Callie’s POV
The air burned in my lungs in a way that had nothing to do with exhaustion. It wasn’t the fatigue of a long run or the physical strain of someone reaching their limit—it was a constant, oppressive pressure, as if the environment itself were closing in on me, forcing me forward not by choice, but by sheer survival instinct. Each step was faster than the last, each movement sharper, more precise, closer to something I could no longer call human—and yet, even as my body responded with near-perfect efficiency, the certainty that it wasn’t enough grew with unsettling clarity.
They weren’t chasing me blindly.
They were guiding me.
I understood it the moment I turned into an alley that, under any other circumstance, would have been the perfect escape route—only to be met with an
