Claire pointed at the sketch.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkegcD1wwNT
Drawn with a black pen, the jagged line cut through the center like a torn zipper. Twisted. Uneven. Wrong.
“This is what I saw,” she said, voice dry like windblown dust. “In the sky.”
Batman. Nightwing. Robin. All standing around her, staring at the paper.
Yep. Batman was back.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn9hrDBucEB
Sure, she’d just seen him “yesterday,” but that was only true for her. Not for them.
They didn’t remember yesterday.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuXjx3TrGIJ
She was the only one who did.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj6dAVb6OBa
Again.
44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSB8Q8fMcuR
One hour ago
44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1eXeGGAmuh
She stood up. Her joints felt stiff—like that rip in the sky had somehow traveled down her spine and into her bones.
“Can you guys... just look at the sky?”44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQBzwoSDwE0
She asked it like someone who already knew the answer, but still had to ask.
Nightwing and Robin exchanged glances. Then, dutifully, they looked up.
Professional sky-gazing faces.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyxzdSEZqKD
Like it was part of a rooftop protocol.
Nothing.
“No, not like that,” Claire snapped. “Close your eyes. Look with your eyes closed.”
It made no logical sense. But she sounded very sure of it.
Nightwing hesitated a beat, then obeyed.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHN2UdQtJ2A
Robin looked at her like she’d just asked him to smell the sidewalk—but closed his eyes too.
Two vigilantes. On a rooftop. At night.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGtLyIucKim
Standing still with eyes shut and faces to the sky.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbCSZ5DV5ny
It looked like some weird silent ritual.
And honestly?44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeFKZAbMcEc
Kinda hilarious.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGSe8WslRr8
But Claire couldn’t even smile.
Her fists were clenched, palms sweaty.
A few seconds passed.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfk2cMZ3tXD
Then they opened their eyes and shook their heads.
“Nothing.”
Her stomach dropped.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMEKTyiNSJ9
Not disappointment—44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡncOs8Qmw1Y
More like that awful sensation when the last thread holding you to reality starts to snap.
“Please,” she said, softly.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxtok1Xe0pn
“Tell Batman. I need help.”
Her voice was nearly emotionless.
44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCCJwv4ks5o
By the time Batman arrived, Claire looked like someone who’d just walked out of a morgue.
Pale. Hollow.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs5LBDTTYzY
As if the inside of her brain had been scrubbed raw.
She spoke without inflection. No energy for theatrics.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNrrDGeckOY
Just repeated the same thing.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAQtfdlBNPS
Over. And over.
She’d already said it yesterday.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrxD4ZJ148v
She was saying it again today.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn7OSnpl9NS
Now it was Round Three.
What was this, a dystopian Groundhog Day?
Could she just get a USB port installed in her head or something?44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3tKCFVdYgl
Upload her trauma and call it a day?
Batman listened silently. His face gave nothing away.
Then he said,
“Draw it.”
Claire blinked. Then nodded.
She went behind the counter and rummaged through a drawer. Pulled out a box of pens—the kind she used for doodling on coffee cups.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO6OWNU9kcI
Hearts on Valentine’s. Pumpkins in October.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ74SV0YjO96
Nothing too serious. Just scribbles for customers when business was slow.
She took a deep breath.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnJhOu85RWJ
Then hunched over the table and began to draw.
The pen scratched against paper. Each stroke felt like it was being yanked out of her skull.
The drawing wasn’t pretty.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeZ7tOJS31W
But it was exact.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnY3JfYlQc0
That split in the sky—a zipper, a rift, maybe an eye—whatever it was, it didn’t belong to this world.
She slid the paper across the table.
Batman. Nightwing. Robin.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp1R0t9IIbU
All three stared.
Three different faces.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtnM69MB01I
Three different kinds of silence.
Claire studied them. Her voice, barely above a whisper:
“So… what do you think this is?”
It was the kind of whisper that floats like paper against a windowpane.
But her eyes were deadly serious.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUJfO1IpouO
The kind of serious that said:
If you tell me I made this up, I’m going to lose it. For real.
44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKWeFZ66vG8
Claire figured she couldn’t really blame them if they thought she was insane.
Honestly, if their roles were reversed, she might’ve thought the same. Who wouldn’t, when someone calmly claimed they were reliving the same day over and over—and also happened to “see the sky split open” when they shut their eyes? It sounded like something between a sci-fi novel and a psychiatric evaluation.
Batman stared at the sketch for a long time.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcCFJptMFAR
His gaze didn’t just study it—it drilled into it, as if he were trying to excavate something buried beneath the paper fibers.
It was the first time Claire realized… he wasn’t as calm as she had assumed.
The silence grew thick, as if some unspeakable truth was quietly pressing out from the sketch itself.
“When did you first see this?”44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6z5AEm37CN
His voice was low—not the kind of low that tried to intimidate, but the kind that sounded like it had swallowed something massive and was now digesting dread.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡikABrooU8e
44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJNYmf9vfcz
Claire tried to recall, but her usual nighttime habits got in the way.
She had always avoided going out at night—almost like instinct.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlHObtMgdUv
Now, trying to pull memories from a part of the day she’d always kept at arm’s length felt like dragging threads from a blank void.
“I don’t know,” she murmured. “Today was the first time I saw it.”
She immediately wanted to cry—not from sadness, but from how stupid it all felt.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWCHeAKHUeZ
Here she was, explaining some urban-legend-tier nonsense to Batman. With zero proof.
“Do you get headaches? Hear voices?”44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBQQ0rer208
That was Nightwing. His voice was measured, maybe too measured. Like he was running a checklist but didn’t want to admit he was worried.
His eyes gave him away, though.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFxGqiUXDPx
That wasn’t disbelief—it was a quiet, anxious kind of urgency. A desire to help, not dismiss.
Claire shook her head.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBjr9IqxshE
Hard.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjUPeeRxZnL
Like shaking would erase every lingering “are you just crazy?” that might be forming in their minds.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1ulwPHLzZE
She was tired of being questioned. Hell, she was already questioning herself.
“Why only her?”44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUI3MlZhL6u
Robin’s voice cut in—not accusing, but contemplative. His eyes moved between the three of them, searching for a logic flaw he couldn’t patch.
Batman lowered his head.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBzSJCIZVr0
His cape shifted slightly, like it was hiding the fact that even he didn’t feel so steady anymore.
He didn’t speak.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCbVKs7INT3
And somehow that silence was worse.
Claire felt it like a chill under the skin. A subtle, creeping sense of dread.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ37d3VFnhce
Not from the rift. But from his silence.
Then Batman finally spoke.
“If she’s able to consistently perceive a structure no one else can, that implies it’s selectively revealing itself.”
His voice had a kind of emotional distance—not spatial, but psychological.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYUZElQNgbT
It wasn’t comfort. It wasn’t analysis.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmcL2CQvhJq
It was a warning.
Then he looked at Claire.
And in that moment, his gaze wasn’t warm, or even human.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv0xXTugcTk
It was clinical.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR7sGcYagya
As if she were no longer a person, but a variable.
“This isn’t just about the loop,” he said. “It might be that the rift itself… is looking back at her.”
Claire’s stomach twisted.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbOSjjIeED6
No.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqjtoGVXStD
This wasn’t just her seeing the rift.44Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkbF3kX5Qr1
The rift… had seen her.
and then Add to home screen.