Chapter 294: Before the Others Wake
I woke up before the others.
That never happened.
For a moment, I just lay there, still tangled in sheets and silence, staring at the ceiling with a creeping sense that something was... off. The room was quiet—not just peaceful, but unnaturally still. No faint rustling of clothes, no footsteps from the kitchen, no hum of morning conversation.
I tilted my head slowly.
Sienna was still asleep beside me, breathing evenly. One hand tucked under her cheek, the other resting near my arm. Alexis, curled up like a cat at the foot of the bed, didn’t even twitch when I shifted. Evelyn had her back to me, her blindfold still tied, hair splayed across the pillow. Camille was buried so deep in the blankets that only the very top of her head stuck out, a dark puff of hair like a warning flag: disturb me and die.
That’s when it really hit me.
I always woke between eight and ten. And even then, I wasn’t the first. Sienna made breakfast like a ritual. Alexis worked on formulas or gadgets before the rest of us were conscious. Evelyn, thanks to her having been an evaluator for the government, rose early and ghosted through the apartment with eerie precision.
Camille was the only one who truly slept in—and she did so like it was a competitive sport. She could be asleep till noon if nobody interfered and that was before she got her job title.
I shifted upright carefully, not wanting to wake anyone. The soft red digits on the clock next to the bed blinked back at me.
7:30 AM.
Huh.