CHAPTER ONE21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwvT6xDrsYv
“Colonial Codes”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLf0KatfDGL
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtuPSdTe8Ch
He wasn’t alone.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXKwnfXOfv3
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQXHtoROskA
“I’ve found it,” Jabari said quietly, pulling out a single, sealed envelope tied with faded red tape. In ink barely legible, it read:21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRNmIL4mpOQ
‘Edict 17B – Joint Custody Regulations – Kisumu Educational Districts – Dated: 1925’21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzYpMN2UWjR
Musa looked up. “You sure that’s the one?”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR4FraRWvdi
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi1oi1WSEfU
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQcst0Is2TI
Jabari’s grip on the page tightened. “They didn’t just separate the schools. They erased the idea of unity.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4efrJNDlKW
“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.’”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡecs4HPpKeR
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,21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxKeaPOFVMF
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW6XlLAb29r
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn6ymX6TKWc
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCoNIFl1W5z
“One... two... three.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Nb3XjDktj
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA2YkyoLgKY
Inside was a roll of thick paper bound with twin cords — one red, one blue.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDYSBzHtE6j
Jabari unrolled it slowly. His breath caught.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHf3UF5v7e3
It was a map.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHE1tNKFgSa
Faint, but clear enough: the outline of the school compound. Except… it was too broad. It stretched beyond the wall. It showed both schools.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHU4c9fg3i2
His pulse quickened.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz7z0EOASlp
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4wPcCyNqW6
It reemerged somewhere beyond, marked only with a symbol: a water droplet inside a flame. No labels. No words.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKQLhFBK46J
And then there was the note, in the same hand as before:21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmZ5aCfc3og
“Built before the split. Sealed after the first betrayal. Still dry. Still waiting.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzoOVwpFXqJ
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFrQwdA0CZ7
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkLOcMQ93yD
“Movement,” he whispered. “Not just contact. Exchange.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFYOIc1J2TA
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmD90BDc0LF
Back in his dorm, Juma was waiting at the window, arms folded.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEflovgeL30
“Well?”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnTPIu71Lov
Jabari answered with a look, and a word neither of them had said aloud in months:21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs1gQg6iIjt
“It’s real.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ22Gm071pxF
They didn’t speak of it again. Not yet.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ093IzxBhAP
But that night, for the first time in years, Juma dreamt not of climbing over the wall—but of passing through it.
**********21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCEEFdAmqGd
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9dp31c5EIn
They did not leave names. Only echoes.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQmE2Ad9wMi
They did not follow rules. Only shadows.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSe1TOghqoD
They did not ask permission. They moved.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡympu4FvGEa
And on one night, two terms ago, Kim had seen them — though she didn’t yet understand who or what they were.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡznk8UU0Mdi
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWihQMUhW42
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF9Rwfsdn0G
And they had.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzwAZjUkkcq
To her.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY0r9Dithlc
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSHZuDLj9bE
They meet underground, in a forgotten crawlspace beneath the collapsed greenhouse, where mildew clings to concrete and the walls sweat memory.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyvdP8zuD25
Only a few know the way. Fewer still survive it.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJHOsA1Ypf8
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTYGB2ZMHay
They didn’t speak often. Shadow Walkers spoke through action.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Pfg9F8Jyh
When Ayo arrived, breathless and muddy from the drainage slope behind the dorms, he tossed down a folded square of stiff paper.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTO2OKxBeq0
A fragment of a science exam from Kisumu Girls. Still warm.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyLu5aJAVZd
“Direct,” Kwame murmured. “Clean.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuRp3FSZ9mK
Otieno smiled faintly. “The wall’s just paper now.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZurIQEDYw0
“No,” Kwame said. “The wall is a myth.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ6M1B5F7yk
They are not a gang. Not a cult.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD5V8vvDCSt
Not an extension of the Order.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx5XxzeYVQa
They do not ask for allegiance.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgj6c2D0jdw
They require only presence.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl8ryt2TvGs
Their only law:21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2XTFfiSYaj
“Never be still.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRYkql64SDY
Shadow Walkers are the quiet between bells. The blur behind hallway reflections.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDIX41vW0Nt
The glitch in the security feed.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ55Upd8Apti
They are protest and prophecy. They are the sharp breath before the truth drops.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡicHZbqQ11B
No crests. No salutes. Just movement.
**********21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZyYAnVlUN7
Kim stared at the red paper again, its surface soft but deliberate—cut clean, folded once, nothing else. Just the line:21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxcvFee2pTq
“Curiosity is no longer a private habit.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRZ4OiLr5zj
It wasn't a threat. It wasn't a joke.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkCwJdAiUIe
It was a signal. But from who?21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7WJ2KarNkY
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSjcazEBjER
And it meant someone had not just found her test note… but understood it.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZd2PpqrQ4Z
Stone markings. The first thread that never frayed.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSipQ8hKde7
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡChvMMvoHTK
Not by replying. By returning it—transformed.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzMEraF3KUc
Kim clutched the atlas tighter to her chest.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpRLsSb3HzR
Someone had mapped her thinking.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzTotaK9Ny2
And not by surveillance. Not by prefect tricks. This wasn’t Mercy. This wasn’t Naomi.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7NwQZNe36x
This was someone else.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhknZpTA2DT
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqROOKPlbkF
Otieno crouched nearby, watching Kwame unfold the latest page torn from Kim’s original decoy.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYpW3zwL1Dx
“‘The first thread that never frayed,’” Otieno read aloud, smiling faintly. “She’s poetic.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡimHKFMGPvc
“She’s calculated,” Kwame corrected. “She placed this for us.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwuBjKNVzS6
“No. She placed it for herself,” Otieno said. “We just saw it first.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIAlDIEiDeq
Kwame folded his hands beneath his chin, eyes distant.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡScaAETKTRT
“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.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRlx4dPHhRV
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEvicCcGMFh
Because fear was best delivered in familiar fonts.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZlcuYqGwj5
“Do you think she’ll trace it back to us?” Otieno asked.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRZLhQlIQ5J
Kwame shook his head. “She’s too smart to assume. But just uncertain enough to wonder.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9NFG17nc7s
He tapped his fingers slowly on his knee.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL9wxshHHI4
“If she follows the pattern, she’ll leave something else. Soon.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡijHSxIHBz8
Otieno glanced up at the bleachers. “And if she doesn’t?”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIICDMj6sEE
Kwame’s smile was subtle, grim. “Then she’s not the threat we hoped.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiZOdbxaRdx
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKbSBf9iHtr
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmLtnVSJhPP
“Do you think it’s the Order?” Shiko asked again.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKOLQlf4EVW
Kim shook her head.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1DkKFGRRqC
“No,” she murmured. “I think it’s someone else.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzcV7FDt8Oe
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbMAQncXgTd
She’d played these games before.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFu7VzKE7h4
And this time, she’d play them first.
*****21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWKcZJqUbeO
Ayo didn’t believe in ghosts.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC12sqL9bIR
But that didn’t mean he didn’t see them.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjY7w5B4L6B
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyMX2vR42O2
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTcA20mYmoC
Prints. Not shoeprints. Barefoot. Deliberate. Light. Whoever had stepped here had done so with practice.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNWUa6Latin
But what made him freeze wasn’t the shape. It was the color.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQa2rnqduZm
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzUeHyFz10S
Mercy. Not as a prefect. Not even as a leader. But as something far older.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPZVbrF1Wow
Ayo’s breath caught.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHO61gYaOUu
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeUEzZXDJoJ
But Kwame had only smiled that small, cold smile he wore when something clicked.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeps1gA7zqn
“She was one of us. You just didn’t know it yet.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf1a40YuRNN
Mercy hadn’t just corrupted the Order.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYAPAi7MO2S
She’d outgrown it.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsyW8WXyaPi
She’d used it like a shell. A decoy.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUfdtsdoU7m
While underneath, in tunnels and side passages, she had trained with the Walkers.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVaP31xwEgx
Unaligned. Untraceable. Unquestioned. Until she got bored. Until she vanished.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcXuy001Mbi
And now— She was back.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrMDobkGZKP
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2YtFArdMgI
But Ayo remembered. Mercy’s games hadn’t been about leadership. They’d been about control. And if she was laying ink again…21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR9SnQqCtHv
She wasn’t just reclaiming a position. She was reactivating a network.
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoQeamek65D
Mercy moved like she never left. She wasn’t hiding — not in the way the Order expected. She was remembering.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGOYGnlgijz
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:21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ22JLQJ09Gz
A curved wing. Half-finished. Someone would find it. Eventually. And they would understand: Mercy wasn't returning to power. She was returning home.
*****21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx75r7n5VeV
The prefects had finished inspection rounds. The paths were swept. The dorms were silent.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6fJsJcpSJb
But Kim was already up.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOOCZKW87oP
Shiko had left her a note before dawn: “Come alone. Old pump.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRZ7ZY7DFYR
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx6EY9zRoIR
When she arrived at the overgrown edge of the borehole courtyard, Shiko was already waiting, crouched low behind the wall of banana leaves.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgcF28FBGio
Her eyes were locked on the concrete slab where the rusted borehole cage sat unused.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrJOjzBXwNG
“Look,” Shiko whispered.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKn0uMX7Tiz
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLierzOhnJw
Not graffiti. Not words. Symbols.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3KZnvPx0RV
Kim knelt beside her, scanning them with an almost instinctive unease. A spiral, a horizontal stroke, a crescent hooked beneath a triangle.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLkSsC20gqw
“This wasn’t here yesterday,” Shiko murmured.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDOifaTaMkj
“No wind or rain overnight,” Kim added. “No footprints.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ74UTs3d9nW
“Not visible ones,” Shiko replied grimly.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpGV01QjyP4
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5IcRT5pChO
But something in her chest stirred. A memory. Something old.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCuHKmg9YY2
Blue ink. Sandstone. A girl with eyes that didn’t blink.
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyfRwzGc16i
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5xONERRfDY
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrxERMhJRmZ
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYZTfaIeuGf
She knelt, pressed her hand to the cement, and whispered:21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpOM4kLqLbW
“Curiosity wakes the tunnels. Let them crawl back to me.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzA97C8h6JI
Then she vanished before the sun cleared the dorm rooftops.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLm98KWGOqF
“We should tell Naomi,” Shiko said.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFgZvrCfqDr
Kim didn’t move. “And say what? That someone wrote ancient wall symbols in ink that shouldn’t exist anymore?”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ0QV2BY7of
She traced one of the crescents with her finger, careful not to touch the wet center.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiFsfxHlqOb
“I’ve seen this,” she whispered. “Last term. Just not this clear.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJcwMKzfB2I
Shiko looked at her sharply. “Where?”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGNl93ZjPzb
Kim’s eyes lifted toward the wall.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKVnSEzEFZu
“On a stone. Right before the night I saw them.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRBXBS4TLNs
“The boys?” Shiko asked.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdk8nqoYQn6
Kim nodded.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU3H0jTh08H
“And the girls who followed.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzlGB5khuEB
Shiko’s voice dropped. “You think this is them?”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKav9zeD0g8
“I think this is her.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ19SZGkkQf2
They didn’t say her name.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZQMGTTYNoR
But in the silence that followed, the ink on the stone dried like breath held too long.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL2Q7jEU9Q0
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTN2pfJgodD
