Claire pointed at the sketch.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmvw44v1CZD
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9cYSROiY4q
Sure, she’d just seen him “yesterday,” but that was only true for her. Not for them.
They didn’t remember yesterday.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfDQNNf3Y3K
She was the only one who did.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLSTLWntVO0
Again.
49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHTXh3HMXGp
One hour ago
49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlGdekG7mbF
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?”49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9MKFJajEGz
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4GyMhAgeCW
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrAM2S4skFv
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDnIGiRUosZ
Standing still with eyes shut and faces to the sky.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJywb8CjYqO
It looked like some weird silent ritual.
And honestly?49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzFhvW0f9yY
Kinda hilarious.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE26fnQXXgx
But Claire couldn’t even smile.
Her fists were clenched, palms sweaty.
A few seconds passed.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNeiUQJajIX
Then they opened their eyes and shook their heads.
“Nothing.”
Her stomach dropped.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡORPfusm5Zw
Not disappointment—49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzTLkz4e0B6
More like that awful sensation when the last thread holding you to reality starts to snap.
“Please,” she said, softly.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ653E587tC6
“Tell Batman. I need help.”
Her voice was nearly emotionless.
49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKGdYwkiEay
By the time Batman arrived, Claire looked like someone who’d just walked out of a morgue.
Pale. Hollow.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡziX7byeILI
As if the inside of her brain had been scrubbed raw.
She spoke without inflection. No energy for theatrics.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwC8bVg36Fh
Just repeated the same thing.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvBgCD9Ndnr
Over. And over.
She’d already said it yesterday.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSXyNjRlR7s
She was saying it again today.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLV5bC6ZW7y
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?49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYMq55sJs4H
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJy5VcjnDxM
Hearts on Valentine’s. Pumpkins in October.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGvtpjpHqqV
Nothing too serious. Just scribbles for customers when business was slow.
She took a deep breath.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzxjUVRCeYE
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4G1u1toNeM
But it was exact.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxlgDxxy9BE
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIS8CN6oxMe
All three stared.
Three different faces.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiycYpEr3vF
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDhra6gC4ts
The kind of serious that said:
If you tell me I made this up, I’m going to lose it. For real.
49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvXNf4c07qt
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfuocQjjiu1
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?”49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ3jgqW8fIZ
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFG6kesbHf7
49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡroLOrGbmhY
Claire tried to recall, but her usual nighttime habits got in the way.
She had always avoided going out at night—almost like instinct.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4m9PLLqTtm
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP07bFUVuQw
Here she was, explaining some urban-legend-tier nonsense to Batman. With zero proof.
“Do you get headaches? Hear voices?”49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgFILPsb9bW
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcmvjoBY3Ec
That wasn’t disbelief—it was a quiet, anxious kind of urgency. A desire to help, not dismiss.
Claire shook her head.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfHxwidE6dB
Hard.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZnpLFaiCwA
Like shaking would erase every lingering “are you just crazy?” that might be forming in their minds.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaAHVokhVos
She was tired of being questioned. Hell, she was already questioning herself.
“Why only her?”49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOMLJ3RaxVD
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvEhWP0VoXS
His cape shifted slightly, like it was hiding the fact that even he didn’t feel so steady anymore.
He didn’t speak.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPrJR6pKMI5
And somehow that silence was worse.
Claire felt it like a chill under the skin. A subtle, creeping sense of dread.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyaQs0TNhBn
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt78h5AmvfT
It wasn’t comfort. It wasn’t analysis.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7kicoGrdZ4
It was a warning.
Then he looked at Claire.
And in that moment, his gaze wasn’t warm, or even human.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHsHaIczxJN
It was clinical.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ32X4AWhMV2
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.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwOTp98NVXl
No.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS3Gd7NqCJ2
This wasn’t just her seeing the rift.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzw8hbAyld2
The rift… had seen her.
