CHAPTER ONE47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTPVZcKPYN4
“Colonial Codes”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwhVqWMhjPN
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZMCvOO22EY
He wasn’t alone.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMXtDCKDJXr
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMM5CdVFtnm
“I’ve found it,” Jabari said quietly, pulling out a single, sealed envelope tied with faded red tape. In ink barely legible, it read:47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp2xGfDSIE7
‘Edict 17B – Joint Custody Regulations – Kisumu Educational Districts – Dated: 1925’47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZLSdkhqMSG
Musa looked up. “You sure that’s the one?”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7CZ1kS1XLW
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ55BmZxp1Wd
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuHEV9PAabR
Jabari’s grip on the page tightened. “They didn’t just separate the schools. They erased the idea of unity.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlu1FoP7PAn
“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.’”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlm4OnYn7Db
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,47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡavu8cwlA3Z
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLIKh4CdHM8
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb0rFDZaMF7
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL4OJuLqbVv
“One... two... three.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNw6E0DEjEB
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlNGKnmn437
Inside was a roll of thick paper bound with twin cords — one red, one blue.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxYxaVqkWnP
Jabari unrolled it slowly. His breath caught.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK12KgFyaWM
It was a map.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd145DvvJ7p
Faint, but clear enough: the outline of the school compound. Except… it was too broad. It stretched beyond the wall. It showed both schools.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOHIpc2Kc6E
His pulse quickened.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfqb9p5onBF
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSWfOfPLVBP
It reemerged somewhere beyond, marked only with a symbol: a water droplet inside a flame. No labels. No words.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMXtwdgekNC
And then there was the note, in the same hand as before:47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW8t1xYaZxi
“Built before the split. Sealed after the first betrayal. Still dry. Still waiting.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcPiw9lYEYh
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEOXPGjqfUM
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbqsYGsiUDp
“Movement,” he whispered. “Not just contact. Exchange.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH3cumD9dTT
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoSjzdJOrxX
Back in his dorm, Juma was waiting at the window, arms folded.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZh6RpSfuzG
“Well?”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8znERRapM5
Jabari answered with a look, and a word neither of them had said aloud in months:47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWDX0YoktgC
“It’s real.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8AstjbxfdY
They didn’t speak of it again. Not yet.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZSgNgEXOnl
But that night, for the first time in years, Juma dreamt not of climbing over the wall—but of passing through it.
**********47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdkroBTj3RA
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoCqYT1wq3s
They did not leave names. Only echoes.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡogeld3cu1O
They did not follow rules. Only shadows.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡag4tr4eGKB
They did not ask permission. They moved.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp1ed24NH1g
And on one night, two terms ago, Kim had seen them — though she didn’t yet understand who or what they were.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGBrArl8lQf
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8M4QRvfzh3
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡde64HpE9m5
And they had.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTurE9ersMp
To her.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUQBCLn0yDK
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ23MI0M0REX
They meet underground, in a forgotten crawlspace beneath the collapsed greenhouse, where mildew clings to concrete and the walls sweat memory.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj4HSxpwYmH
Only a few know the way. Fewer still survive it.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQPKt7lSIiq
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkNslbfiAhy
They didn’t speak often. Shadow Walkers spoke through action.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ80s9JnmU8w
When Ayo arrived, breathless and muddy from the drainage slope behind the dorms, he tossed down a folded square of stiff paper.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPiQyqMZTEh
A fragment of a science exam from Kisumu Girls. Still warm.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ02Lth7BmyD
“Direct,” Kwame murmured. “Clean.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7jBaPsODFw
Otieno smiled faintly. “The wall’s just paper now.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5UnPxBaiLQ
“No,” Kwame said. “The wall is a myth.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrByRQQxf3v
They are not a gang. Not a cult.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPAt10CJkzw
Not an extension of the Order.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhtZ2VEWkTJ
They do not ask for allegiance.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZxyechei4p
They require only presence.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnaFoXg7GOd
Their only law:47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC9KoJNwFkD
“Never be still.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxfBTtPSV0M
Shadow Walkers are the quiet between bells. The blur behind hallway reflections.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb0E3yB7RuB
The glitch in the security feed.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAcmxshKDeA
They are protest and prophecy. They are the sharp breath before the truth drops.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLOc5twAks4
No crests. No salutes. Just movement.
**********47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlOvfjqdfPT
Kim stared at the red paper again, its surface soft but deliberate—cut clean, folded once, nothing else. Just the line:47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Dq8u1BPxr
“Curiosity is no longer a private habit.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC0Opg8oZ4V
It wasn't a threat. It wasn't a joke.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLpMwuV7ThL
It was a signal. But from who?47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1R3k4kIgMq
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaaGyGbFhoh
And it meant someone had not just found her test note… but understood it.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2zGM6Yjrpo
Stone markings. The first thread that never frayed.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpo8SLLW0Yb
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8BSuRePSZR
Not by replying. By returning it—transformed.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzj5EwPzZIi
Kim clutched the atlas tighter to her chest.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHfZKIhgBi3
Someone had mapped her thinking.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN0bj6XjUQD
And not by surveillance. Not by prefect tricks. This wasn’t Mercy. This wasn’t Naomi.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKOFj7Qbxrg
This was someone else.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyoIpMtStdl
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfX870HT7i7
Otieno crouched nearby, watching Kwame unfold the latest page torn from Kim’s original decoy.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXZGeitQ0LS
“‘The first thread that never frayed,’” Otieno read aloud, smiling faintly. “She’s poetic.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAYaA1awRXv
“She’s calculated,” Kwame corrected. “She placed this for us.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5OQx2XT9yZ
“No. She placed it for herself,” Otieno said. “We just saw it first.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKjfBybwjod
Kwame folded his hands beneath his chin, eyes distant.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA8i5IMvay5
“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.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡphD9xJ3ATq
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfyVlzy4GMu
Because fear was best delivered in familiar fonts.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4aNlsY4bir
“Do you think she’ll trace it back to us?” Otieno asked.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfuFudg9itt
Kwame shook his head. “She’s too smart to assume. But just uncertain enough to wonder.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBnHWizIFFR
He tapped his fingers slowly on his knee.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz6WGmPmUiW
“If she follows the pattern, she’ll leave something else. Soon.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuXuxOTwqDM
Otieno glanced up at the bleachers. “And if she doesn’t?”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYpUWTp77PM
Kwame’s smile was subtle, grim. “Then she’s not the threat we hoped.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBBc1Q18SIt
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSl2ZvH1i3X
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLAC5r00w2R
“Do you think it’s the Order?” Shiko asked again.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrCNnJ6RAp9
Kim shook her head.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF3Y230zSZM
“No,” she murmured. “I think it’s someone else.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUlicDPqFxJ
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9DfA4lRd0k
She’d played these games before.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmzNKkrbj7o
And this time, she’d play them first.
*****47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCqGC4DHRsn
Ayo didn’t believe in ghosts.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ15yLpxl7qt
But that didn’t mean he didn’t see them.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEZWetl6lZL
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUcebNMdtVV
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcMvTXcZemS
Prints. Not shoeprints. Barefoot. Deliberate. Light. Whoever had stepped here had done so with practice.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiec3nPoGnP
But what made him freeze wasn’t the shape. It was the color.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgdpL4Xz92p
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhKE2eKCdQd
Mercy. Not as a prefect. Not even as a leader. But as something far older.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXceW7kgibO
Ayo’s breath caught.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF7eEIrjU8X
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkshV6Ww4PH
But Kwame had only smiled that small, cold smile he wore when something clicked.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5CYB8WPxBk
“She was one of us. You just didn’t know it yet.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ38d9fgeRjj
Mercy hadn’t just corrupted the Order.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEnPpVnp4OJ
She’d outgrown it.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjOwsVIvtoO
She’d used it like a shell. A decoy.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPwQv5IstCj
While underneath, in tunnels and side passages, she had trained with the Walkers.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgFeNydjT5Q
Unaligned. Untraceable. Unquestioned. Until she got bored. Until she vanished.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMrKUcvUMVR
And now— She was back.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHqQuHsda7S
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ20HI2BDMsN
But Ayo remembered. Mercy’s games hadn’t been about leadership. They’d been about control. And if she was laying ink again…47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPwwqMJ0XDs
She wasn’t just reclaiming a position. She was reactivating a network.
47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡukfWbwQoYV
Mercy moved like she never left. She wasn’t hiding — not in the way the Order expected. She was remembering.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjQXd4e1AAo
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:47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1ifXGPtzxH
A curved wing. Half-finished. Someone would find it. Eventually. And they would understand: Mercy wasn't returning to power. She was returning home.
*****47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYllQFSXJfH
The prefects had finished inspection rounds. The paths were swept. The dorms were silent.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzKZ2TBxzbe
But Kim was already up.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYi3pCW7QSD
Shiko had left her a note before dawn: “Come alone. Old pump.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAwOCj06IDj
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxatksXzpmF
When she arrived at the overgrown edge of the borehole courtyard, Shiko was already waiting, crouched low behind the wall of banana leaves.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFyXhIrO2tk
Her eyes were locked on the concrete slab where the rusted borehole cage sat unused.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYyeQRQp4pz
“Look,” Shiko whispered.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxXteqDpBlf
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡypz2LNJ5Ye
Not graffiti. Not words. Symbols.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI6wn8nFbnc
Kim knelt beside her, scanning them with an almost instinctive unease. A spiral, a horizontal stroke, a crescent hooked beneath a triangle.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5uANUHQiKE
“This wasn’t here yesterday,” Shiko murmured.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFI4L3roC2t
“No wind or rain overnight,” Kim added. “No footprints.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY7T8VLR8lv
“Not visible ones,” Shiko replied grimly.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡphaXRjao9A
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEtNnJQ1X4J
But something in her chest stirred. A memory. Something old.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVLIvDsTybv
Blue ink. Sandstone. A girl with eyes that didn’t blink.
47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ64Qt9HHeZO
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9S0Fd0LCgj
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHot3zcNAFd
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.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ5JBOw7Ov6
She knelt, pressed her hand to the cement, and whispered:47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIoTVVEbH2Q
“Curiosity wakes the tunnels. Let them crawl back to me.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJOP2wQVGL5
Then she vanished before the sun cleared the dorm rooftops.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOmpSUe2kce
“We should tell Naomi,” Shiko said.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyBtHtnYzQg
Kim didn’t move. “And say what? That someone wrote ancient wall symbols in ink that shouldn’t exist anymore?”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡme3Q9Fn7js
She traced one of the crescents with her finger, careful not to touch the wet center.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTK5wq22Ikd
“I’ve seen this,” she whispered. “Last term. Just not this clear.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9kNNZi1Hrb
Shiko looked at her sharply. “Where?”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0P1fj68oiQ
Kim’s eyes lifted toward the wall.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI7Y8BRjCG9
“On a stone. Right before the night I saw them.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpHiiJIpWbB
“The boys?” Shiko asked.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzmvXM9iVJo
Kim nodded.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtqqGXEiW4F
“And the girls who followed.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq4skcGO5HJ
Shiko’s voice dropped. “You think this is them?”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgq3TrlQhBm
“I think this is her.”47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2RPLQDhQYK
They didn’t say her name.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiogBsFN0Ib
But in the silence that followed, the ink on the stone dried like breath held too long.47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhWBjK5736j
47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAre6YMgSmB
