing. Otieno leaned beside him, massaging the knee he’d twisted months ago, the limp still aching from that night on the girls’ side.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfpupITYQtT
They didn’t speak often. Shadow Walkers spoke through action.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo4GgugA4AG
When Ayo arrived, breathless and muddy from the drainage slope behind the dorms, he tossed down a folded square of stiff paper.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm5F3tCAucZ
A fragment of a science exam from Kisumu Girls. Still warm.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDUHKYx94We
“Direct,” Kwame murmured. “Clean.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNBD0XvQQLa
Otieno smiled faintly. “The wall’s just paper now.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVz58DTfsFM
“No,” Kwame said. “The wall is a myth.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGr9MLLp2R9
They are not a gang. Not a cult.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVt7HMGYdWA
Not an extension of the Order.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIWoB0GApWk
They do not ask for allegiance.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdO341EcPYn
They require only presence.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHXNZqJCwlf
Their only law:55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxNX8qv6uXU
“Never be still.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLo0IK2sFQE
Shadow Walkers are the quiet between bells. The blur behind hallway reflections.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCOuBF1Y0PT
The glitch in the security feed.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3a3IhdRn2I
They are protest and prophecy. They are the sharp breath before the truth drops.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgpRgmP4oZd
No crests. No salutes. Just movement.
**********55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnmvyaE0vPE
Kim stared at the red paper again, its surface soft but deliberate—cut clean, folded once, nothing else. Just the line:55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQnHxpr9w7t
“Curiosity is no longer a private habit.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFm7iIKce77
It wasn't a threat. It wasn't a joke.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ50ndRleywL
It was a signal. But from who?55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeB3XUlL9kW
The Order didn't operate like this. They gave warnings in cold whispers or summoned girls under the guise of “guidance.” This—this was precise. Elegant. A response.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ19P2selbK
And it meant someone had not just found her test note… but understood it.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuR19XGmvz5
Stone markings. The first thread that never frayed.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqHcL4TBGqP
Kim had written those lines as metaphor. A decoy—just cryptic enough to seem meaningless. But someone had read it like a code. And replied.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA45mxK6b2S
Not by replying. By returning it—transformed.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMii46xl4sU
Kim clutched the atlas tighter to her chest.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqHA4ddXmON
Someone had mapped her thinking.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWiKjscxiMR
And not by surveillance. Not by prefect tricks. This wasn’t Mercy. This wasn’t Naomi.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWM7Y0aRkDi
This was someone else.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBEHOUNX6F3
Elsewhere, at the same moment — Kisumu Boys, beneath the bleachers, Kwame watched the rain drip through the iron scaffolding, tapping against the aluminum bleacher seats above like impatient fingers.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ69C8ME9liG
Otieno crouched nearby, watching Kwame unfold the latest page torn from Kim’s original decoy.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhYqkCLN2DX
“‘The first thread that never frayed,’” Otieno read aloud, smiling faintly. “She’s poetic.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt6PtXml426
“She’s calculated,” Kwame corrected. “She placed this for us.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnyXeEoF4Ku
“No. She placed it for herself,” Otieno said. “We just saw it first.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmnaoV8h8i1
Kwame folded his hands beneath his chin, eyes distant.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlvdIJjrMbZ
“She wants the truth,” he said finally. “But she wants to control how it arrives. That makes her more dangerous than anyone in the Order.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeSBMEv9dqS
He pulled a thin strip of crimson paper from his pocket—the one he’d already sent back, tucked into the borrowed atlas. The message, his message, had been written in the penmanship of a prefect.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgCZXMQXVi9
Because fear was best delivered in familiar fonts.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUVf50qz5xI
“Do you think she’ll trace it back to us?” Otieno asked.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiDRP6UQEqt
Kwame shook his head. “She’s too smart to assume. But just uncertain enough to wonder.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtyZehfk1An
He tapped his fingers slowly on his knee.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuWtORN6vZI
“If she follows the pattern, she’ll leave something else. Soon.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7obOwFq0xe
Otieno glanced up at the bleachers. “And if she doesn’t?”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQznHp8kBt9
Kwame’s smile was subtle, grim. “Then she’s not the threat we hoped.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeAaxVCuoAN
Back at Kisumu Girls. Kim walked slowly down the corridor, Shiko at her side, speaking quietly about missing class notes and cryptic schedules. But Kim wasn’t hearing her anymore.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuLJSiAJWPZ
Her eyes drifted to the rain outside. The same rain that fell across the wall. Across the space between schools. Between factions. Between watchers and the watched.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS4uEjtq0nF
“Do you think it’s the Order?” Shiko asked again.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaAIQGD9tko
Kim shook her head.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpKv2x3dH3r
“No,” she murmured. “I think it’s someone else.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbrdzyxn1K3
From behind the hall’s corner, Seline watched them again. Kim. Shiko. Leaning too close. Whispering too easily. And something inside Seline turned—not with fear, but precision.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfCKV85F5Pb
She’d played these games before.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF6eZj2cH7a
And this time, she’d play them first.
*****55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3T0JA5wOPt
Ayo didn’t believe in ghosts.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIHHDTOTQfh
But that didn’t mean he didn’t see them.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhd7CJ9mBSX
They appeared in patterns. In broken routines. In marks left behind by people who didn’t want to be seen. And tonight, something was wrong with the air near the borehole — wrong in the way only silence could be when it used to hold secrets.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa4FuRK79GX
He crouched low behind the shrub line, just beyond the outflow grate. The rusted maintenance hatch hadn’t been touched in years — not officially. But Ayo’s fingers brushed over the soft earth near the metal bolts and paused.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXC84bc6Wsq
Prints. Not shoeprints. Barefoot. Deliberate. Light. Whoever had stepped here had done so with practice.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbEeTTX2B9J
But what made him freeze wasn’t the shape. It was the color.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDro2u5PEWM
Just beside one of the indentations, smeared into the grainy dust, was a curved smudge of blue ink. The same type of ink the old Order used for encoded warnings. But only one person had ever weaponized it.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7mDrWZ84Mg
Mercy. Not as a prefect. Not even as a leader. But as something far older.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyhma22d6VD
Ayo’s breath caught.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZQQ1RccQzA
Back when he was still new to the Shadow Walkers — still earning trust, still failing small tests — he’d once followed a trail of blue drops from the chapel rafters to the records room. It had led to a pile of books, all hollowed out, each containing forged Order directives. He’d reported it to Kwame, thinking it was an outside saboteur.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCTxPNpp4uJ
But Kwame had only smiled that small, cold smile he wore when something clicked.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtJ8xa0M1S2
“She was one of us. You just didn’t know it yet.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQwkoNA6eQ4
Mercy hadn’t just corrupted the Order.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4XEoQZay5b
She’d outgrown it.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWtonMhvUps
She’d used it like a shell. A decoy.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8jkVAfGroj
While underneath, in tunnels and side passages, she had trained with the Walkers.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDyNtecu6v1
Unaligned. Untraceable. Unquestioned. Until she got bored. Until she vanished.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJS1biqTOES
And now— She was back.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6tgo0KbwBz
Ayo stepped back from the ink. His mind raced. The others wouldn’t believe him — not unless he brought proof. Kwame had always kept his assessments of Mercy quiet, never confirming her role. Otieno hated her. Jabari pretended she didn’t exist.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPFSPWTTfap
But Ayo remembered. Mercy’s games hadn’t been about leadership. They’d been about control. And if she was laying ink again…55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgiipuU1Roc
She wasn’t just reclaiming a position. She was reactivating a network.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDMD2oN95Np
Mercy moved like she never left. She wasn’t hiding — not in the way the Order expected. She was remembering.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7CSwgaaEly
Remembering how it felt to slip between the bell tower arches undetected, how blue ink bled better on sandstone, how shadows didn’t ask for loyalty — just silence. She knelt by the stones, dipped her finger in the capped vial, and traced the mark again:55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe4VfLSkhDW
A curved wing. Half-finished. Someone would find it. Eventually. And they would understand: Mercy wasn't returning to power. She was returning home.
*****55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZnKeo9eCH7
The prefects had finished inspection rounds. The paths were swept. The dorms were silent.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡglg44AfZxM
But Kim was already up.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe3qu6GyxGh
Shiko had left her a note before dawn: “Come alone. Old pump.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFgk0Uu7zfG
She pulled on her hoodie, slipped through the science wing’s fire exit, and jogged the narrow path behind the assembly hall. The air smelled of wet leaves and burning trash from the kitchen fires. The light was still violet-blue.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhfwG8bE6of
When she arrived at the overgrown edge of the borehole courtyard, Shiko was already waiting, crouched low behind the wall of banana leaves.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡycuQivLCE3
Her eyes were locked on the concrete slab where the rusted borehole cage sat unused.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkmPHxsNd0D
“Look,” Shiko whispered.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd4UUymu84K
Kim followed her gaze — and froze. Drawn in four smooth arcs across the surface of the cement was a series of faint, blue ink symbols. Still wet in places. The lines gleamed like veins.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7PHSRKvk3Z
Not graffiti. Not words. Symbols.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUh6LHQUZ92
Kim knelt beside her, scanning them with an almost instinctive unease. A spiral, a horizontal stroke, a crescent hooked beneath a triangle.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeQoci5saZJ
“This wasn’t here yesterday,” Shiko murmured.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOwE4yxehG0
“No wind or rain overnight,” Kim added. “No footprints.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCYwWClbw5O
“Not visible ones,” Shiko replied grimly.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGpKfzi1vi9
They stared at the ink as it dried. One mark in particular — a shape like an inverted wing — felt familiar. Kim couldn’t place it.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4wDC1DZeDP
But something in her chest stirred. A memory. Something old.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLDj2dyz2ae
Blue ink. Sandstone. A girl with eyes that didn’t blink.
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz1O98N8qhX
Mercy had always liked the borehole. It was forgotten, unguarded. The place where so many whispered things had begun when she still a junior in Form One three years ago.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyb3vdIb810
Now she walked its edge again, dipping her fingertip into a tiny jar of indigo ink and tracing her old mark on the slab — slow, deliberate strokes. Each curve a syllable. Each shape a warning.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLfN6WRQlDq
She wasn’t returning to the Order. She was reactivating her passage. The Shadow Walkers — on the girls’ side — would recognize the mark. Even if they didn’t know it was hers. Especially if they didn’t.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFxYTGPW3Ab
She knelt, pressed her hand to the cement, and whispered:55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡekSq92ehzi
“Curiosity wakes the tunnels. Let them crawl back to me.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc78DqfZ8A5
Then she vanished before the sun cleared the dorm rooftops.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhrjRuRm6Jm
“We should tell Naomi,” Shiko said.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUI2H0cT64U
Kim didn’t move. “And say what? That someone wrote ancient wall symbols in ink that shouldn’t exist anymore?”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAh52MJb9GU
She traced one of the crescents with her finger, careful not to touch the wet center.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡan68FjJ9tU
“I’ve seen this,” she whispered. “Last term. Just not this clear.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0c9RtKNimH
Shiko looked at her sharply. “Where?”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz6HV4uGBSD
Kim’s eyes lifted toward the wall.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyhmuLhp0md
“On a stone. Right before the night I saw them.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRmzGQgtbqS
“The boys?” Shiko asked.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIeuMu5VhbB
Kim nodded.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCRQB56c4Iq
“And the girls who followed.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ265XeKF6bN
Shiko’s voice dropped. “You think this is them?”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLApVR4iX9I
“I think this is her.”55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡippIpHZqb8
They didn’t say her name.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡilm26kSRLs
But in the silence that followed, the ink on the stone dried like breath held too long.55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy1KjY42FsD
55Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqenqKgWzJs
