CHAPTER ONE33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcKOuWkJl2e
“Colonial Codes”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRA3vvACLwe
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrqugRO2hB0
He wasn’t alone.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgP39iluIzz
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwzDh4tEVzy
“I’ve found it,” Jabari said quietly, pulling out a single, sealed envelope tied with faded red tape. In ink barely legible, it read:33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDXYs1b2TjD
‘Edict 17B – Joint Custody Regulations – Kisumu Educational Districts – Dated: 1925’33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgnUjBruIiB
Musa looked up. “You sure that’s the one?”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLhjvINyQlQ
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpKpZsKbuh4
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgLAmBqClJO
Jabari’s grip on the page tightened. “They didn’t just separate the schools. They erased the idea of unity.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvc3DCkJsoA
“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.’”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxCd04gz1GP
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,33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3nk0xFGGhe
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyrHykeFC7a
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVhpLK89Fsg
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5qDTIt2aMX
“One... two... three.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvR2Z0qNEpR
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyfiOryrfLh
Inside was a roll of thick paper bound with twin cords — one red, one blue.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFofKKOEG7X
Jabari unrolled it slowly. His breath caught.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz9HzZfv18Y
It was a map.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3zDKsUFf88
Faint, but clear enough: the outline of the school compound. Except… it was too broad. It stretched beyond the wall. It showed both schools.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQaAbEof3tI
His pulse quickened.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk0W60qLqL2
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡamWjHopHRm
It reemerged somewhere beyond, marked only with a symbol: a water droplet inside a flame. No labels. No words.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmuvWijhlhW
And then there was the note, in the same hand as before:33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCbcpg2mQ9N
“Built before the split. Sealed after the first betrayal. Still dry. Still waiting.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUVgcgci0F1
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡympHgiJT6L
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOziw4xHAcH
“Movement,” he whispered. “Not just contact. Exchange.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy85iuIDU7O
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcejdaUwLdT
Back in his dorm, Juma was waiting at the window, arms folded.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwzMdnbRgVX
“Well?”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxDZsTcMQ1H
Jabari answered with a look, and a word neither of them had said aloud in months:33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzRBCioAO3B
“It’s real.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1FQVllybw2
They didn’t speak of it again. Not yet.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOPHjzB7XC6
But that night, for the first time in years, Juma dreamt not of climbing over the wall—but of passing through it.
**********33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk7HTXadg6f
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO6jgz0Ou1Q
They did not leave names. Only echoes.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVqQmFJPrig
They did not follow rules. Only shadows.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeS4vKwNAq8
They did not ask permission. They moved.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHTG0ECym5M
And on one night, two terms ago, Kim had seen them — though she didn’t yet understand who or what they were.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3S1otIHnyA
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO5WceIynlY
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlgcOZsNfqm
And they had.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRKF82rMJ1g
To her.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDezp4OKQRr
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCW1msUObcq
They meet underground, in a forgotten crawlspace beneath the collapsed greenhouse, where mildew clings to concrete and the walls sweat memory.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl9zlLdD3T4
Only a few know the way. Fewer still survive it.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYmxcKedyME
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCglfZzIMK1
They didn’t speak often. Shadow Walkers spoke through action.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNWUgmAmu1w
When Ayo arrived, breathless and muddy from the drainage slope behind the dorms, he tossed down a folded square of stiff paper.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGd54ZjBnqh
A fragment of a science exam from Kisumu Girls. Still warm.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYaw2QWukns
“Direct,” Kwame murmured. “Clean.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFfKkkdxIry
Otieno smiled faintly. “The wall’s just paper now.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6rcoqVlLhL
“No,” Kwame said. “The wall is a myth.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8LUtrXEyXK
They are not a gang. Not a cult.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj2WfqMDrSW
Not an extension of the Order.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUKJwD8lEWX
They do not ask for allegiance.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmI62NP99Xi
They require only presence.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvwsfg6P47A
Their only law:33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTQBnej3TpD
“Never be still.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxRQ7YFhk32
Shadow Walkers are the quiet between bells. The blur behind hallway reflections.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPNWwlHDO16
The glitch in the security feed.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxBBPfBAYaJ
They are protest and prophecy. They are the sharp breath before the truth drops.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡriIJGp3A1m
No crests. No salutes. Just movement.
**********33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9aJANFYRuL
Kim stared at the red paper again, its surface soft but deliberate—cut clean, folded once, nothing else. Just the line:33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdHNxWD9h2W
“Curiosity is no longer a private habit.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjeemYMVXsl
It wasn't a threat. It wasn't a joke.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡApZARixmry
It was a signal. But from who?33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpUjS3MqZVA
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyXPK5rwOCs
And it meant someone had not just found her test note… but understood it.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYMleQQiE34
Stone markings. The first thread that never frayed.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz9HvMEcaz8
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbMcwIzm0qa
Not by replying. By returning it—transformed.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy5z4QaRBco
Kim clutched the atlas tighter to her chest.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyq2qC5DWng
Someone had mapped her thinking.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOvUbuc88wN
And not by surveillance. Not by prefect tricks. This wasn’t Mercy. This wasn’t Naomi.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6XRIdWpU1n
This was someone else.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGQGNGIGZ4F
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrD9cGUXQoM
Otieno crouched nearby, watching Kwame unfold the latest page torn from Kim’s original decoy.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCSiHsJaan7
“‘The first thread that never frayed,’” Otieno read aloud, smiling faintly. “She’s poetic.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDy67niZpw8
“She’s calculated,” Kwame corrected. “She placed this for us.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2OmS4LqvwE
“No. She placed it for herself,” Otieno said. “We just saw it first.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAjRsJL4bVh
Kwame folded his hands beneath his chin, eyes distant.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMZqczuihMu
“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.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡntlELE78wh
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRRYD7Me0m8
Because fear was best delivered in familiar fonts.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4ZWTdsYyfg
“Do you think she’ll trace it back to us?” Otieno asked.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBu7N0OgF4i
Kwame shook his head. “She’s too smart to assume. But just uncertain enough to wonder.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUKDsq7eX6b
He tapped his fingers slowly on his knee.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJcMR9tla3m
“If she follows the pattern, she’ll leave something else. Soon.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9KYyBDJZFV
Otieno glanced up at the bleachers. “And if she doesn’t?”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQlHukAaS1B
Kwame’s smile was subtle, grim. “Then she’s not the threat we hoped.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTrFqaYeQ5w
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa9eSlT2aq7
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrwTNhFSeLQ
“Do you think it’s the Order?” Shiko asked again.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoIeGy0CVqQ
Kim shook her head.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ86rTIOrRue
“No,” she murmured. “I think it’s someone else.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1hUeqMRrSY
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ78X0kLgIml
She’d played these games before.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE98fw5PnVB
And this time, she’d play them first.
*****33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Sr3PTkJxU
Ayo didn’t believe in ghosts.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrbTYCvAmw8
But that didn’t mean he didn’t see them.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8b8CGarg6E
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡysU2JcEtif
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSVrVobJmme
Prints. Not shoeprints. Barefoot. Deliberate. Light. Whoever had stepped here had done so with practice.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpJQXvl2X4R
But what made him freeze wasn’t the shape. It was the color.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk47pKcPfz6
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzvqjLCzmd6
Mercy. Not as a prefect. Not even as a leader. But as something far older.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHxoSbA7oex
Ayo’s breath caught.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDENAMEUkV0
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC0iR3Umbtk
But Kwame had only smiled that small, cold smile he wore when something clicked.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ66uYQG14sN
“She was one of us. You just didn’t know it yet.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfQFp0oOcWc
Mercy hadn’t just corrupted the Order.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYtTQeTWhzI
She’d outgrown it.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1RucD0isHg
She’d used it like a shell. A decoy.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL8YZS1VjOU
While underneath, in tunnels and side passages, she had trained with the Walkers.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdbkSMpGtSQ
Unaligned. Untraceable. Unquestioned. Until she got bored. Until she vanished.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNOWq9UFpfk
And now— She was back.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGJj4PjyVuf
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPievwzf8ZK
But Ayo remembered. Mercy’s games hadn’t been about leadership. They’d been about control. And if she was laying ink again…33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNjPnd6A1r6
She wasn’t just reclaiming a position. She was reactivating a network.
33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV2HsoZslEJ
Mercy moved like she never left. She wasn’t hiding — not in the way the Order expected. She was remembering.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡptiRkTXF1K
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:33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw23BL1wQbI
A curved wing. Half-finished. Someone would find it. Eventually. And they would understand: Mercy wasn't returning to power. She was returning home.
*****33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZLI7l4Rt2b
The prefects had finished inspection rounds. The paths were swept. The dorms were silent.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZpVQ7V36v0
But Kim was already up.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUgxLkr3rHL
Shiko had left her a note before dawn: “Come alone. Old pump.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNnGwnihvoE
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqXePCMtKLI
When she arrived at the overgrown edge of the borehole courtyard, Shiko was already waiting, crouched low behind the wall of banana leaves.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU2WGwxmoNt
Her eyes were locked on the concrete slab where the rusted borehole cage sat unused.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWLosBBQZv7
“Look,” Shiko whispered.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLoNFhZezHo
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFADhh5QAus
Not graffiti. Not words. Symbols.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoL5VGxyWnI
Kim knelt beside her, scanning them with an almost instinctive unease. A spiral, a horizontal stroke, a crescent hooked beneath a triangle.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNCzQhothZK
“This wasn’t here yesterday,” Shiko murmured.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhus2C1QTXi
“No wind or rain overnight,” Kim added. “No footprints.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjGMgxdgbo2
“Not visible ones,” Shiko replied grimly.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXPLPzbwMqL
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP3m84qtHQ3
But something in her chest stirred. A memory. Something old.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOqqoz5KXY8
Blue ink. Sandstone. A girl with eyes that didn’t blink.
33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbo8McbhHq5
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE91PXx98aD
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSwBED6wJfI
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.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwLccRnIzyo
She knelt, pressed her hand to the cement, and whispered:33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd0w2F9t6Df
“Curiosity wakes the tunnels. Let them crawl back to me.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXmnXkuFOSw
Then she vanished before the sun cleared the dorm rooftops.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbmPunhXG57
“We should tell Naomi,” Shiko said.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbgEB7tWTWx
Kim didn’t move. “And say what? That someone wrote ancient wall symbols in ink that shouldn’t exist anymore?”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQnO5ZqhykI
She traced one of the crescents with her finger, careful not to touch the wet center.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqy4BuktjXx
“I’ve seen this,” she whispered. “Last term. Just not this clear.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrsyHmS0jnm
Shiko looked at her sharply. “Where?”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGkHF4ZeSig
Kim’s eyes lifted toward the wall.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrJR5CiY8X0
“On a stone. Right before the night I saw them.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWVUJ6r71Gi
“The boys?” Shiko asked.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO73HNVTt6j
Kim nodded.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6YJ7FHE60l
“And the girls who followed.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Jk24qNxJX
Shiko’s voice dropped. “You think this is them?”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNdtmuVEGYH
“I think this is her.”33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFSMvDm5qky
They didn’t say her name.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNWVBC7rrgO
But in the silence that followed, the ink on the stone dried like breath held too long.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcQQUnXF1yW
33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN3HqKUKrG1
