CHAPTER ONE99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6oTO8FwRtf
“Colonial Codes”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuORofr7TIa
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2brACZEwlT
He wasn’t alone.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZRwEu1oXle
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkIzCYSdkDH
“I’ve found it,” Jabari said quietly, pulling out a single, sealed envelope tied with faded red tape. In ink barely legible, it read:99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDQoEHXQs8Y
‘Edict 17B – Joint Custody Regulations – Kisumu Educational Districts – Dated: 1925’99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU2BKfgsIkY
Musa looked up. “You sure that’s the one?”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWufeoW72qH
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5JKJqhzX2s
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡucqctpkUVj
Jabari’s grip on the page tightened. “They didn’t just separate the schools. They erased the idea of unity.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtlP0khBqPl
“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.’”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGsGk58iiN1
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,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwN0cl43dlt
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdk3aBEKHrS
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMxx6laVv6F
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡctkvCKlmzp
“One... two... three.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk4KqYtifJD
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ31EXv6qOXY
Inside was a roll of thick paper bound with twin cords — one red, one blue.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡltjTn72bqx
Jabari unrolled it slowly. His breath caught.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEWvXEoS1SM
It was a map.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡscYO2t6nRL
Faint, but clear enough: the outline of the school compound. Except… it was too broad. It stretched beyond the wall. It showed both schools.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlQqzR6cV51
His pulse quickened.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbpeQcyQWhL
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6FzRdSX7Ur
It reemerged somewhere beyond, marked only with a symbol: a water droplet inside a flame. No labels. No words.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnaRg1MJOBc
And then there was the note, in the same hand as before:99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZFeQEjme8v
“Built before the split. Sealed after the first betrayal. Still dry. Still waiting.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTjWt7DkLQF
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhdEf47iDw9
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbvjsBSOh5J
“Movement,” he whispered. “Not just contact. Exchange.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBPpORBjx1c
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUbX5PWOKTV
Back in his dorm, Juma was waiting at the window, arms folded.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcAmMXtcgl1
“Well?”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmNdxTCyAbE
Jabari answered with a look, and a word neither of them had said aloud in months:99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfKkeoRwBtM
“It’s real.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgflOd6n4mE
They didn’t speak of it again. Not yet.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkSKYXmdiJA
But that night, for the first time in years, Juma dreamt not of climbing over the wall—but of passing through it.
**********99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcuBhvlyqUb
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ80E3gfB1xb
They did not leave names. Only echoes.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7X37meD0AN
They did not follow rules. Only shadows.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaIYZwOQzkj
They did not ask permission. They moved.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHp146EE8QC
And on one night, two terms ago, Kim had seen them — though she didn’t yet understand who or what they were.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtk3HnGtt18
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6jBGkazMFU
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrAhsuAwTca
And they had.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLQW4yAfPBf
To her.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrOJBjd0eFR
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCst0HiJbfJ
They meet underground, in a forgotten crawlspace beneath the collapsed greenhouse, where mildew clings to concrete and the walls sweat memory.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLXPmPw5GqK
Only a few know the way. Fewer still survive it.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1FD3v0f5Yo
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpBfbuEmbwX
They didn’t speak often. Shadow Walkers spoke through action.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnHgziRIfdQ
When Ayo arrived, breathless and muddy from the drainage slope behind the dorms, he tossed down a folded square of stiff paper.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6CisjWPfv1
A fragment of a science exam from Kisumu Girls. Still warm.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡujZBIjn5Ss
“Direct,” Kwame murmured. “Clean.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPOki9zuOMJ
Otieno smiled faintly. “The wall’s just paper now.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9X5iQCnCS8
“No,” Kwame said. “The wall is a myth.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5GTlSGroX1
They are not a gang. Not a cult.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDMmi80D4Qm
Not an extension of the Order.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtycVvca2PW
They do not ask for allegiance.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡteL3ipeCpO
They require only presence.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXfdkNgLdfZ
Their only law:99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVgZo00mtkh
“Never be still.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIGfIkLT57t
Shadow Walkers are the quiet between bells. The blur behind hallway reflections.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6gj0Oh9THU
The glitch in the security feed.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi4xfFGnrwU
They are protest and prophecy. They are the sharp breath before the truth drops.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwuHXt5TKpv
No crests. No salutes. Just movement.
**********99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMZfWUjz7o9
Kim stared at the red paper again, its surface soft but deliberate—cut clean, folded once, nothing else. Just the line:99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxXceYM1Anp
“Curiosity is no longer a private habit.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡswjSSKm6R4
It wasn't a threat. It wasn't a joke.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxLMmzZxGWB
It was a signal. But from who?99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFuBpRiKzfM
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGtRl1Gjsvm
And it meant someone had not just found her test note… but understood it.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ37afzPPAb3
Stone markings. The first thread that never frayed.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡakBRBP8frK
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlXV4JwUSug
Not by replying. By returning it—transformed.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxCt6EUPMKJ
Kim clutched the atlas tighter to her chest.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCcmdSdR3f6
Someone had mapped her thinking.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuXE1OC7Aw1
And not by surveillance. Not by prefect tricks. This wasn’t Mercy. This wasn’t Naomi.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjDvpoI4BXJ
This was someone else.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzkDoAi8QYP
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRPfDXWeyv7
Otieno crouched nearby, watching Kwame unfold the latest page torn from Kim’s original decoy.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz9xt3GLkv2
“‘The first thread that never frayed,’” Otieno read aloud, smiling faintly. “She’s poetic.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC0xJDv28Pj
“She’s calculated,” Kwame corrected. “She placed this for us.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFr3yUnjKH1
“No. She placed it for herself,” Otieno said. “We just saw it first.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHwelRRGvyD
Kwame folded his hands beneath his chin, eyes distant.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0HbXeK4Hva
“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.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ86uEgnFccr
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtmd537S2Vf
Because fear was best delivered in familiar fonts.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRcta7HBbK3
“Do you think she’ll trace it back to us?” Otieno asked.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkti1eDK155
Kwame shook his head. “She’s too smart to assume. But just uncertain enough to wonder.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF0jmLhSgPU
He tapped his fingers slowly on his knee.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLxPR5NF74S
“If she follows the pattern, she’ll leave something else. Soon.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRsccf5M09w
Otieno glanced up at the bleachers. “And if she doesn’t?”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsyCLW9min5
Kwame’s smile was subtle, grim. “Then she’s not the threat we hoped.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2vTa4eOL8j
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBrRZS4JdlK
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5FOtmrxXa2
“Do you think it’s the Order?” Shiko asked again.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡffdVWGkanX
Kim shook her head.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUDAc29PvXn
“No,” she murmured. “I think it’s someone else.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgwJJZsWkFC
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh5Kz5ukpY2
She’d played these games before.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSh29qoRqGV
And this time, she’d play them first.
*****99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPsdZLpXeZo
Ayo didn’t believe in ghosts.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOIcIatNFcU
But that didn’t mean he didn’t see them.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLmTY5e76WW
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxKBuRGi4L8
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡebXLSDpaxL
Prints. Not shoeprints. Barefoot. Deliberate. Light. Whoever had stepped here had done so with practice.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGL4p3x3S1U
But what made him freeze wasn’t the shape. It was the color.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZGHIWqvVuV
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjlM5J0gMMp
Mercy. Not as a prefect. Not even as a leader. But as something far older.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOKCDcrLVAi
Ayo’s breath caught.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOrcrzXsaTr
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ77x2zCtjLV
But Kwame had only smiled that small, cold smile he wore when something clicked.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡimTw2h86NZ
“She was one of us. You just didn’t know it yet.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj5w0lrxTKZ
Mercy hadn’t just corrupted the Order.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmDkmzToSf6
She’d outgrown it.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfzAOPHScy5
She’d used it like a shell. A decoy.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ55drb7mmAo
While underneath, in tunnels and side passages, she had trained with the Walkers.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡClGOe2B3Od
Unaligned. Untraceable. Unquestioned. Until she got bored. Until she vanished.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFXsSFwBIj1
And now— She was back.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuiC2s3u9kO
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhs5MMJwciM
But Ayo remembered. Mercy’s games hadn’t been about leadership. They’d been about control. And if she was laying ink again…99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2IfqDcHwL6
She wasn’t just reclaiming a position. She was reactivating a network.
99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJMsTrQclBx
Mercy moved like she never left. She wasn’t hiding — not in the way the Order expected. She was remembering.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWVMhSeqvKq
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:99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUd8GsR42JZ
A curved wing. Half-finished. Someone would find it. Eventually. And they would understand: Mercy wasn't returning to power. She was returning home.
*****99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDIA9tOtNWS
The prefects had finished inspection rounds. The paths were swept. The dorms were silent.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ61AwdR0pzz
But Kim was already up.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4AdkLslNlK
Shiko had left her a note before dawn: “Come alone. Old pump.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡueJsq5lwUP
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpNywJkc7ad
When she arrived at the overgrown edge of the borehole courtyard, Shiko was already waiting, crouched low behind the wall of banana leaves.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeEUyi1PAH8
Her eyes were locked on the concrete slab where the rusted borehole cage sat unused.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNKOloLnyL1
“Look,” Shiko whispered.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTT3HVXVZKz
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ57D0buV1M6
Not graffiti. Not words. Symbols.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyBXy73G43N
Kim knelt beside her, scanning them with an almost instinctive unease. A spiral, a horizontal stroke, a crescent hooked beneath a triangle.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOdtptRCUom
“This wasn’t here yesterday,” Shiko murmured.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgzqMLlbZC5
“No wind or rain overnight,” Kim added. “No footprints.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbYaxGpurd2
“Not visible ones,” Shiko replied grimly.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnVQQJXoZsW
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVtKWKANrpy
But something in her chest stirred. A memory. Something old.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuj6bBIRGK2
Blue ink. Sandstone. A girl with eyes that didn’t blink.
99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM4QMrwpOPG
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtthTqqStiX
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡazLsjnqQ6b
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.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGhb1ALCEox
She knelt, pressed her hand to the cement, and whispered:99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSUw9EvO6Ca
“Curiosity wakes the tunnels. Let them crawl back to me.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcFREIsGUwG
Then she vanished before the sun cleared the dorm rooftops.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp3UL1WkHVE
“We should tell Naomi,” Shiko said.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRKqtJUYR9D
Kim didn’t move. “And say what? That someone wrote ancient wall symbols in ink that shouldn’t exist anymore?”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnSOOenY0B8
She traced one of the crescents with her finger, careful not to touch the wet center.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWITE7R1AIu
“I’ve seen this,” she whispered. “Last term. Just not this clear.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1OA1Ep0GZY
Shiko looked at her sharply. “Where?”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Jb10X8tw2
Kim’s eyes lifted toward the wall.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0OAOcpdS1E
“On a stone. Right before the night I saw them.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Kc0SYla6z
“The boys?” Shiko asked.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9oJig4nSwh
Kim nodded.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCp5pFbAits
“And the girls who followed.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJjVT2DuTgC
Shiko’s voice dropped. “You think this is them?”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSY49QsJxkF
“I think this is her.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI1N3Id8bRy
They didn’t say her name.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡItExE5AAn4
But in the silence that followed, the ink on the stone dried like breath held too long.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7XAnvmValR
99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkR0zGGAXFu
