CHAPTER ONE28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQy1DfniexZ
“Colonial Codes”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9j1viUCXAK
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbKIiTlNNsT
He wasn’t alone.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtKqzKkgXVh
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZfa30wy10u
“I’ve found it,” Jabari said quietly, pulling out a single, sealed envelope tied with faded red tape. In ink barely legible, it read:28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlcvOklsa8v
‘Edict 17B – Joint Custody Regulations – Kisumu Educational Districts – Dated: 1925’28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYElBHrDnFB
Musa looked up. “You sure that’s the one?”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEJT3ZfzzDK
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlDsDFKQh5s
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7aY3KB6Jkp
Jabari’s grip on the page tightened. “They didn’t just separate the schools. They erased the idea of unity.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj2lia7Rv8S
“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.’”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡemZTV2RXMF
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,28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJsXZSKNW05
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡva18YuyXp2
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnJ5TgD8B7o
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpi03LZfwRb
“One... two... three.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj568IlfS7B
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbs45hpSTuP
Inside was a roll of thick paper bound with twin cords — one red, one blue.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡASVlAOKGGS
Jabari unrolled it slowly. His breath caught.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Z6ryPtxS2
It was a map.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvqpyHcmrPQ
Faint, but clear enough: the outline of the school compound. Except… it was too broad. It stretched beyond the wall. It showed both schools.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCSCrg8Iox9
His pulse quickened.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLchTkfNDgH
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2knRChRU3T
It reemerged somewhere beyond, marked only with a symbol: a water droplet inside a flame. No labels. No words.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmzXpNhEt5q
And then there was the note, in the same hand as before:28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj5M3COVtiG
“Built before the split. Sealed after the first betrayal. Still dry. Still waiting.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6yIj6hXOuT
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWbcb5Fe98Y
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEcgy1PXpVZ
“Movement,” he whispered. “Not just contact. Exchange.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsu2ErguYpt
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEDvf9R1AYh
Back in his dorm, Juma was waiting at the window, arms folded.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡckAUDfiYX8
“Well?”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQSEzxts2fJ
Jabari answered with a look, and a word neither of them had said aloud in months:28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt94XUZPrDy
“It’s real.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm6E2HGCBfs
They didn’t speak of it again. Not yet.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH8aAk6J6GH
But that night, for the first time in years, Juma dreamt not of climbing over the wall—but of passing through it.
**********28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMkgSQCmn3k
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwO8NW7h8on
They did not leave names. Only echoes.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5JOcf4OojZ
They did not follow rules. Only shadows.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeR3xfBQ296
They did not ask permission. They moved.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDA6VTMhGv1
And on one night, two terms ago, Kim had seen them — though she didn’t yet understand who or what they were.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSmFcHT6Eoe
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD73EVOJrkN
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2HQ0BF03nb
And they had.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz1SsW1110E
To her.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc0ubf1I6Zb
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP2vj5PP7dI
They meet underground, in a forgotten crawlspace beneath the collapsed greenhouse, where mildew clings to concrete and the walls sweat memory.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQp7tXeuKI1
Only a few know the way. Fewer still survive it.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnVdeWlaYOn
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZJgbmGZbdT
They didn’t speak often. Shadow Walkers spoke through action.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnwy3RrjdAh
When Ayo arrived, breathless and muddy from the drainage slope behind the dorms, he tossed down a folded square of stiff paper.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIcFk5LU1Pl
A fragment of a science exam from Kisumu Girls. Still warm.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtkrw9yOYET
“Direct,” Kwame murmured. “Clean.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6RtZaVSiU4
Otieno smiled faintly. “The wall’s just paper now.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBMu8ms7qkf
“No,” Kwame said. “The wall is a myth.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJmsG4dQlGL
They are not a gang. Not a cult.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4RaYwFsKaD
Not an extension of the Order.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxDAh3taXIa
They do not ask for allegiance.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnFRsb8eINO
They require only presence.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa6Y1c5Vb2W
Their only law:28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv1oDZt0UzU
“Never be still.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwVElTPzERG
Shadow Walkers are the quiet between bells. The blur behind hallway reflections.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeaUjUyyvHi
The glitch in the security feed.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Ltr1J6g4U
They are protest and prophecy. They are the sharp breath before the truth drops.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoAG12tilOx
No crests. No salutes. Just movement.
**********28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDjduNWz4MC
Kim stared at the red paper again, its surface soft but deliberate—cut clean, folded once, nothing else. Just the line:28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGtrDBSD1bl
“Curiosity is no longer a private habit.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxcwr6AU6rP
It wasn't a threat. It wasn't a joke.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡba3gaxp6qC
It was a signal. But from who?28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlAFMtE4TY6
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5ZMdnjKSUM
And it meant someone had not just found her test note… but understood it.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡchAUvlyQIT
Stone markings. The first thread that never frayed.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbefnYqiLYL
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjFkgzxSuEs
Not by replying. By returning it—transformed.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡux5bFaJzLH
Kim clutched the atlas tighter to her chest.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3nLGhCaqLm
Someone had mapped her thinking.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqctzPPriCq
And not by surveillance. Not by prefect tricks. This wasn’t Mercy. This wasn’t Naomi.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLbLgZjlxKJ
This was someone else.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOKQ5dwl45b
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwWcBPrGv6b
Otieno crouched nearby, watching Kwame unfold the latest page torn from Kim’s original decoy.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5D4NzdV3xL
“‘The first thread that never frayed,’” Otieno read aloud, smiling faintly. “She’s poetic.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYPiYJMnEq0
“She’s calculated,” Kwame corrected. “She placed this for us.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9rW4ytXNSk
“No. She placed it for herself,” Otieno said. “We just saw it first.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7TYvLUkUFl
Kwame folded his hands beneath his chin, eyes distant.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0NOiZV2mWz
“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.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsVK1JnclBA
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ3wrQBdMCg
Because fear was best delivered in familiar fonts.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuD4vLdGDAF
“Do you think she’ll trace it back to us?” Otieno asked.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLrALP4Ycli
Kwame shook his head. “She’s too smart to assume. But just uncertain enough to wonder.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDzqyb6A72d
He tapped his fingers slowly on his knee.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiRvKJYTdX2
“If she follows the pattern, she’ll leave something else. Soon.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRcAo7Bk18T
Otieno glanced up at the bleachers. “And if she doesn’t?”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfFKTPGOStJ
Kwame’s smile was subtle, grim. “Then she’s not the threat we hoped.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiMr7suSIDc
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXgdRKD2iYo
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwD8i8TtX3K
“Do you think it’s the Order?” Shiko asked again.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ25JO4RKzMr
Kim shook her head.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcPMt07gAeL
“No,” she murmured. “I think it’s someone else.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHntrhgrfdN
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK3L6dqZzr9
She’d played these games before.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8W3GhzAtWp
And this time, she’d play them first.
*****28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUGmam8n2qV
Ayo didn’t believe in ghosts.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwypcTknImE
But that didn’t mean he didn’t see them.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDoLPQczWoA
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnQvPhWL7Zl
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI0c7oqLbOI
Prints. Not shoeprints. Barefoot. Deliberate. Light. Whoever had stepped here had done so with practice.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzAbT2Vx658
But what made him freeze wasn’t the shape. It was the color.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDV5zrtPGnd
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNFbODqrAe3
Mercy. Not as a prefect. Not even as a leader. But as something far older.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp66MCQGfmK
Ayo’s breath caught.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH98MUQWnLC
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJC25dxjQu7
But Kwame had only smiled that small, cold smile he wore when something clicked.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOKleRLb6F8
“She was one of us. You just didn’t know it yet.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwpWgH51dfG
Mercy hadn’t just corrupted the Order.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrjcPB20ZwK
She’d outgrown it.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe0FrD0SzPy
She’d used it like a shell. A decoy.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd4T6sACXXr
While underneath, in tunnels and side passages, she had trained with the Walkers.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWEpos9RuQ0
Unaligned. Untraceable. Unquestioned. Until she got bored. Until she vanished.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ81ToYUnzDM
And now— She was back.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtZaM4COGMO
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ12fUuBi6DL
But Ayo remembered. Mercy’s games hadn’t been about leadership. They’d been about control. And if she was laying ink again…28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2yDRjtUuA6
She wasn’t just reclaiming a position. She was reactivating a network.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf1gybuDp8h
Mercy moved like she never left. She wasn’t hiding — not in the way the Order expected. She was remembering.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTjWo50sJmE
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:28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxUNCZknyRS
A curved wing. Half-finished. Someone would find it. Eventually. And they would understand: Mercy wasn't returning to power. She was returning home.
*****28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzmivS3hFyL
The prefects had finished inspection rounds. The paths were swept. The dorms were silent.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFkJ0R63zH7
But Kim was already up.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFe7Yqc2bWp
Shiko had left her a note before dawn: “Come alone. Old pump.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCgDVRYVan2
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvm69JSG4eg
When she arrived at the overgrown edge of the borehole courtyard, Shiko was already waiting, crouched low behind the wall of banana leaves.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr7Qi1o35aT
Her eyes were locked on the concrete slab where the rusted borehole cage sat unused.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUgfXUuwtPB
“Look,” Shiko whispered.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaNDsdYuOGy
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkBW5mdzATB
Not graffiti. Not words. Symbols.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd10CyFL6Gf
Kim knelt beside her, scanning them with an almost instinctive unease. A spiral, a horizontal stroke, a crescent hooked beneath a triangle.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEbKcLdubLn
“This wasn’t here yesterday,” Shiko murmured.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9niCpL8ETM
“No wind or rain overnight,” Kim added. “No footprints.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk6cWFiK7Dh
“Not visible ones,” Shiko replied grimly.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg0vXuUe5lr
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu3zLKLLBgI
But something in her chest stirred. A memory. Something old.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYnkMU2F4wt
Blue ink. Sandstone. A girl with eyes that didn’t blink.
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuzSatc1Jre
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxEVMb29835
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb0VCXcm7Jp
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.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE5yWk9aYcm
She knelt, pressed her hand to the cement, and whispered:28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZVemwUcsPq
“Curiosity wakes the tunnels. Let them crawl back to me.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKAFD4sDSSW
Then she vanished before the sun cleared the dorm rooftops.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoHslUR34AD
“We should tell Naomi,” Shiko said.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUVn43dBSIh
Kim didn’t move. “And say what? That someone wrote ancient wall symbols in ink that shouldn’t exist anymore?”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxiE25eZ0AV
She traced one of the crescents with her finger, careful not to touch the wet center.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡURZW24p09n
“I’ve seen this,” she whispered. “Last term. Just not this clear.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1OWPoQlhK3
Shiko looked at her sharply. “Where?”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCkd2w149qV
Kim’s eyes lifted toward the wall.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC6GwxjQdiu
“On a stone. Right before the night I saw them.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBN02ybDJWU
“The boys?” Shiko asked.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb181wv3pUy
Kim nodded.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2ku8QZl4Dg
“And the girls who followed.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfMcto0c18U
Shiko’s voice dropped. “You think this is them?”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKanc67QiSV
“I think this is her.”28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzcR9ErkVhY
They didn’t say her name.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpQigH2xhdY
But in the silence that followed, the ink on the stone dried like breath held too long.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMh8s0ufhBv
28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOzYuU5L4U0
