The message was sent. Keira's heart jackhammered in her chest, an internal warning bell, but her limbs were already moving.

She turned off the bench with the force of someone storming a battlefield, boots slamming hard against the sidewalk as she broke into a run. Streetlights blurred past in hazy halos, her breath clouding in the cold. She didn't even feel the sting of the wind. She was on fire from the inside out.

Void's message still echoed in her bones - someone reaching out of the dark just as the floor gave way. "Thanks for today, girlie 🫶."...

They stopped just near the curb, where the streetlights flickered like dying fireflies. Void turned to her, softly staring her right in the eye, that stupidly warm smile which made Keira feel like maybe this world wasn't doomed after all.

"See you soon, yeah?"

Before Keira could answer, Void leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek - featherlight earned.

And it wrecked her.

Not because of the kiss. But because Void didn't know about her.

"Yeah... Soon."...

It's been raining for 12 hours straight.

The droplets slapped sideways against the soot-smeared windows of Dee's flat, blurring out Newcastle like the city had been half-deleted from memory. Grey light crawled in, but it wasn't welcome. Not much actually was that day.

She sat on the floor instead of the couch. It felt more honest that way. Phone in her hand. Screen still cracked from a drop two weeks ago, a fine spiderweb etched over her last message - like even the glass itself knew how fragile things were now...

Keira leaned back on her palms, flexing her shoulders a little like she was getting used to the weight of the hoodie. The spiked fabric settled around her like it belonged there.

"So," she drawled, dragging the word out like she was testing the air, "is your hoodie one of those sacred items I gotta return before we cross the threshold?"

Void, still slouched against the workbench, turned her head lazily and blinked at her. Her shirt clung in soft folds to her frame, sleeves pushed halfway up her forearms, the black denim catching glimmers of her LED lighting system...

"Fuuuuucking finally!" Keira yelled triumphantly, holding up the keychain that now dangled stubbornly from the steel ring. She wiggled her fingers like she'd just won a war against a particularly nasty piece of metal. "Took me long enough, but the beast is tamed."

Nobody had ever made her anything before, not even as simple as a fancy-shaped piece of plastic. Unless you counted spiteful nicknames or half-assed apologies.

She blinked, clearing her throat with a scoff to cover it up. "Gonna be real hard for anyone to top this. You know that, right?"

Void mumbled, almost too quiet to be heard...