Page 110 of Silent Shadows

She keeps touching me.

Tiny things.

Nothing obvious.

Nothing anyone else would clock.

But I feel every single one.

Her pinky brushing mine when we both reach for batteries.

Her knee nudging against my leg beneath the table.

The way she keeps looking at me when nobody else notices.

I think she knows what it’s doing to me. I risk looking toward her once. Huge mistake.

Daisy’s sitting cross-legged on the bench wearing my hoodie again, hair still messy from the woods, pen between her teeth while she reviews audio waveforms on her laptop.

Then she catches me staring. And smiles. Not big. Just small and private and devastating.

My face immediately catches fire.

I look away so fast I nearly sprain something in my neck.

“Okay,” Maya says, clapping once. “Everyone needs at least six consecutive hours of sleep before we all start hallucinating.”

“Boo,” Taylor says.

But even she looks exhausted now. The whole crew does. Adrenaline crashes hit hard after days like this. Especially today.

Because no matter what happens next, today changed everything.

We found something real. Maybe not definitive proof for the world yet. But enough for us. Enough to crack open possibilities wider than it’s ever been before. Underneath all the excitement humming through the Machine, I feel lighter. Like I’ve spent years bracing for impact that finally never came.

“You good, Adler?” Jax asks casually while packing up gear.

“Yeah.”

And for once, I actually mean it.

One by one, everyone starts disappearing toward the bunks.

Taylor steals half the trail mix on her way.

Maya reminds us all not to touch the footprint casts.

Normal.

Then Daisy closes her laptop.

“I still need one last interview,” she says casually. “Closing out the night. We can do it outside, so we’re not too loud.”

My pulse spikes at the double meaning.

Taylor barely looks up from brushing her teeth. “Nerds.”

“This will be the closing of the first episode,” Daisy adds.