Claire pointed at the sketch.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Dol7uPTkT
Drawn with a black pen, the jagged line cut through the center like a torn zipper. Twisted. Uneven. Wrong.
“This is what I saw,” she said, voice dry like windblown dust. “In the sky.”
Batman. Nightwing. Robin. All standing around her, staring at the paper.
Yep. Batman was back.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvqTrK3eW4A
Sure, she’d just seen him “yesterday,” but that was only true for her. Not for them.
They didn’t remember yesterday.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMyKsCERoMu
She was the only one who did.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPnHMszoEAA
Again.
64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWhD2NDQLQi
One hour ago
64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡULfpG66ywm
She stood up. Her joints felt stiff—like that rip in the sky had somehow traveled down her spine and into her bones.
“Can you guys... just look at the sky?”64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3yHOU9WQgi
She asked it like someone who already knew the answer, but still had to ask.
Nightwing and Robin exchanged glances. Then, dutifully, they looked up.
Professional sky-gazing faces.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGItIOPFj9I
Like it was part of a rooftop protocol.
Nothing.
“No, not like that,” Claire snapped. “Close your eyes. Look with your eyes closed.”
It made no logical sense. But she sounded very sure of it.
Nightwing hesitated a beat, then obeyed.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡquuCOBSqcy
Robin looked at her like she’d just asked him to smell the sidewalk—but closed his eyes too.
Two vigilantes. On a rooftop. At night.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAwaZlwpjNA
Standing still with eyes shut and faces to the sky.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpGuCfIxJRf
It looked like some weird silent ritual.
And honestly?64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDLLKZD5wP0
Kinda hilarious.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYLqTt6fjJr
But Claire couldn’t even smile.
Her fists were clenched, palms sweaty.
A few seconds passed.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpDWcpESiIY
Then they opened their eyes and shook their heads.
“Nothing.”
Her stomach dropped.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSTU3aItGct
Not disappointment—64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlCfAcKhTMb
More like that awful sensation when the last thread holding you to reality starts to snap.
“Please,” she said, softly.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH99JFsTcef
“Tell Batman. I need help.”
Her voice was nearly emotionless.
64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6W14jMBPw4
By the time Batman arrived, Claire looked like someone who’d just walked out of a morgue.
Pale. Hollow.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡixeOZ4P1jq
As if the inside of her brain had been scrubbed raw.
She spoke without inflection. No energy for theatrics.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcLTmcJY3Lf
Just repeated the same thing.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvsp50adC22
Over. And over.
She’d already said it yesterday.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNDJpkbITnK
She was saying it again today.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm9xmk0RIU9
Now it was Round Three.
What was this, a dystopian Groundhog Day?
Could she just get a USB port installed in her head or something?64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5PvLAq6kCp
Upload her trauma and call it a day?
Batman listened silently. His face gave nothing away.
Then he said,
“Draw it.”
Claire blinked. Then nodded.
She went behind the counter and rummaged through a drawer. Pulled out a box of pens—the kind she used for doodling on coffee cups.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWfDQ9J4WdH
Hearts on Valentine’s. Pumpkins in October.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7xH3XtlYUp
Nothing too serious. Just scribbles for customers when business was slow.
She took a deep breath.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZnnUVkpxHY
Then hunched over the table and began to draw.
The pen scratched against paper. Each stroke felt like it was being yanked out of her skull.
The drawing wasn’t pretty.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw0hoUpcVkT
But it was exact.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPdccGOiZ5W
That split in the sky—a zipper, a rift, maybe an eye—whatever it was, it didn’t belong to this world.
She slid the paper across the table.
Batman. Nightwing. Robin.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1E6Ao3tvML
All three stared.
Three different faces.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYXFMGJrv97
Three different kinds of silence.
Claire studied them. Her voice, barely above a whisper:
“So… what do you think this is?”
It was the kind of whisper that floats like paper against a windowpane.
But her eyes were deadly serious.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBba8MbXfde
The kind of serious that said:
If you tell me I made this up, I’m going to lose it. For real.
64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKvU3IlOlOp
Claire figured she couldn’t really blame them if they thought she was insane.
Honestly, if their roles were reversed, she might’ve thought the same. Who wouldn’t, when someone calmly claimed they were reliving the same day over and over—and also happened to “see the sky split open” when they shut their eyes? It sounded like something between a sci-fi novel and a psychiatric evaluation.
Batman stared at the sketch for a long time.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmezJqDQV4A
His gaze didn’t just study it—it drilled into it, as if he were trying to excavate something buried beneath the paper fibers.
It was the first time Claire realized… he wasn’t as calm as she had assumed.
The silence grew thick, as if some unspeakable truth was quietly pressing out from the sketch itself.
“When did you first see this?”64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcxODny8QtO
His voice was low—not the kind of low that tried to intimidate, but the kind that sounded like it had swallowed something massive and was now digesting dread.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRxXuOYDRPu
64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6naHMKjmMe
Claire tried to recall, but her usual nighttime habits got in the way.
She had always avoided going out at night—almost like instinct.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUlzKbJKRlF
Now, trying to pull memories from a part of the day she’d always kept at arm’s length felt like dragging threads from a blank void.
“I don’t know,” she murmured. “Today was the first time I saw it.”
She immediately wanted to cry—not from sadness, but from how stupid it all felt.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVGJZr3nfDC
Here she was, explaining some urban-legend-tier nonsense to Batman. With zero proof.
“Do you get headaches? Hear voices?”64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1bABMMES4E
That was Nightwing. His voice was measured, maybe too measured. Like he was running a checklist but didn’t want to admit he was worried.
His eyes gave him away, though.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlaWUhy1KvP
That wasn’t disbelief—it was a quiet, anxious kind of urgency. A desire to help, not dismiss.
Claire shook her head.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOKhAkqzIMM
Hard.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Gcn3IAvk2
Like shaking would erase every lingering “are you just crazy?” that might be forming in their minds.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFgtXTFp4wH
She was tired of being questioned. Hell, she was already questioning herself.
“Why only her?”64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4ZfSrCpcjx
Robin’s voice cut in—not accusing, but contemplative. His eyes moved between the three of them, searching for a logic flaw he couldn’t patch.
Batman lowered his head.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKyTsn3mzaz
His cape shifted slightly, like it was hiding the fact that even he didn’t feel so steady anymore.
He didn’t speak.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIVt5AHAVEs
And somehow that silence was worse.
Claire felt it like a chill under the skin. A subtle, creeping sense of dread.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyZaMI8pp8j
Not from the rift. But from his silence.
Then Batman finally spoke.
“If she’s able to consistently perceive a structure no one else can, that implies it’s selectively revealing itself.”
His voice had a kind of emotional distance—not spatial, but psychological.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcGcmGBjwhO
It wasn’t comfort. It wasn’t analysis.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE2P3BGXYDW
It was a warning.
Then he looked at Claire.
And in that moment, his gaze wasn’t warm, or even human.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZbPmcEuClB
It was clinical.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmIjcNhEKcD
As if she were no longer a person, but a variable.
“This isn’t just about the loop,” he said. “It might be that the rift itself… is looking back at her.”
Claire’s stomach twisted.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhmtQlKXQkG
No.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ01nMujAcaE
This wasn’t just her seeing the rift.64Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlTx0zRisOz
The rift… had seen her.
