The buzz at the door came thirty-seven minutes after Void's last message. Keira blinked at it, groggy from adrenaline crash, her bag still half-unpacked, a ratty blanket wrapped around her.

She hit the release switch, metal clunk echoing down the corridor. A few moments later, Void descended the narrow staircase appearing like she already was in this place before. Beanie askew, still in just her tee, and carrying a plastic bag looking like it had been filled by a raccoon on Adderall.

Void squinted around. "Jesus. This place smells worse than my toolbox."...

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...