I felt it.
A presence turning. Attention locking. My body reacted before my mind could. My breath was gone. A thought came fast. My eyes tried to adjust. Tried to make sense of it, but something in me resisted.
No.
Don’t look yet.
Don’t confirm it.
Because once you do, there’s no going back.
I stood in the doorway with one hand locked around the frame, staring at the metal table under the white light, and every part of me was begging me not to go closer.
I took one step inside, and the sound of my shoe on the floor snapped through the room like a crack in glass.
The body was covered only halfway, but I still couldn’t make myself look at the face. I saw a shoulder first. Then a hand. Then the line of a jaw I knew too well. Recognition didn’t hit all at once. It came in pieces, s
