Claire pointed at the sketch.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡibl2Hfi4LH
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOTvSbVNIHH
Sure, she’d just seen him “yesterday,” but that was only true for her. Not for them.
They didn’t remember yesterday.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXEPPGnxwwn
She was the only one who did.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl87v7aYQJE
Again.
57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ4xzgwyFHP
One hour ago
57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtftcoqVkpS
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?”57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHZB3wF4AkY
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu52ueSSlCz
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyhya4dDAND
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIRE3GeRaoh
Standing still with eyes shut and faces to the sky.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxUywP2htMl
It looked like some weird silent ritual.
And honestly?57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡob5KHnaYZb
Kinda hilarious.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnRLOZDxQ5Q
But Claire couldn’t even smile.
Her fists were clenched, palms sweaty.
A few seconds passed.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxzW8hFFEaG
Then they opened their eyes and shook their heads.
“Nothing.”
Her stomach dropped.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk0odweY5qB
Not disappointment—57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd3sDHlGxSV
More like that awful sensation when the last thread holding you to reality starts to snap.
“Please,” she said, softly.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3rVSR4yaww
“Tell Batman. I need help.”
Her voice was nearly emotionless.
57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡalYYBHWkBx
By the time Batman arrived, Claire looked like someone who’d just walked out of a morgue.
Pale. Hollow.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6xtw5WoSLe
As if the inside of her brain had been scrubbed raw.
She spoke without inflection. No energy for theatrics.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0gms8g3kEC
Just repeated the same thing.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6GWlxjgMI3
Over. And over.
She’d already said it yesterday.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU9RyHh1owY
She was saying it again today.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBzz53e4RTm
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?57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4v1LpQas6C
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrF48tGI7NR
Hearts on Valentine’s. Pumpkins in October.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWZdKHPkr52
Nothing too serious. Just scribbles for customers when business was slow.
She took a deep breath.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSLjMigGbZ6
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8717pBH3bZ
But it was exact.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT6948Zua89
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu7fBLtJGEQ
All three stared.
Three different faces.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsrMJn3GvT8
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrOTdhyOpqX
The kind of serious that said:
If you tell me I made this up, I’m going to lose it. For real.
57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwo3A0y1Khn
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLe1V8aURvR
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?”57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9HVGErRDWV
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwtZkENVLkL
57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlhy8bXOvYC
Claire tried to recall, but her usual nighttime habits got in the way.
She had always avoided going out at night—almost like instinct.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGIvTRJBDNf
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbUWoRhJNHz
Here she was, explaining some urban-legend-tier nonsense to Batman. With zero proof.
“Do you get headaches? Hear voices?”57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCGV6YmJ6eR
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAQPaB4Ebxe
That wasn’t disbelief—it was a quiet, anxious kind of urgency. A desire to help, not dismiss.
Claire shook her head.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKWrFPieWG2
Hard.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVzabLuCQ9r
Like shaking would erase every lingering “are you just crazy?” that might be forming in their minds.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDvdfyCW3hW
She was tired of being questioned. Hell, she was already questioning herself.
“Why only her?”57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB36cIULhwp
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ53JNHtg8uV
His cape shifted slightly, like it was hiding the fact that even he didn’t feel so steady anymore.
He didn’t speak.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr4zoYA5IWS
And somehow that silence was worse.
Claire felt it like a chill under the skin. A subtle, creeping sense of dread.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR8UDulMq1c
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK2xILmtoqx
It wasn’t comfort. It wasn’t analysis.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl1xnTI0g66
It was a warning.
Then he looked at Claire.
And in that moment, his gaze wasn’t warm, or even human.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh7GJDlcf2C
It was clinical.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ11o53Lm5RO
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.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtgPel2POm6
No.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs714hNqUve
This wasn’t just her seeing the rift.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqMqD8gPX9b
The rift… had seen her.
