Chapter Nineteen

CHAPTER NINETEEN

THAT NIGHT, THE fog rolled in.

Heavy. Pale. Thick like memory.

I met Evelyn on the starboard deck. Alone. Wrapped in a shawl. Her breath visible in the cold air.

“We’re running out of time,” I said.

She nodded. “I know.”

She looked down at the watch chain on my vest.

“You always wear that,” she said. “You ever check it?”

I hadn’t. Not once.

I looked now.

The hands were moving backwards.

“What the hell…” I whispered.

She stared.

“I think you’re the only person here whose clock’s been honest.”

The ship groaned again.

The same deep sound as before, only this time it felt… closer.

Not beneath. Not around.

Inside.

People began filtering inside. Quietly. Quickly. Like they all heard something but didn’t want to be the first to say it.

Only Evelyn and I remained.

She turned to me, her voice low.

“You have to tell me.”

I didn’t answer.

“You know something. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. But you do.”

I looked at her. This girl who had lived a hundred lives. This soul that had crossed timelines just to find mine.

And I said the thing I’d been holding since Day One.

“I’m not from here.”

Silence.

The wind caught the edge of her shawl and lifted it like a wing.
The fog swirled.
The ocean whispered.

And she whispered back:

“I know.”