CHAPTER ONE56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPRXkd1rRF1
“Colonial Codes”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4oDz2waf86
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCHtsctMiuT
He wasn’t alone.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQskFbEKwfq
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqwqTI1FMYD
“I’ve found it,” Jabari said quietly, pulling out a single, sealed envelope tied with faded red tape. In ink barely legible, it read:56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPEMXsVDWTY
‘Edict 17B – Joint Custody Regulations – Kisumu Educational Districts – Dated: 1925’56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9JJ0DDIrnX
Musa looked up. “You sure that’s the one?”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNE2KiFjKs5
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXolPuukp2m
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5rqMK7gCsc
Jabari’s grip on the page tightened. “They didn’t just separate the schools. They erased the idea of unity.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdurlYMasS7
“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.’”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡytCrJLlXNd
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,56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5xxY31yveX
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSz8AYiyA4Z
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUteI7g5kpF
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHFLURe4IXU
“One... two... three.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1JhLujz5BF
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9eX13GWZXX
Inside was a roll of thick paper bound with twin cords — one red, one blue.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyjcc76pyGi
Jabari unrolled it slowly. His breath caught.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSMXnHQHYIo
It was a map.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7aXQZVBTbY
Faint, but clear enough: the outline of the school compound. Except… it was too broad. It stretched beyond the wall. It showed both schools.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNp3KAcjzwQ
His pulse quickened.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKQDLwjG1ts
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1EF32IDpye
It reemerged somewhere beyond, marked only with a symbol: a water droplet inside a flame. No labels. No words.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPOmhzjMRaM
And then there was the note, in the same hand as before:56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeTlXPg8C10
“Built before the split. Sealed after the first betrayal. Still dry. Still waiting.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD6Tcjec9KS
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSDkGSgMDFt
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtismtOtWes
“Movement,” he whispered. “Not just contact. Exchange.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWx0p33xLbZ
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnRtp3hAgE8
Back in his dorm, Juma was waiting at the window, arms folded.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ciVYNZZea
“Well?”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpSZ9VdqDmn
Jabari answered with a look, and a word neither of them had said aloud in months:56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtQSJJD5NKC
“It’s real.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvtjRUpLuk4
They didn’t speak of it again. Not yet.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKFIv5srpwh
But that night, for the first time in years, Juma dreamt not of climbing over the wall—but of passing through it.
**********56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLHMqeSJmGJ
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡANbSn1XY8O
They did not leave names. Only echoes.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgOLMx0QP3E
They did not follow rules. Only shadows.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMfSCx5v97q
They did not ask permission. They moved.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGRY87nEPSS
And on one night, two terms ago, Kim had seen them — though she didn’t yet understand who or what they were.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcQt0xk1gk1
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr6sUs1UNUI
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Bqd6qp3eY
And they had.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvJr5REjgPX
To her.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaDpwFqX6Jn
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbR2qGAS0Bn
They meet underground, in a forgotten crawlspace beneath the collapsed greenhouse, where mildew clings to concrete and the walls sweat memory.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHdD1rNzfao
Only a few know the way. Fewer still survive it.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDMiCJd2A3A
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVKFRYpwtVT
They didn’t speak often. Shadow Walkers spoke through action.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuLI2asdorw
When Ayo arrived, breathless and muddy from the drainage slope behind the dorms, he tossed down a folded square of stiff paper.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSjsYQdcEMi
A fragment of a science exam from Kisumu Girls. Still warm.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfqYltPylDT
“Direct,” Kwame murmured. “Clean.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGodfsEue98
Otieno smiled faintly. “The wall’s just paper now.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQfH07qcedN
“No,” Kwame said. “The wall is a myth.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCqQMIUAN9v
They are not a gang. Not a cult.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTbAPKGB56x
Not an extension of the Order.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlWJG3fNe5H
They do not ask for allegiance.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ37XjFKuj5G
They require only presence.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeooKnQMIyW
Their only law:56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzDRSAI7CfJ
“Never be still.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVWcwKTK8WC
Shadow Walkers are the quiet between bells. The blur behind hallway reflections.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOyz4Ti9yV1
The glitch in the security feed.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxWp0M87KMp
They are protest and prophecy. They are the sharp breath before the truth drops.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFHUJDGIRuK
No crests. No salutes. Just movement.
**********56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9VivFDtBKr
Kim stared at the red paper again, its surface soft but deliberate—cut clean, folded once, nothing else. Just the line:56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw31hZirzAC
“Curiosity is no longer a private habit.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpbddjyYsxY
It wasn't a threat. It wasn't a joke.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqFMnk6tkXh
It was a signal. But from who?56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrqmfDcqM4B
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF7weswb5ge
And it meant someone had not just found her test note… but understood it.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD3QhWTejBh
Stone markings. The first thread that never frayed.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2LRirC03yg
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡICP80r32EW
Not by replying. By returning it—transformed.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM19OoqRgeO
Kim clutched the atlas tighter to her chest.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvLNNqtSkBI
Someone had mapped her thinking.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡunCYYSjctb
And not by surveillance. Not by prefect tricks. This wasn’t Mercy. This wasn’t Naomi.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwKzciqSzfg
This was someone else.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2A5corGlaW
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6LZ4GbUJD5
Otieno crouched nearby, watching Kwame unfold the latest page torn from Kim’s original decoy.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4pYA6qbmSC
“‘The first thread that never frayed,’” Otieno read aloud, smiling faintly. “She’s poetic.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo8ZXAhWfh4
“She’s calculated,” Kwame corrected. “She placed this for us.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNnYQuF8oA1
“No. She placed it for herself,” Otieno said. “We just saw it first.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG3PgEZ70uQ
Kwame folded his hands beneath his chin, eyes distant.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdWpzjhimIH
“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.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmu50vfLhCL
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDIuA2Ysv3c
Because fear was best delivered in familiar fonts.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK2RI6RqGhY
“Do you think she’ll trace it back to us?” Otieno asked.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjkl5ocPAuA
Kwame shook his head. “She’s too smart to assume. But just uncertain enough to wonder.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR1sWdSnPit
He tapped his fingers slowly on his knee.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeKuOkpfmEk
“If she follows the pattern, she’ll leave something else. Soon.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZzTYhHU99K
Otieno glanced up at the bleachers. “And if she doesn’t?”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN9Tuw8USRo
Kwame’s smile was subtle, grim. “Then she’s not the threat we hoped.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqFz9si0qXg
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz5ArWRZXLS
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHFch56j2Yx
“Do you think it’s the Order?” Shiko asked again.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXb0YlSvYL3
Kim shook her head.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhjDLAgfhro
“No,” she murmured. “I think it’s someone else.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Qs0sOPSZg
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEaG3VqjITz
She’d played these games before.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡckklfIC409
And this time, she’d play them first.
*****56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg9Ky6qfEiq
Ayo didn’t believe in ghosts.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7KUEddLcvO
But that didn’t mean he didn’t see them.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbEbOIaW3Jr
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL7tVJRwSmJ
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw6rm7awwoP
Prints. Not shoeprints. Barefoot. Deliberate. Light. Whoever had stepped here had done so with practice.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBmz3mySmBn
But what made him freeze wasn’t the shape. It was the color.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6RJDHmlHTb
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8ThwVxcN8d
Mercy. Not as a prefect. Not even as a leader. But as something far older.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCiBX7iHyE1
Ayo’s breath caught.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3I4TZtHUUo
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo5PnwMaiR9
But Kwame had only smiled that small, cold smile he wore when something clicked.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4JmD9DwaIl
“She was one of us. You just didn’t know it yet.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsoFem8Q9I6
Mercy hadn’t just corrupted the Order.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCdtJ4fizMc
She’d outgrown it.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgYypuoAOYs
She’d used it like a shell. A decoy.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡglL4yjDlrb
While underneath, in tunnels and side passages, she had trained with the Walkers.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvMQPydY5Sw
Unaligned. Untraceable. Unquestioned. Until she got bored. Until she vanished.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsGiGfxwzEv
And now— She was back.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqBjurV7xWY
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwDfB7DIOKI
But Ayo remembered. Mercy’s games hadn’t been about leadership. They’d been about control. And if she was laying ink again…56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyNJ59grvJk
She wasn’t just reclaiming a position. She was reactivating a network.
56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvgqLYIQfSP
Mercy moved like she never left. She wasn’t hiding — not in the way the Order expected. She was remembering.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4OxLjJela5
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:56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYwFiadmUD1
A curved wing. Half-finished. Someone would find it. Eventually. And they would understand: Mercy wasn't returning to power. She was returning home.
*****56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡscYQqpYUew
The prefects had finished inspection rounds. The paths were swept. The dorms were silent.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0n2UV5h4Ch
But Kim was already up.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaod6WxB9A8
Shiko had left her a note before dawn: “Come alone. Old pump.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG2YviMGM7G
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡziHimgAcnS
When she arrived at the overgrown edge of the borehole courtyard, Shiko was already waiting, crouched low behind the wall of banana leaves.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQCBbnsFXjq
Her eyes were locked on the concrete slab where the rusted borehole cage sat unused.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOZlUfJ0jfD
“Look,” Shiko whispered.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs6J0WKLMa8
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8iC50T9B74
Not graffiti. Not words. Symbols.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeWBaz2vOwA
Kim knelt beside her, scanning them with an almost instinctive unease. A spiral, a horizontal stroke, a crescent hooked beneath a triangle.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ28IjcPMsmI
“This wasn’t here yesterday,” Shiko murmured.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRqtbh63gyR
“No wind or rain overnight,” Kim added. “No footprints.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOitJSy1KIZ
“Not visible ones,” Shiko replied grimly.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC1ZEoan7G2
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4WGmDrlaWG
But something in her chest stirred. A memory. Something old.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ54IOPV7O7k
Blue ink. Sandstone. A girl with eyes that didn’t blink.
56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZIKoMe4AqZ
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCjkUPi1xzX
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSJIcV4Kyqn
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.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIbFiYJ2DK3
She knelt, pressed her hand to the cement, and whispered:56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNMQJFFD41d
“Curiosity wakes the tunnels. Let them crawl back to me.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8KFu3Glx7S
Then she vanished before the sun cleared the dorm rooftops.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnTxB3uUUmF
“We should tell Naomi,” Shiko said.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRFqiy3NOAH
Kim didn’t move. “And say what? That someone wrote ancient wall symbols in ink that shouldn’t exist anymore?”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSaonmE56V7
She traced one of the crescents with her finger, careful not to touch the wet center.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDwQLy5M1Nw
“I’ve seen this,” she whispered. “Last term. Just not this clear.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDUFJxdCv5c
Shiko looked at her sharply. “Where?”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwfcNy7SCyE
Kim’s eyes lifted toward the wall.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6CpFNwpiob
“On a stone. Right before the night I saw them.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡybWdCofxDW
“The boys?” Shiko asked.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhhh0NZoCXx
Kim nodded.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjZEIEjyRRQ
“And the girls who followed.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeSHihOIE4r
Shiko’s voice dropped. “You think this is them?”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgm10ZAbpnO
“I think this is her.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIG0HAbngeU
They didn’t say her name.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjvSPsko3ax
But in the silence that followed, the ink on the stone dried like breath held too long.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlegsJpXTcH
56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡumoVFLSB6l
