Kade woke up standing.
Not lying down. Not sitting.
Standing in the middle of a street that shouldn’t exist.
He blinked hard, disoriented, the taste of iron sharp on his tongue. Rain drizzled around him, but when the droplets hit the ground, they didn’t splash — they shattered like glass. Each shard reflected fragments of his face. Some smiling. Some screaming.
> “How long... have I been here?”
The last thing he remembered was the train station. Asha sleeping. Mira whispering things he didn’t want to hear.
And then—nothing.
His hands shook as he checked his wristwatch.
4:17 AM.
But when he looked again—
11:37.
The same cursed number. Always that number.
The rain stopped suddenly, mid-air, frozen like suspended knives. The silence pressed against his skull like a vice. And th
