CHAPTER ONE50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuhSMxgAjvJ
“Colonial Codes”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS7s57quDVe
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQJogZHqTtp
He wasn’t alone.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXmSpV3xXSP
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ96Ro8U0yKQ
“I’ve found it,” Jabari said quietly, pulling out a single, sealed envelope tied with faded red tape. In ink barely legible, it read:50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtFnXMu1Af6
‘Edict 17B – Joint Custody Regulations – Kisumu Educational Districts – Dated: 1925’50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHf6h89Ikpt
Musa looked up. “You sure that’s the one?”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUdlJpkXl1y
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjxi6JWEohB
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtwIJ3Hbkb8
Jabari’s grip on the page tightened. “They didn’t just separate the schools. They erased the idea of unity.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ672TCu1vqn
“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.’”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNWJtxyyuVl
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,50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWgMSTcVnR0
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjvTYRKNe9L
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfCSZu8WEZa
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuNg3zjK5Ew
“One... two... three.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjL1rlYmMHA
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6V7s4GVwx6
Inside was a roll of thick paper bound with twin cords — one red, one blue.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8eAit2dvEH
Jabari unrolled it slowly. His breath caught.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXMLcsMnydR
It was a map.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5TrVFuiRPd
Faint, but clear enough: the outline of the school compound. Except… it was too broad. It stretched beyond the wall. It showed both schools.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNaFTJ5mqrn
His pulse quickened.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTWs5oT5aqs
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZuX7IpU875
It reemerged somewhere beyond, marked only with a symbol: a water droplet inside a flame. No labels. No words.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUPPBxbcBlp
And then there was the note, in the same hand as before:50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEfnDmx9vAN
“Built before the split. Sealed after the first betrayal. Still dry. Still waiting.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt2ocRC3sko
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd79aOIum9z
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLiboX0KfJH
“Movement,” he whispered. “Not just contact. Exchange.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwlitgi8Rzy
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaXCKBsdgZZ
Back in his dorm, Juma was waiting at the window, arms folded.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDaHICqtiss
“Well?”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFtx0X3P7k4
Jabari answered with a look, and a word neither of them had said aloud in months:50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo7WivhvXVq
“It’s real.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvbHKVerHvR
They didn’t speak of it again. Not yet.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQMVed270XV
But that night, for the first time in years, Juma dreamt not of climbing over the wall—but of passing through it.
**********50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡknPY0FaGin
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjOrUKrq0aP
They did not leave names. Only echoes.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7afQb75LMw
They did not follow rules. Only shadows.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqOV34yhD47
They did not ask permission. They moved.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjswUX7A3ct
And on one night, two terms ago, Kim had seen them — though she didn’t yet understand who or what they were.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeSMUvIZX8j
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9o6G3OLIfH
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVlrzNFppyN
And they had.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8FqG2ll9iy
To her.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡshPMKFZ0aN
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxqhn2qZZkM
They meet underground, in a forgotten crawlspace beneath the collapsed greenhouse, where mildew clings to concrete and the walls sweat memory.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5LOsGjZKFc
Only a few know the way. Fewer still survive it.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhQE9xBE3bh
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEvAz2xEUta
They didn’t speak often. Shadow Walkers spoke through action.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp1Yj22vbAD
When Ayo arrived, breathless and muddy from the drainage slope behind the dorms, he tossed down a folded square of stiff paper.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXHuYDoIg9N
A fragment of a science exam from Kisumu Girls. Still warm.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpnzmVVKli0
“Direct,” Kwame murmured. “Clean.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV4vt94xwDU
Otieno smiled faintly. “The wall’s just paper now.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9qFKUByxb9
“No,” Kwame said. “The wall is a myth.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzdNNK14LLv
They are not a gang. Not a cult.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4oAPVHSRSD
Not an extension of the Order.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDdJ7KUe6dM
They do not ask for allegiance.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy2ulM5YOQA
They require only presence.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2x4QwRzRm9
Their only law:50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfqo5kXK2Tj
“Never be still.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjsU5sNJKRT
Shadow Walkers are the quiet between bells. The blur behind hallway reflections.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl6mgfbUriT
The glitch in the security feed.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuz3AwUG1oD
They are protest and prophecy. They are the sharp breath before the truth drops.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq3ixSI5BDm
No crests. No salutes. Just movement.
**********50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKIY2bdoOc9
Kim stared at the red paper again, its surface soft but deliberate—cut clean, folded once, nothing else. Just the line:50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ7REwDmXcL
“Curiosity is no longer a private habit.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMPDjOwdSIk
It wasn't a threat. It wasn't a joke.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwBMKZVzRK9
It was a signal. But from who?50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD4DgXn2aMQ
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoIPwETmnAi
And it meant someone had not just found her test note… but understood it.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqdP5XcVu2r
Stone markings. The first thread that never frayed.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmuoJ2AkbGN
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnP3XWfyJiW
Not by replying. By returning it—transformed.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2aSrirVPD8
Kim clutched the atlas tighter to her chest.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP5fcvCTJqx
Someone had mapped her thinking.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfRlXc1xm3w
And not by surveillance. Not by prefect tricks. This wasn’t Mercy. This wasn’t Naomi.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuHmv5uEnYp
This was someone else.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8HeXw9nhfI
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtId2uh6EVp
Otieno crouched nearby, watching Kwame unfold the latest page torn from Kim’s original decoy.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGGLxk1cmxh
“‘The first thread that never frayed,’” Otieno read aloud, smiling faintly. “She’s poetic.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZIvjDtSM0D
“She’s calculated,” Kwame corrected. “She placed this for us.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Fd8BuHozB
“No. She placed it for herself,” Otieno said. “We just saw it first.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡACoNjM3Vfv
Kwame folded his hands beneath his chin, eyes distant.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8VxojeClse
“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.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3F6jqJWhNl
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9oBPKsW1pn
Because fear was best delivered in familiar fonts.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAoUFR85fCD
“Do you think she’ll trace it back to us?” Otieno asked.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0vPMhBnIfb
Kwame shook his head. “She’s too smart to assume. But just uncertain enough to wonder.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3lWxVSjDlI
He tapped his fingers slowly on his knee.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNX2v9Df3sH
“If she follows the pattern, she’ll leave something else. Soon.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd7sbEMjZwh
Otieno glanced up at the bleachers. “And if she doesn’t?”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyqJWH6uFAl
Kwame’s smile was subtle, grim. “Then she’s not the threat we hoped.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrk24JIBAGe
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡENfelxOJVV
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhxKT7Jl2sK
“Do you think it’s the Order?” Shiko asked again.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3bAyNIUerV
Kim shook her head.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKPcUCKjA9M
“No,” she murmured. “I think it’s someone else.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡscQlnU4VWN
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvQs2BnYZNP
She’d played these games before.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC3VI4W1R3W
And this time, she’d play them first.
*****50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW5bwZ2nSTX
Ayo didn’t believe in ghosts.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY3yGkcsRQP
But that didn’t mean he didn’t see them.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsc4UVa39IR
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx2oi6gc0Z0
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR4LTVco0oa
Prints. Not shoeprints. Barefoot. Deliberate. Light. Whoever had stepped here had done so with practice.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBeXnQP1G4J
But what made him freeze wasn’t the shape. It was the color.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvJUOh8mPKC
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLnIY9H5gOB
Mercy. Not as a prefect. Not even as a leader. But as something far older.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO3c9jg7Rag
Ayo’s breath caught.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYUJzhRTayX
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb3LrBuyQtv
But Kwame had only smiled that small, cold smile he wore when something clicked.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡveFiE3l50x
“She was one of us. You just didn’t know it yet.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡICsw6LaEKm
Mercy hadn’t just corrupted the Order.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4EtDwkwUeh
She’d outgrown it.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxhsFRC0cNS
She’d used it like a shell. A decoy.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMULkTT4j0A
While underneath, in tunnels and side passages, she had trained with the Walkers.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡguHT8oRv6c
Unaligned. Untraceable. Unquestioned. Until she got bored. Until she vanished.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXo07NckzlJ
And now— She was back.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvcYlSgfwxr
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZFyzm1c6Zi
But Ayo remembered. Mercy’s games hadn’t been about leadership. They’d been about control. And if she was laying ink again…50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDAz2fXCm7W
She wasn’t just reclaiming a position. She was reactivating a network.
50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0E9QKaemTF
Mercy moved like she never left. She wasn’t hiding — not in the way the Order expected. She was remembering.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIUMfdgXxID
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:50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6hKxJq5hux
A curved wing. Half-finished. Someone would find it. Eventually. And they would understand: Mercy wasn't returning to power. She was returning home.
*****50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8AxacXnUE9
The prefects had finished inspection rounds. The paths were swept. The dorms were silent.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvERxQA6IDS
But Kim was already up.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6LdFlQESpW
Shiko had left her a note before dawn: “Come alone. Old pump.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrGwLtU7EeS
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv9gqGo7A6o
When she arrived at the overgrown edge of the borehole courtyard, Shiko was already waiting, crouched low behind the wall of banana leaves.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe4KVkHGmil
Her eyes were locked on the concrete slab where the rusted borehole cage sat unused.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7JJ9qVsW39
“Look,” Shiko whispered.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBvUWFiGcBP
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ7Fi31Fhcq
Not graffiti. Not words. Symbols.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgJVrc0eOVS
Kim knelt beside her, scanning them with an almost instinctive unease. A spiral, a horizontal stroke, a crescent hooked beneath a triangle.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc1GCF3z73S
“This wasn’t here yesterday,” Shiko murmured.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUBHq9tYf7Z
“No wind or rain overnight,” Kim added. “No footprints.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGjxMFwXkMp
“Not visible ones,” Shiko replied grimly.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3ol8lfOUAI
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1IlLJD4PC1
But something in her chest stirred. A memory. Something old.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2HSlMtzmK6
Blue ink. Sandstone. A girl with eyes that didn’t blink.
50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMIqpcX6ogP
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ09TXP0m1Rp
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEcQhUu4xob
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.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ8iTgTWyPe
She knelt, pressed her hand to the cement, and whispered:50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMBIsnGneNp
“Curiosity wakes the tunnels. Let them crawl back to me.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy0S6d6VeAL
Then she vanished before the sun cleared the dorm rooftops.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM6XonDGzI7
“We should tell Naomi,” Shiko said.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWgpI6cTwIK
Kim didn’t move. “And say what? That someone wrote ancient wall symbols in ink that shouldn’t exist anymore?”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡycLnC7buGV
She traced one of the crescents with her finger, careful not to touch the wet center.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS81xmsZ9Xk
“I’ve seen this,” she whispered. “Last term. Just not this clear.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNTWp8dbKNl
Shiko looked at her sharply. “Where?”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS0pgmsPj6h
Kim’s eyes lifted toward the wall.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEV6RxXhNWF
“On a stone. Right before the night I saw them.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW8dri11TdE
“The boys?” Shiko asked.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKqf9i8zOlh
Kim nodded.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXpoaugKkpU
“And the girls who followed.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxPjqvIBhoT
Shiko’s voice dropped. “You think this is them?”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmFBZRKyLAh
“I think this is her.”50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtTUFRTeCFX
They didn’t say her name.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbvFv1Cnn8J
But in the silence that followed, the ink on the stone dried like breath held too long.50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZUpHAa4QKn
50Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhgB4hChwex
