The message was short. Five words.
"I will kill Lyra Mallis."
Bobby stared at the glowing screen. The words burned into his skull—into the back of his eyes. Into somewhere deeper.
It felt like they were seared into the folds of his mind, like a permanent scar left by something ancient and cruel.
His chest tightened—not from fear, no. Not this time. It was something worse.
Confusion.
A kind of broken understanding.
His future self had made a choice.
A final one. No hesitation. No warning. No asking. No permission.
He didn’t ask what Bobby wanted. Didn’t even pretend to care. It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t a suggestion. Just a statement. Cold. Cruel. A done deal.
His fingers hovered over the screen, twitching slightly as if they didn’t know what to do—fight or freeze.
Part
