CHAPTER ONE56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ33Isut7ekQ
“Colonial Codes”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0w1PCO2FQU
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡndGK4tOi24
He wasn’t alone.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6npRte4x9i
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlX5buZYjBU
“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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ658YCn4hJ9
‘Edict 17B – Joint Custody Regulations – Kisumu Educational Districts – Dated: 1925’56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDzvoOPCDl0
Musa looked up. “You sure that’s the one?”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQhso98q5Ra
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEAKkZ53m3O
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGwTdZrjx2z
Jabari’s grip on the page tightened. “They didn’t just separate the schools. They erased the idea of unity.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3MCIhb78SV
“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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBUG4wGE8DG
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ766Q7uGnTT
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcPKjvK928S
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTfxGXeXg2V
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzew5m8cZr8
“One... two... three.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZci6oabx34
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl6IeSEB4G3
Inside was a roll of thick paper bound with twin cords — one red, one blue.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGfuuvo49M4
Jabari unrolled it slowly. His breath caught.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaEriqFm2nI
It was a map.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvuUklQNwFb
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡokk6p9219D
His pulse quickened.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtq5b5lCMwT
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUwqgitzjjf
It reemerged somewhere beyond, marked only with a symbol: a water droplet inside a flame. No labels. No words.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7sg4sfEg4b
And then there was the note, in the same hand as before:56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv9ze3xhnFR
“Built before the split. Sealed after the first betrayal. Still dry. Still waiting.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡolLqEuXCI1
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlDFuFwELmS
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Z5gbCRKL7
“Movement,” he whispered. “Not just contact. Exchange.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPbDUUCqTQx
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGXEFWzBi9M
Back in his dorm, Juma was waiting at the window, arms folded.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWTbqJ3jZiy
“Well?”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSkMVNVe7Yv
Jabari answered with a look, and a word neither of them had said aloud in months:56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQf04tCOYuZ
“It’s real.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbto2Wmar2e
They didn’t speak of it again. Not yet.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCroWzqIMXT
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZFVTjujel3
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeMPG8mG7n3
They did not leave names. Only echoes.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjf1x4QQCsX
They did not follow rules. Only shadows.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeBIeWyy4NA
They did not ask permission. They moved.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1jQuGMboF0
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6C4gNQjpJ1
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT7oUMJzdlz
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRd7aPddGkI
And they had.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR8FcEdbliC
To her.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUZlkyxKvNU
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPFwecyNx1q
They meet underground, in a forgotten crawlspace beneath the collapsed greenhouse, where mildew clings to concrete and the walls sweat memory.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAfx8dwbSoG
Only a few know the way. Fewer still survive it.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdzPKQI9J7L
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYjsXUK8R1B
They didn’t speak often. Shadow Walkers spoke through action.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvTdE0z46oQ
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1EMYGJEYts
A fragment of a science exam from Kisumu Girls. Still warm.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJAvNBbpfK2
“Direct,” Kwame murmured. “Clean.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9yjqAOJQbd
Otieno smiled faintly. “The wall’s just paper now.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAXXe4xwhfu
“No,” Kwame said. “The wall is a myth.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ppXffLZSp
They are not a gang. Not a cult.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNcLT2jegWY
Not an extension of the Order.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLkzzogkjRT
They do not ask for allegiance.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHt63tpvf2f
They require only presence.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWiP2BWoEUE
Their only law:56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcPlvBo0Pqm
“Never be still.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOzH9ZvL56k
Shadow Walkers are the quiet between bells. The blur behind hallway reflections.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXdt8mspICn
The glitch in the security feed.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq3TgWapIUv
They are protest and prophecy. They are the sharp breath before the truth drops.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBtDMEKcmxN
No crests. No salutes. Just movement.
**********56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVnVHckpD18
Kim stared at the red paper again, its surface soft but deliberate—cut clean, folded once, nothing else. Just the line:56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP0cuAfuCDv
“Curiosity is no longer a private habit.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2fir4bAqwx
It wasn't a threat. It wasn't a joke.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5jT1N3cjD6
It was a signal. But from who?56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlYbLUqrxlz
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZsF3QGABI8
And it meant someone had not just found her test note… but understood it.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLbLQOAwL8g
Stone markings. The first thread that never frayed.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJpfrlTj6C6
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGO1iynRQwN
Not by replying. By returning it—transformed.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv3YbUigATx
Kim clutched the atlas tighter to her chest.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8lNIPLuDgu
Someone had mapped her thinking.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQVK81GKqI5
And not by surveillance. Not by prefect tricks. This wasn’t Mercy. This wasn’t Naomi.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6RPJaMFWl9
This was someone else.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoBah2Ywz1p
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJflXCTjjRM
Otieno crouched nearby, watching Kwame unfold the latest page torn from Kim’s original decoy.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUPNf05LSrI
“‘The first thread that never frayed,’” Otieno read aloud, smiling faintly. “She’s poetic.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Pocx3KtaD
“She’s calculated,” Kwame corrected. “She placed this for us.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOdYtu1nx71
“No. She placed it for herself,” Otieno said. “We just saw it first.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡljEugzNupY
Kwame folded his hands beneath his chin, eyes distant.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQHgJk3IhI4
“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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUySImWK9FM
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuUajNtsdkS
Because fear was best delivered in familiar fonts.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkiVPTuX61g
“Do you think she’ll trace it back to us?” Otieno asked.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd4OB1h4CSk
Kwame shook his head. “She’s too smart to assume. But just uncertain enough to wonder.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn8benBgsrb
He tapped his fingers slowly on his knee.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqAvuQKUR3k
“If she follows the pattern, she’ll leave something else. Soon.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaU6mNpPI6y
Otieno glanced up at the bleachers. “And if she doesn’t?”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKgCyQUsGwU
Kwame’s smile was subtle, grim. “Then she’s not the threat we hoped.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpt9oGV15Bz
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1zxxA7dtCe
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu4RLoI3xo2
“Do you think it’s the Order?” Shiko asked again.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcDj7VYmKT4
Kim shook her head.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtQg1Uw4Stt
“No,” she murmured. “I think it’s someone else.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHDUnHaZd8u
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ07XdyDbT38
She’d played these games before.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkHeXlDxGRz
And this time, she’d play them first.
*****56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhqViLboFPo
Ayo didn’t believe in ghosts.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjzpLlkYtYC
But that didn’t mean he didn’t see them.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc3CeOatKhX
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPI3wM6XyFF
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXfLzPsRhLi
Prints. Not shoeprints. Barefoot. Deliberate. Light. Whoever had stepped here had done so with practice.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIrDt6jXjW0
But what made him freeze wasn’t the shape. It was the color.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGzLiJ2Jn0J
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ88AvIxgMBq
Mercy. Not as a prefect. Not even as a leader. But as something far older.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ07p3ipljlZ
Ayo’s breath caught.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsHRcgueLL3
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFA4TOxRE7z
But Kwame had only smiled that small, cold smile he wore when something clicked.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1E53VDSoEc
“She was one of us. You just didn’t know it yet.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbV9fv4gtgs
Mercy hadn’t just corrupted the Order.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Nm7p8ZycA
She’d outgrown it.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHHH1FRIbip
She’d used it like a shell. A decoy.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrk5AU1Wi1N
While underneath, in tunnels and side passages, she had trained with the Walkers.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdWEvBmiupv
Unaligned. Untraceable. Unquestioned. Until she got bored. Until she vanished.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhlB4njZSfR
And now— She was back.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR8qyV5OqID
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe2XvUwB1cQ
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsMBXnnkQFz
She wasn’t just reclaiming a position. She was reactivating a network.
56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnHtXvNpFue
Mercy moved like she never left. She wasn’t hiding — not in the way the Order expected. She was remembering.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQqwKlIpI1U
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbBTkf7EVDC
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfCsiLCbbpc
The prefects had finished inspection rounds. The paths were swept. The dorms were silent.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZgucRsiesN
But Kim was already up.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkCwJsEcWDx
Shiko had left her a note before dawn: “Come alone. Old pump.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrY1gwfMh3B
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8lsY7Gq1AI
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcrwN9fTiop
Her eyes were locked on the concrete slab where the rusted borehole cage sat unused.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvV6ztxfHKt
“Look,” Shiko whispered.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDSoEvsyeME
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAFbaVvCS6V
Not graffiti. Not words. Symbols.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Sco0zZt4i
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw8H3857aMu
“This wasn’t here yesterday,” Shiko murmured.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbEJXM2WYr3
“No wind or rain overnight,” Kim added. “No footprints.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRDXXw88crQ
“Not visible ones,” Shiko replied grimly.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw4XGT39kKU
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx5QDI8qwpQ
But something in her chest stirred. A memory. Something old.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgsxT6xVIyF
Blue ink. Sandstone. A girl with eyes that didn’t blink.
56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy5ZxakPpa2
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJcsjSXaJP3
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj1MjpuMuyh
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.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP5HA1s521C
She knelt, pressed her hand to the cement, and whispered:56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgcSczTTHGY
“Curiosity wakes the tunnels. Let them crawl back to me.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO1dZgC9okq
Then she vanished before the sun cleared the dorm rooftops.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEfpZiQmplY
“We should tell Naomi,” Shiko said.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi1vyzLiISF
Kim didn’t move. “And say what? That someone wrote ancient wall symbols in ink that shouldn’t exist anymore?”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrpVRsWCCmf
She traced one of the crescents with her finger, careful not to touch the wet center.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3GwIRJz92b
“I’ve seen this,” she whispered. “Last term. Just not this clear.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXlZfNnYFe0
Shiko looked at her sharply. “Where?”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGEpq5toiLX
Kim’s eyes lifted toward the wall.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsXI6STXZ2C
“On a stone. Right before the night I saw them.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNvJTXNsEmX
“The boys?” Shiko asked.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCCnW2rPC8O
Kim nodded.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNhOM9fCbL0
“And the girls who followed.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡenLiqbH913
Shiko’s voice dropped. “You think this is them?”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdi1CQupXS4
“I think this is her.”56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqYlmeQ9A0c
They didn’t say her name.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6DbE8LW3EU
But in the silence that followed, the ink on the stone dried like breath held too long.56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwhOiwvTQMr
56Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi3jJNwzjGE
