Evaline:
I wasn't sure how long I stood there.
Right in front of the door.
The same door Elion had walked out of only moments ago... closing behind him with a quiet finality that still echoed inside my head.
Time felt strange, warped. My body was upright, unmoving, but my mind was anything but still. Thoughts tangled over one another, looping endlessly, refusing to settle.
My heart wasn't racing in fear. That was the strangest part.
What I felt wasn't fear at all.
It was shock.
The kind that seeps deep into your bones, numbing everything for a while as your world quietly rearranges itself around a truth you hadn't known existed. I stared at the wood grain of the door, my reflection faint in its polished surface, and wondered how long Elion had known.
The sharp ringing of my phone shattered the silence.
