GABRIEL
More than that, I hadn't even thought it.
The realization landed hard, sending a cold ripple through me that had nothing to do with the water still clinging to my skin. My eyes flicked back to the mirror, locking onto my own reflection as if it could give me an answer.
It didn't.
I looked the same. Pale, drawn, the kind of hollow you don't shake off easily after years of being locked away from everything that made you human. There were shadows under my eyes, a sharpness to my cheekbones that hadn't been there before, but none of that was new.
I knew this version of myself.
Or I should have.
Because something was off.
It wasn't obvious at first. Not something I could point to immediately. But the longer I stared, the more it pressed in, quiet and insistent.
My eyes.
They were mine. I recognized the shape, the color, the way they should have looked after everything I'd been through.
But there was something sitting behind them that didn't belong.
Something watching.
