—Natasha's POV—
The day dawned with a false serenity I did not trust. Sunlight streamed through my window, painting ordinary patterns on the floor, but I felt the tension coiling in the air long before I opened my eyes.
Today, I had resolved, would be different. I would be a fortress. I would build walls of routine and silence, and behind them, I would find the girl I was before the Run, before the mark, before him.
My plan was one of rigid, almost paranoid, avoidance. I became a phantom on the campus I once called home. I navigated through service corridors reeking of bleach and old linoleum, my footsteps silent, my gaze fixed on the ground.
I sought refuge in the university archives, a cavernous space smelling of decaying paper and dust, where the only whispers were the echoes of l
