Celeste POV

“Survivors don’t sleep. We replay everything.”

I can’t stop replaying the blast.

The journalist’s scream, the flash, the smell of burning metal and gasoline it’s all I hear when I close my eyes.

Every sound since then feels too loud, too close, too much.

I’ve been living in the safehouse for forty-eight hours now, tucked behind bulletproof glass and motion sensors.

The walls hum with silence, and even silence feels dangerous.

When Xavier walks in, I expect the usual ...