Lena felt herself shutting down in slow motion, as if her body and mind were disconnecting one piece at a time, the weight of everything she had learned today pressing down on her chest until breathing felt like work instead of instinct, and by the time she reached her apartment she barely remembered unlocking the door or kicking off her shoes.
She didn’t bother turning on the lights.
She walked straight to her bedroom, crawled onto the bed like someone wounded, and pulled the blankets over herself until only darkness remained, curling into a tight ball as if she could make herself small enough for the world to forget she existed.
Her sister’s message echoed in her mind, sharp and relentless.
Zayn was there.
He found me.
He knows something is wrong.
As if that wasn’t enough, the sho
