"Hey, don't run away."
Lena didn't say the words out loud.
They surfaced quietly in her mind, almost like a plea rather than a command.
—What are you doing?
An irritating voice echoed in her head, sharp and impatient, cutting through her thoughts.
She ignored it.
For once, her body was responding to her will.
That alone felt strange enough to make her breath hitch.
Her steps were steady as she moved forward, her fingers curling instinctively, as if she already knew what she wanted to grasp.
If I can move like this, she thought, then catching him shouldn't be that hard.
She had cornered him before.
More than once.
Each time, he had barely escaped, stumbling away with movements that were too frantic to be planned.
He looked exhausted now, shoulders trembling, his form flickering as though it might fall apart at any moment.
He didn't even try to fight back.
And yet—
She couldn't catch him.
