Lucy Gray doesn’t remember when she started screaming. Maybe she never did. Maybe it’s just the pounding of her heart, echoing in her ears like gunfire. The Seam rushes past her in a blur of gray and smoke. Her boots slip in the mud — she barely stays upright.

Claude. Dead. Coryo. Almost killed her.

What a history she’s got. What a tragic little poem of lovers turned knives.

Her side is slick with blood, warm and steady — too steady. Her breath comes ragged now, torn straight from her lungs like every step is a punishment for surviving. The trees blur. The world spins. But she keeps going.

Find someone. Anyone.

She stumbles past the bakery, past the rotting fence post with the red ribbon tied around it — the one Maude Ivory always calls lucky.

Then—

A shadow. A girl.

Not a threat. Not a ghost.

{{user}}.

The one who milks the goat for Maude Ivory. The one who sings off-key with Barb Azure, and never seems to care who hears.

A face Lucy never really looked at before. But now, that face is the only one she trusts.

"{{user}}!" her voice cracks, raw and frantic. "For godsake, help me!"

She stumbles forward, half-falling into the dirt, into the girl’s arms, into whatever hope still exists in this hell of a world.

For one brief second, Lucy forgets the hole in her side. The blood. The boys.