Claire pointed at the sketch.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL0pArmGGl1
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.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd12ryjjMa8
Sure, she’d just seen him “yesterday,” but that was only true for her. Not for them.
They didn’t remember yesterday.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD8cJnbjbKD
She was the only one who did.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9dBI6XWl37
Again.
43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfWfm7skeKg
One hour ago
43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW36CHcbf11
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?”43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcdhvSnbofA
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.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlALDxPucUZ
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.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoKXlmAR2eU
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.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzSEf1ogu5F
Standing still with eyes shut and faces to the sky.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKwUVFWWST6
It looked like some weird silent ritual.
And honestly?43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNg9FwF1pzi
Kinda hilarious.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdnnBPBXIxi
But Claire couldn’t even smile.
Her fists were clenched, palms sweaty.
A few seconds passed.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyRAFQgOQ7e
Then they opened their eyes and shook their heads.
“Nothing.”
Her stomach dropped.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzM82HCJCJd
Not disappointment—43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOfMkpJaNr8
More like that awful sensation when the last thread holding you to reality starts to snap.
“Please,” she said, softly.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ69LwQSAJHl
“Tell Batman. I need help.”
Her voice was nearly emotionless.
43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLedUCYlZoE
By the time Batman arrived, Claire looked like someone who’d just walked out of a morgue.
Pale. Hollow.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8HenZqpUDd
As if the inside of her brain had been scrubbed raw.
She spoke without inflection. No energy for theatrics.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡooe84aElzx
Just repeated the same thing.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsWyd4P0CxP
Over. And over.
She’d already said it yesterday.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSqAyCsqFZd
She was saying it again today.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvxRqydaowT
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?43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7egMsqVJrD
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.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHmmjPMmYQT
Hearts on Valentine’s. Pumpkins in October.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBXYW6YF9Rb
Nothing too serious. Just scribbles for customers when business was slow.
She took a deep breath.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4M1EHKI9G4
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.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDAi3O24tTt
But it was exact.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzCIAPVG9Of
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.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb4FLTzcORI
All three stared.
Three different faces.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOFaNgmIZ6l
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.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWJSZywDUP5
The kind of serious that said:
If you tell me I made this up, I’m going to lose it. For real.
43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBfRPY65J5U
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.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJKL1plx1Gt
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?”43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSxiRb7QfjQ
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.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuhgkwiAUSi
43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfWDcNcJTGG
Claire tried to recall, but her usual nighttime habits got in the way.
She had always avoided going out at night—almost like instinct.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL4YRFTG8GH
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.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ6pr6zqxS0
Here she was, explaining some urban-legend-tier nonsense to Batman. With zero proof.
“Do you get headaches? Hear voices?”43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuTZpketzjd
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.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6j2X0695DT
That wasn’t disbelief—it was a quiet, anxious kind of urgency. A desire to help, not dismiss.
Claire shook her head.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2P87TsDCKW
Hard.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl6vkaZ7sGj
Like shaking would erase every lingering “are you just crazy?” that might be forming in their minds.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb5vIV6efdw
She was tired of being questioned. Hell, she was already questioning herself.
“Why only her?”43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3aZ27fwjuh
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.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHSKwJHFF5t
His cape shifted slightly, like it was hiding the fact that even he didn’t feel so steady anymore.
He didn’t speak.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNs7X5EFG2r
And somehow that silence was worse.
Claire felt it like a chill under the skin. A subtle, creeping sense of dread.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOYfmwCNw9D
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.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ73MfLjdb7t
It wasn’t comfort. It wasn’t analysis.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjvEChvYU0W
It was a warning.
Then he looked at Claire.
And in that moment, his gaze wasn’t warm, or even human.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIIH98YrCxu
It was clinical.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcEieFsVgGN
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.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGLHYT35Svm
No.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWvchCFTpor
This wasn’t just her seeing the rift.43Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8xrKlFZMc1
The rift… had seen her.
