The house was silent.
The kind of deep silence that only came in the middle of the night, when the rest of the world was asleep, leaving only the restless ones awake.
Opal was one of them.
She lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, her body aching in ways that weren't just physical. Her mind wouldn't stop racing. Wouldn't stop replaying everything.
The cold. The pain. The feeling of being trapped in her own body.
She swallowed hard, trying to shake it off.
And then, without thinking too much about it, she grabbed her phone.
She found Kael's name and hit call.
It rang once.
Then—"Opal?"
His voice was sharp, alert, like he'd been waiting for this.
Her chest tightened.
"Come over."
There was a pause.
Then—"I'll be there in five."
She didn't even have time to process it before he was gone.
A knock at the window.
Opal smirked. Of course, he didn't use the front door.
She forced herself up, still slower than she wanted to be, and unlocked it.
