The estate didn't feel like a normal place anymore.
It felt more like a system.
And systems don't usually break with a big bang.
They just change, slowly and quietly, on purpose.
People often don't even notice the structure has changed until it's too late.
Lila first saw it in how Elena stopped looking down.
It was a small thing, hard to notice unless you were really paying attention.
But Lila was, because she’d spent too long always being the one to look down first.
Morning just arrived, like any other day.
The light simply came in through the tall windows and across the shiny floors, not caring whose house it was.
Lila walked slowly through the east corridor.
She wasn't trying to avoid anyone or find anyone.
She was just moving.
And that alone felt new, something people noti
