Claire pointed at the sketch.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9FtpwvOhhD
Drawn with a black pen, the jagged line cut through the center like a torn zipper. Twisted. Uneven. Wrong.
“This is what I saw,” she said, voice dry like windblown dust. “In the sky.”
Batman. Nightwing. Robin. All standing around her, staring at the paper.
Yep. Batman was back.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtPHUMRpFq0
Sure, she’d just seen him “yesterday,” but that was only true for her. Not for them.
They didn’t remember yesterday.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Jg4wd9Xfb
She was the only one who did.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbgNHGTXXEp
Again.
44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQUGxv4GhZI
One hour ago
44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCCExvmiDpp
She stood up. Her joints felt stiff—like that rip in the sky had somehow traveled down her spine and into her bones.
“Can you guys... just look at the sky?”44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPuLc68KXAf
She asked it like someone who already knew the answer, but still had to ask.
Nightwing and Robin exchanged glances. Then, dutifully, they looked up.
Professional sky-gazing faces.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ67Cv3iScF
Like it was part of a rooftop protocol.
Nothing.
“No, not like that,” Claire snapped. “Close your eyes. Look with your eyes closed.”
It made no logical sense. But she sounded very sure of it.
Nightwing hesitated a beat, then obeyed.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIHngEdb8GA
Robin looked at her like she’d just asked him to smell the sidewalk—but closed his eyes too.
Two vigilantes. On a rooftop. At night.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl69ZTKi9cy
Standing still with eyes shut and faces to the sky.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvq5OO7E6r4
It looked like some weird silent ritual.
And honestly?44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSXnhKxSOU1
Kinda hilarious.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXvb9eDLj7y
But Claire couldn’t even smile.
Her fists were clenched, palms sweaty.
A few seconds passed.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoN8uIjN7yT
Then they opened their eyes and shook their heads.
“Nothing.”
Her stomach dropped.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡatjRFjOiyh
Not disappointment—44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGwqXsUqgFL
More like that awful sensation when the last thread holding you to reality starts to snap.
“Please,” she said, softly.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVwO6cCLjQN
“Tell Batman. I need help.”
Her voice was nearly emotionless.
44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡATwFwASIfw
By the time Batman arrived, Claire looked like someone who’d just walked out of a morgue.
Pale. Hollow.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMm8xCkC3IP
As if the inside of her brain had been scrubbed raw.
She spoke without inflection. No energy for theatrics.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpFpTOxLGeW
Just repeated the same thing.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGGPQ8IgoVc
Over. And over.
She’d already said it yesterday.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvIpT9FxRtx
She was saying it again today.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA4n59RN9yo
Now it was Round Three.
What was this, a dystopian Groundhog Day?
Could she just get a USB port installed in her head or something?44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxOGAptsD88
Upload her trauma and call it a day?
Batman listened silently. His face gave nothing away.
Then he said,
“Draw it.”
Claire blinked. Then nodded.
She went behind the counter and rummaged through a drawer. Pulled out a box of pens—the kind she used for doodling on coffee cups.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPF1Jb4xaLc
Hearts on Valentine’s. Pumpkins in October.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsLy2uidVSk
Nothing too serious. Just scribbles for customers when business was slow.
She took a deep breath.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAS7frOxaMM
Then hunched over the table and began to draw.
The pen scratched against paper. Each stroke felt like it was being yanked out of her skull.
The drawing wasn’t pretty.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsT9x6jwff4
But it was exact.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDgJHAlZf0f
That split in the sky—a zipper, a rift, maybe an eye—whatever it was, it didn’t belong to this world.
She slid the paper across the table.
Batman. Nightwing. Robin.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmzX8Ea4y4e
All three stared.
Three different faces.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCbJMa2TOEY
Three different kinds of silence.
Claire studied them. Her voice, barely above a whisper:
“So… what do you think this is?”
It was the kind of whisper that floats like paper against a windowpane.
But her eyes were deadly serious.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0nUZmWUcN6
The kind of serious that said:
If you tell me I made this up, I’m going to lose it. For real.
44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKlltDOORZf
Claire figured she couldn’t really blame them if they thought she was insane.
Honestly, if their roles were reversed, she might’ve thought the same. Who wouldn’t, when someone calmly claimed they were reliving the same day over and over—and also happened to “see the sky split open” when they shut their eyes? It sounded like something between a sci-fi novel and a psychiatric evaluation.
Batman stared at the sketch for a long time.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCbFyBlWpzo
His gaze didn’t just study it—it drilled into it, as if he were trying to excavate something buried beneath the paper fibers.
It was the first time Claire realized… he wasn’t as calm as she had assumed.
The silence grew thick, as if some unspeakable truth was quietly pressing out from the sketch itself.
“When did you first see this?”44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4IGDsZb6jT
His voice was low—not the kind of low that tried to intimidate, but the kind that sounded like it had swallowed something massive and was now digesting dread.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQhUa2e2Ls0
44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPgapY3g2Ly
Claire tried to recall, but her usual nighttime habits got in the way.
She had always avoided going out at night—almost like instinct.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡATQbvvwYfx
Now, trying to pull memories from a part of the day she’d always kept at arm’s length felt like dragging threads from a blank void.
“I don’t know,” she murmured. “Today was the first time I saw it.”
She immediately wanted to cry—not from sadness, but from how stupid it all felt.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhOR5kIL2PU
Here she was, explaining some urban-legend-tier nonsense to Batman. With zero proof.
“Do you get headaches? Hear voices?”44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡazerrjG7hT
That was Nightwing. His voice was measured, maybe too measured. Like he was running a checklist but didn’t want to admit he was worried.
His eyes gave him away, though.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡon3uya0NSg
That wasn’t disbelief—it was a quiet, anxious kind of urgency. A desire to help, not dismiss.
Claire shook her head.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡad7ooown6d
Hard.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfwBGwi2jb1
Like shaking would erase every lingering “are you just crazy?” that might be forming in their minds.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFxuU7Nvyhb
She was tired of being questioned. Hell, she was already questioning herself.
“Why only her?”44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPcGyxTjckf
Robin’s voice cut in—not accusing, but contemplative. His eyes moved between the three of them, searching for a logic flaw he couldn’t patch.
Batman lowered his head.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ15kSIGjXNn
His cape shifted slightly, like it was hiding the fact that even he didn’t feel so steady anymore.
He didn’t speak.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBk5y248Vke
And somehow that silence was worse.
Claire felt it like a chill under the skin. A subtle, creeping sense of dread.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyls4ajqXId
Not from the rift. But from his silence.
Then Batman finally spoke.
“If she’s able to consistently perceive a structure no one else can, that implies it’s selectively revealing itself.”
His voice had a kind of emotional distance—not spatial, but psychological.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡphCxFy5yaS
It wasn’t comfort. It wasn’t analysis.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4lIJMrbbjz
It was a warning.
Then he looked at Claire.
And in that moment, his gaze wasn’t warm, or even human.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYuu0m7yQ4Z
It was clinical.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyWVxKuAc8L
As if she were no longer a person, but a variable.
“This isn’t just about the loop,” he said. “It might be that the rift itself… is looking back at her.”
Claire’s stomach twisted.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJdQJcKSP7A
No.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSSIYXufKnq
This wasn’t just her seeing the rift.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn8pKaCVUFd
The rift… had seen her.
