“I need every single one of you telling me this is nothing but a terrible joke.”
But it wasn’t. And after looking at Adam, Gwen and Tina’s faces one after the other, Bernard knew.
The walk home had been painfully silent. Not a single word had been exchanged from the moment they left the academy. Adam had held onto Gwen's hand the entire way, his grip firm enough to be reassuring but loose enough not to hurt, almost as though letting go would somehow make everything that had happened feel even more real. Gwen walked beside him absentmindedly, her eyes fixed on the path ahead while Tina quietly trailed behind them with her head lowered, unable to bring herself to interrupt the suffocating silence.
The moment they got home, Bernard had taken one look at their expressions and immediately de
