CHAPTER ONE61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqapUWJR5fl
“Colonial Codes”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSjpCuFDKzs
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡojFGSJhw7d
He wasn’t alone.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ26e9V0t3uw
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9gutS9eDt0
“I’ve found it,” Jabari said quietly, pulling out a single, sealed envelope tied with faded red tape. In ink barely legible, it read:61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5FfJNhjd7h
‘Edict 17B – Joint Custody Regulations – Kisumu Educational Districts – Dated: 1925’61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm7l0EUyvEj
Musa looked up. “You sure that’s the one?”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4bnpaiRrWg
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbM7OtzDTKE
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhILgYxGqO6
Jabari’s grip on the page tightened. “They didn’t just separate the schools. They erased the idea of unity.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoequKtUbdj
“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.’”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ2XWqyrpKx
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,61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi9qy4tjiMQ
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfT51XYLepw
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ19L0gZg38L
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW5LIuGglW9
“One... two... three.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2xZ2diBDrA
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6KmFY92EKl
Inside was a roll of thick paper bound with twin cords — one red, one blue.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXbetxkakJ4
Jabari unrolled it slowly. His breath caught.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfA8F3AKTWL
It was a map.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGunbP9ZtlN
Faint, but clear enough: the outline of the school compound. Except… it was too broad. It stretched beyond the wall. It showed both schools.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIXUPCERRN8
His pulse quickened.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9zbiidNKaM
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZVW02DfU8f
It reemerged somewhere beyond, marked only with a symbol: a water droplet inside a flame. No labels. No words.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF6ihHsNyZN
And then there was the note, in the same hand as before:61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDbrUEix7kA
“Built before the split. Sealed after the first betrayal. Still dry. Still waiting.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaQUf6LxrEK
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIuuR4QTQ3o
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjdC6NQ6qgM
“Movement,” he whispered. “Not just contact. Exchange.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaTY5um7mWE
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRIGLuAsgkP
Back in his dorm, Juma was waiting at the window, arms folded.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ5d0iZ7kAW
“Well?”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0kqlMqEfpa
Jabari answered with a look, and a word neither of them had said aloud in months:61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHIZLBXmj83
“It’s real.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdpnZU0v1bl
They didn’t speak of it again. Not yet.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6zs49uc1Zb
But that night, for the first time in years, Juma dreamt not of climbing over the wall—but of passing through it.
**********61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8huu4Zb1Wo
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6DkKXl1P0l
They did not leave names. Only echoes.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeVSnTZGzqw
They did not follow rules. Only shadows.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLBm2aaChdZ
They did not ask permission. They moved.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAo2rdI4lhC
And on one night, two terms ago, Kim had seen them — though she didn’t yet understand who or what they were.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5nOwplOHES
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSfvThTkcMe
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBVzGDOghlU
And they had.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ1iAyFd1fK
To her.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8LfZ4xfVOm
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZZqUaHm4aD
They meet underground, in a forgotten crawlspace beneath the collapsed greenhouse, where mildew clings to concrete and the walls sweat memory.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKlmASqnQ9b
Only a few know the way. Fewer still survive it.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdo4mM1ZWpf
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLnadFTlQy5
They didn’t speak often. Shadow Walkers spoke through action.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt3zMnED71S
When Ayo arrived, breathless and muddy from the drainage slope behind the dorms, he tossed down a folded square of stiff paper.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWWCVWgndin
A fragment of a science exam from Kisumu Girls. Still warm.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWdLfY6p6HV
“Direct,” Kwame murmured. “Clean.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLeUnFHzKFB
Otieno smiled faintly. “The wall’s just paper now.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGYsdpWir2U
“No,” Kwame said. “The wall is a myth.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrcIoCLdjyA
They are not a gang. Not a cult.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy1tTLD5bK9
Not an extension of the Order.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjTxW0CVBy4
They do not ask for allegiance.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg9bFzRdNst
They require only presence.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhdt68jYkDa
Their only law:61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbHDasSjzCi
“Never be still.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjSOQD9Dkz0
Shadow Walkers are the quiet between bells. The blur behind hallway reflections.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmZgyTl24SI
The glitch in the security feed.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOv63IuD2wa
They are protest and prophecy. They are the sharp breath before the truth drops.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0jK1sQEGPM
No crests. No salutes. Just movement.
**********61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQrCG1OgwFI
Kim stared at the red paper again, its surface soft but deliberate—cut clean, folded once, nothing else. Just the line:61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZtniR1Cij4
“Curiosity is no longer a private habit.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlEjNocubI6
It wasn't a threat. It wasn't a joke.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCd3NeDywDn
It was a signal. But from who?61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvurVLabdkn
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNuBzqVqNFJ
And it meant someone had not just found her test note… but understood it.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFrOcE69SDG
Stone markings. The first thread that never frayed.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8XcuKYB8uZ
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA7YGVtfGD0
Not by replying. By returning it—transformed.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMg2Fyb8i9E
Kim clutched the atlas tighter to her chest.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡip4Kv6yCgS
Someone had mapped her thinking.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0GhBlGwrPy
And not by surveillance. Not by prefect tricks. This wasn’t Mercy. This wasn’t Naomi.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmQDD4x60oM
This was someone else.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡplt4Or0LXf
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC9Adt6hBF3
Otieno crouched nearby, watching Kwame unfold the latest page torn from Kim’s original decoy.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbeLVLAxsYD
“‘The first thread that never frayed,’” Otieno read aloud, smiling faintly. “She’s poetic.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyoqL6wtt3B
“She’s calculated,” Kwame corrected. “She placed this for us.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEYLsiDLGDQ
“No. She placed it for herself,” Otieno said. “We just saw it first.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNoYOlLGqpD
Kwame folded his hands beneath his chin, eyes distant.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4xImfDpFPv
“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.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGmpsYFWuhy
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1mIPa7KiQW
Because fear was best delivered in familiar fonts.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVtUKlIHLme
“Do you think she’ll trace it back to us?” Otieno asked.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFjyls8fo3v
Kwame shook his head. “She’s too smart to assume. But just uncertain enough to wonder.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpIH8pBCzWb
He tapped his fingers slowly on his knee.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvBg4jGJFqf
“If she follows the pattern, she’ll leave something else. Soon.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9dxE7udROh
Otieno glanced up at the bleachers. “And if she doesn’t?”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHbVBC1N79q
Kwame’s smile was subtle, grim. “Then she’s not the threat we hoped.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3BL1UbDSMo
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5ag3KC6pnm
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkZ3T91E1jR
“Do you think it’s the Order?” Shiko asked again.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcO8mEFa6zP
Kim shook her head.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxZzw76AaT1
“No,” she murmured. “I think it’s someone else.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCxFQQmqrvS
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUogbWDp1xw
She’d played these games before.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJQ8n2WxXX9
And this time, she’d play them first.
*****61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVfAqT92ztp
Ayo didn’t believe in ghosts.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6sGg2rRVAd
But that didn’t mean he didn’t see them.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwe7lWePpTT
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhQU6T7ubjT
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhPMWm5kfTU
Prints. Not shoeprints. Barefoot. Deliberate. Light. Whoever had stepped here had done so with practice.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOSNLnN57wa
But what made him freeze wasn’t the shape. It was the color.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwsAiPsGxFp
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGqCighRMLV
Mercy. Not as a prefect. Not even as a leader. But as something far older.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0b1Fis48LK
Ayo’s breath caught.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc076aGzKvX
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRErOE1UppM
But Kwame had only smiled that small, cold smile he wore when something clicked.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhhXW8bts90
“She was one of us. You just didn’t know it yet.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOh93sOfX0m
Mercy hadn’t just corrupted the Order.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡac4efwVPrL
She’d outgrown it.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPKzcdeHFyM
She’d used it like a shell. A decoy.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvCR606MY7l
While underneath, in tunnels and side passages, she had trained with the Walkers.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD1AJaxL1Ht
Unaligned. Untraceable. Unquestioned. Until she got bored. Until she vanished.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoECTP17EUS
And now— She was back.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw6ItYST7B0
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOF6Pp1dZyu
But Ayo remembered. Mercy’s games hadn’t been about leadership. They’d been about control. And if she was laying ink again…61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlSKJhKVcTX
She wasn’t just reclaiming a position. She was reactivating a network.
61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNnfOJsCqyx
Mercy moved like she never left. She wasn’t hiding — not in the way the Order expected. She was remembering.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpGsA6x2Wo4
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:61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXhdGPZBvzz
A curved wing. Half-finished. Someone would find it. Eventually. And they would understand: Mercy wasn't returning to power. She was returning home.
*****61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfQpDbFuFeY
The prefects had finished inspection rounds. The paths were swept. The dorms were silent.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiIXh87w7c5
But Kim was already up.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL3PkD2l4JA
Shiko had left her a note before dawn: “Come alone. Old pump.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHqY4NV8IQO
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVhh3gAroPL
When she arrived at the overgrown edge of the borehole courtyard, Shiko was already waiting, crouched low behind the wall of banana leaves.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4eD5x2mBJl
Her eyes were locked on the concrete slab where the rusted borehole cage sat unused.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc1aZq3du27
“Look,” Shiko whispered.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTPVTXo3hiT
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdFQOPrHecW
Not graffiti. Not words. Symbols.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZlSMHcn3oV
Kim knelt beside her, scanning them with an almost instinctive unease. A spiral, a horizontal stroke, a crescent hooked beneath a triangle.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDdYhlqGie5
“This wasn’t here yesterday,” Shiko murmured.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvKHqDDTIac
“No wind or rain overnight,” Kim added. “No footprints.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBcnxC5gYgi
“Not visible ones,” Shiko replied grimly.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWDdOnxr2cl
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZDYy1TFRG9
But something in her chest stirred. A memory. Something old.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfeKaA19Rth
Blue ink. Sandstone. A girl with eyes that didn’t blink.
61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP2n6QjGnJq
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdC8M2pb0g9
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8JNClfvjmD
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.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCbGuTxAOuj
She knelt, pressed her hand to the cement, and whispered:61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpwRe2zl8QF
“Curiosity wakes the tunnels. Let them crawl back to me.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5wGcktSyZQ
Then she vanished before the sun cleared the dorm rooftops.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjKPV8d4INO
“We should tell Naomi,” Shiko said.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjNwrVQAWAV
Kim didn’t move. “And say what? That someone wrote ancient wall symbols in ink that shouldn’t exist anymore?”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQAb7FnHErc
She traced one of the crescents with her finger, careful not to touch the wet center.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡln1ZOZEpVF
“I’ve seen this,” she whispered. “Last term. Just not this clear.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy2X3GnJhTl
Shiko looked at her sharply. “Where?”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhyEXqaZSCn
Kim’s eyes lifted toward the wall.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzFTzzWI8Sy
“On a stone. Right before the night I saw them.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfJvKoJ8jns
“The boys?” Shiko asked.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnVLzz9uw0q
Kim nodded.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfvPuTtr84H
“And the girls who followed.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyFpunjsyup
Shiko’s voice dropped. “You think this is them?”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9YbG4u1qyr
“I think this is her.”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbHCm3O8zfn
They didn’t say her name.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡghEv7Rfbax
But in the silence that followed, the ink on the stone dried like breath held too long.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiJDuVowh30
61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCcgM4l1GgU
