One blink and he turns, disappearing into the smoke and screams.
I suck in a ragged breath. I’m shaking. My hands feel like ice. The moment lingers in my bones like a brand.
“Ella,” Marla hisses. “What thehellwas that?”
“I… I don’t know.”
But I do.
Not the specifics. But something in me shifted.
Changed.
I don’t have time to unpack it.
We crawl through the shafts, gagging on recycled air. I lead us toward a secondary escape route. Engineering’s sealed off now—too hot, too many hostiles. Survival is the only goal. For now.
The ship groans around us. The drive is unstable—I can feel it like a buzz in my teeth. Whoever lit the core did it too early. The harmonics are off. We’re dancing on the edge of a singularity, and the floor's about to drop.
We make it to a junction panel. I twist it open, and light floods in. The corridor is clearer here, quieter. I check both directions. Empty. I help Marla out first, then follow.
My comm buzzes.
Static. Then a garbled voice: “...emergency evac point… shuttle bay seven…”
“Marla,” I whisper, “we have a shot.”
We move again, crouched and fast. My muscles ache. My boots squish with something sticky I refuse to examine. We pass a group of corpses. Alliance crew. Faces frozen in shock.
And I hear him again.
The footsteps. The heavy cadence.
I freeze.
He’s nearby.
I don’t know if I want to run.
“Ella!” Marla yanks me forward.
We reach the lift. It still works—miraculously. The doors hiss open and we slide inside.
The panel is smeared with blood. I wipe it clean and jab the button for deck twelve. Shuttle bay seven.
The lift hums. I clutch the rail. My chest is a storm of emotions—terror, grief, confusion…
And something else.
Thatlook.Thatpull.
I don’t understand it, but Ifeltit. Deep. Irrevocable.
He looked at me like heknewme.
And I don’t know what scares me more.
That he did, or that a part of me looked back and felt the same.
