Leaving The Hearth was like stepping out of a protective bubble. The cold air bit sharply, but the heavy meal sat in their stomachs like a warm, comforting anchor. Niles groaned, patting his abdomen.
“Garrett’s going to have to roll me onto the bus,” he complained, but there was a lightness to his tone that had been absent for months. “I think I’ve doubled my body mass.”
A genuine smile touched Alice’s lips. “Well, he called you ‘Scrawny’.”
“And you ‘Sparrow’,” Niles retorted with a grin.
Leon, walking with a steadier gait now that his leg had healed, allowed a small, dry smile. “I believe ‘Professor’ is at least marginally better.”
Buoyed by the meal and the temporary freedom, they decided to explore the town a little longer. They wandered past closed antique shops, their footsteps crunching in the thin layer of snow.
The cheerful Christmas lights seemed to wink at them, promising a normalcy that felt tantalisingly close.
“Look, Alice,” Leon said, stopping and pointing at a hideous porcelain clown figurine. “I think I have found Niles’ sleep paralysis demon.”
Niles clutched his chest in mock offence, leaning closer towards Leon's right shoulder. “Rude. And absolutely inaccurate. My sleep paralysis demon should be a floating, sentient calculus equation that writes ‘insufficient data’ on the walls in spectral fire. That clown is just tacky.”
Alice giggled, pointing to a nearby grocery store. A handwritten sign in the window read: FRESH EGGS - OUR CHICKENS ARE MOODY BUT PRODUCTIVE.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTpNDwKVkmL
“Moody but productive,” she read aloud. “That should be Blackwood Academy’s motto.”
The trio wandered further, their breath making white clouds in the air. Spotting a small, empty playground covered in a dusting of snow, a reckless, childish impulse took over.
“Bet you can’t make it across the monkey bars without touching the ground, Professor,” Niles challenged Leon, his expression mocking.
“Please. I have superior grip strength and core stability,” Leon retorted with mock seriousness, already rolling up his sleeves. “You, on the other hand, are built like a question mark made of pipe cleaners.”
“Endearing imagery, Professor. Let’s see it.”7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwTlkP94Bxg
With a grunt of resolve, Leon approached the bars. He gripped the first one, his knuckles whitening. He managed three methodical, straining swings before his arms gave out and he dropped straight into the snow with a soft thump.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdIhXv9vrf0
Niles laughed. “My turn. Observe the master carefully, Professor.” He immediately jumped up, his enthusiasm vastly outweighing his physique. He made it exactly one-and-a-half rungs before his grip failed and he landed in an ungainly heap next to Leon.
“Very masterful,” Leon deadpanned, brushing snow off his trousers.
Alice, who had been watching with an amused smile, shook her head. “Boys.” Without a word of warning, she darted forward. With the effortless, fluid grace of her training, she leapt onto the first bar, crossed the entire length in a blur of silent, powerful motion, and dropped lightly onto the platform at the end. She turned and took a theatrical bow.
Niles, still sitting in the snow, applauded. “Show-off.”7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaoDi8bbfRi
“I believe that’s called ‘competence,’” Leon said, but he was smiling as he offered Niles a hand up.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEXuAEd5sdG
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZxv8WFNrMy
Eventually, their playful path had took them up a slight hill at the edge of town, where a low, wrought-iron fence encircled a patch of land dotted with grey headstones. Last Rock’s graveyard. It was ancient, the stones weathered and tilted by generations of mountain winters.
The mood shifted instantly. The cheerful lights felt distant.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjEilaH2fNG
It should have felt like an omen. But in the quiet, pale light, with the snow softening the edges of the tilted stones, it felt peaceful. Sacred. A history, not a threat.
They walked the narrow paths in respectful silence, reading the faded names.
It was Alice who stopped first, her breath catching. “Look,” she whispered, all trace of their earlier laughter gone.
The headstone was simpler, newer, but just as weathered:7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrCFwbmpkBT
CHLOE ANNE MARTIN7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlJxaaOMYfR
BELOVED DAUGHTER7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzy5xuCJxo0
“SHE FILLED THE WORLD WITH MUSIC”7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9dxESa4GGi
The air left Niles’s lungs. Leon stood rigid.
“Chole didn’t transfer,” Alice said, her voice hollow and empty. “She didn’t go home.”
The proof was carved in stone. “Absolved” was a death sentence. The memory of their playful afternoon curdled into ash. The peaceful graveyard now felt like a silent scream. Every weathered stone seemed to whisper: How many others?
The cheerful Christmas lights of Last Rock were no longer a promised comfort. They were a garish, twinkling lie, strung up in the shadow of a mountain that consumed the brilliant and the different, leaving behind only quiet stones on a lonely hill.
ns216.73.216.33da2
and then Add to home screen.