CHAPTER THREE208Please respect copyright.PENANAMr8Tx3mUxn
Two nights after Kim found the letter—and after Seline’s cryptic warning—she returned to the wall again, this time unable to stop herself. The silence was addictive. Dangerous, even. She hadn’t told anyone, not even her closest friend Shiko. Especially not Shiko.208Please respect copyright.PENANAUUodHPzaNP
The blue paper clip was gone now.208Please respect copyright.PENANAtAhzSZVm4r
In its place, tucked neatly in the bougainvillea’s twisted stems, was something new.208Please respect copyright.PENANACAsORc6T7n
A strip of navy-blue school tie fabric, knotted once in the middle. Tied tightly. Left deliberately?208Please respect copyright.PENANA6QjGsDchFs
Her breath caught. It hadn’t rained. No wind could have blown it there.208Please respect copyright.PENANAjBThUyk6UT
She saw it.208Please respect copyright.PENANAIzO8Vgl9qs
She answered.208Please respect copyright.PENANAyXwK0zDixr
But who?208Please respect copyright.PENANA4ZPmD04a1m
Kim hadn’t meant to stay out so late. Again.208Please respect copyright.PENANAebCljHbEwu
But the tie—the knotted strip of blue—had her trapped in thought. She sat half-hidden behind the bougainvillea wall, hugging her knees to her chest, watching the stars blink through a thin curtain of cloud. The school was unusually quiet.208Please respect copyright.PENANAiLl4tdtva7
Too quiet.208Please respect copyright.PENANAs0jiNj0dZv
Suddenly, Footsteps. More than one. Running. Fast—soft, quick, like running feet hitting the red dirt behind the classroom block. Then another.208Please respect copyright.PENANAsqFDIzLiS4
Fast, urgent, cutting through the damp evening like blades.208Please respect copyright.PENANAlaiLYVjYPh
She turned her head sharply.208Please respect copyright.PENANACtR72hBKag
From inside the compound.208Please respect copyright.PENANA06QGPKYu0e
Closer.208Please respect copyright.PENANAA63UjQUzqc
Kim ducked instinctively as two figures sprinted past, barely ten meters away. Shadows, tall and lean, moving with practiced urgency. Not girls. Not the way they ran. The cut of their silhouettes. One had short-cropped hair, the other a limping gait.208Please respect copyright.PENANAs81PCbzOxs
They were boys.208Please respect copyright.PENANA7uLRA0Vi6a
And they were running away—from the direction of her dormitory.208Please respect copyright.PENANAgNTa8jeid6
Her mouth went dry. They didn’t see her. Didn’t stop.208Please respect copyright.PENANAKcEtJcAMhf
She crouched lower as they reached the wall. One of them boosted the other up effortlessly, then scrambled up behind him in a way that spoke of practice, of routine. They had done this before. She watched the top of the wall as the shadows passed— shapes, tall, swift-moving. Then gone.208Please respect copyright.PENANAtQpwnSveFq
Then—voices. Behind them.208Please respect copyright.PENANAW3S7ruTe1j
Kim strained to listen. At first, all she heard was the rustling of leaves. But then came the unmistakable swish of skirts.208Please respect copyright.PENANANtwwKu3ghz
Three figures stepped into view from the same direction the boys had come.208Please respect copyright.PENANAYS0j7u4PQ3
They were wearing girls' school uniforms—blue skirts, white blouses. One of them had a hood up, shadowing her face. The others didn’t speak, just turned their heads slowly, scanning the darkness like wolves in the dark.208Please respect copyright.PENANANODVCk9nix
Kim’s blood ran cold. Were they prefects? No.208Please respect copyright.PENANAHbYKkCqFWY
No prefect moved like that. With such silence. Such purpose.208Please respect copyright.PENANAqNzgcj31Zi
The tallest of them bent near the wall, picked something up—the torn shred of tie fabric—and held it to her nose. As if scent would tell her what sight could not then tossed back on the ground.208Please respect copyright.PENANANwStMRedIf
Kim didn’t breathe. The girl in the hood turned suddenly, eyes locking straight toward where Kim crouched in the bush.208Please respect copyright.PENANAN6SC16ZRvt
The night seemed to collapse inward.208Please respect copyright.PENANAAKZBfTreGl
But they didn’t approach. Didn’t say a word.208Please respect copyright.PENANAzSuau1tSvn
Then they turned and walked away.208Please respect copyright.PENANAtqJP3Xi6aI
Back into the dark.208Please respect copyright.PENANAZDLkdOpRSQ
Kim stayed there for what felt like hours, barely breathing. The wind rustled through the bougainvillea, brushing the tie gently against the stone.208Please respect copyright.PENANAgzlnrVFVNx
The wall had cracked. Not broken, but cracked.208Please respect copyright.PENANAMffuuL1lY4
Something had changed. And tomorrow, someone would know and she had seen it.
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