The files loaded sluggishly, flickering onscreen as if resisting exposure. Each line of code was fractured, pieces of a reality that no longer existed, broken but not completely lost. Kane sat beside me, her fingers drumming against the console in sharp, anxious beats. The glow of the monitor painted her face in cold blue light, casting long shadows under her eyes.
Then, the first image appeared.
My stomach clenched.
It was me.
But not this me.
A different version, standing in a world that wasn’t shattered. The skyline in the background was whole, glass towers untouched by decay. The air looked…clean, untouched by the filth we were used to breathing. The sky wasn’t gray, but blue—a deep, endless shade of blue.
And there—beside me—was a woman I knew.
Except I didn’t.
My breath caugh
