eyes. “I didn’t die,” he said. “I just wasn’t allowed to exist.”
He told them what happened, slowly at first, like he was testing whether the words would survive air.
Then faster, urgent—because time matters when others are still trapped.
A man in the Blackridge woods.
Kids no one would immediately miss.
Fear as a training method.
Illegal dog rings and “protection” work.
Survival by becoming invisible.
Then Evan looked down at Rook, fingers trembling as they ran through his fur.
“Rook wasn’t always Rook,” Evan said. “He was
