Chapter 54: Catalyst Bound, I
We never returned to the station.
The forest swallowed it behind us, and we didn't look back. Not because we were free of it—but because part of it had followed us. Its breath still clung to the thread.
We set camp inside an abandoned telegraph post northeast of Zehdenick. The roof held. The stove worked if coaxed. That was enough.
It was the kind of shelter meant for messages that no longer had anywhere to go.
Clara patched Erich's jaw. Konrad hadn't spoken since the station. I wasn't sure he'd forgiven himself for losing his rifle. He kept reaching for it instinctively, then pulling his hand back like the memory stung.
Erich still moved like someone listening to a question only he could hear. Clara stayed close but didn't speak much either. She just kept watching the snow, her fingers curling into her sleeve like she was holding something only she could feel. Her eyes never left the drifting white—like she was waiting for something to rinse from it.
I didn't write that night. I only stared at the blank page, waiting for a pull. I wasn't even sure what I expected—an answer, maybe. Or a warning.
It didn't come from me.
It came from memory.
The boy at the station. The vision of Shuji. The grave.
I saw it again—unmarked, wind-bitten. Helene's shadow standing over it, smiling.