The typing bubbles that had flooded the screen just moments ago vanished in unison. The silence in the group chat was suffocating, as if even digital air had been sucked out.
Sirius: It's a family chat. You're not family.
Dax: The moment Christopher is in it, it's my business.
Nothing else. No emoji, no clarification, no follow-up. Just the single line, left hanging like a guillotine above them all.
Mia: … Hi, Dax. Your Majesty?!
The typing bubbles flickered again, hesitant, as if every cousin and sibling on the thread were weighing their next words like stepping onto thin ice.
Lucas: Well. That escalated quickly.
Lucius: You've lost your mind.
Sirius: He has. Entirely.
Lucas: Relax. If Dax wanted us dead, he wouldn't announce himself with a chat bubble.
Lucius: That's not reassuring.
Sirius: No, that's deranged.
Lucas: Deranged? Why would I be deranged for adding my friend to the second group, which is where people that didn't make it in the first one are?
