Chapter 109: Moonlit Reckoning
The night had passed quickly. Dylan hadn’t slept. It was his turn to keep watch, but more than that, he was reluctant to willingly surrender to sleep—those ever more violent nightmares that haunted him whenever he closed his eyes.
In fact, Dylan had never thought he’d one day fear the embrace of sleep. As a soldier, sleep had always been a sanctuary. Their only restorative moment. A place where, if only for an instant, they could escape. Far from war. Far from a ruined world.
But now... he was in another world. Far from war. Far from air saturated with radiation.
And yet, it was here that he found himself fleeing his dreams.
Ironic, isn’t it?
As an Awakened, Dylan could go several days without sleep. But if he abused this ability too much, his body would eventually draw from his own essence to compensate for the missing energy. He would end up collapsing.
He could afford this sleepless night. Just one. Without even feeling tired.
And that proved one thing.
That he had become more than human.
The day hadn’t even begun, yet the trio was already preparing. Élisa, silent, was putting on her t-shirt. Maggie, kneeling, was tightening her laces with an almost ritualistic precision.
It must have been around four in the morning. The sky showed no sign of day yet. Dawn was absent, replaced by a persistent mist and a cold that clung to the skin.