I knew this place.
I hissed and grabbed my temples as pain burned through my head. Something was coming through, pushing forward.
A memory breaking through.
A boy.
He was hiding. Curled in on himself. His mother stood over him, striking again and again. He raised his arms to shield his head, but it did nothing. I couldn’t hear her voice, only see her lips moving, twisted with rage.
I felt every blow.
My skull burned. My body shook. Everything rushed in at once. I collapsed onto the floor, staring up through the hole above me.
The sky.
I saw it for the first time.
Stars scattered across the black sky; the full, bright moon cast the only light upon me.
Beautiful.
I lay there, breathing hard, staring upward.
Free.
For the first time in my life, I felt alive.
Present Day
It is close to three in the morning when I come by her place.
The door is unlocked.
Something in my chest tightens the second I notice it. The kind of quiet that feels wrong. So wrong.
The street is empty; no neighbors are awake, no lights glow behind the windows. Still, I pull my hoodie farther over my head as I step inside and lock the door behind me.
Daisy is not barking.
She is not here.
The lights are on.
I move toward the table. Photographs are scattered across it, files spread open, all marked X-Files. My gaze shifts down, catching on the floor near the fridge.
A single drop of blood.
My breath stalls.
The living room is dark. The television is on, filling the space with static noise. I step closer, every muscle in me tight.
Kiki sits on the couch, Daisy in her arms, but Dr. Beckett is not around.
She rocks back and forth, her eyes locked on the white noise flickering across the screen.
Daisy doesn’t move. She’s holding her too tight.
She doesn’t bark. She always barks when she feels me nearby.
