something sickeningly sweet. I stood on a gantry overlooking the test pit, the heat from the rocket engine

he said. His voice was

coats stark white against the dark machinery. They were renowned NASA scientists, people of logic an

fingernails, was apparently pregnant. He had told me this yesterday, in our sterile whi

ld glass and colder men, to confront him. He hadn't argued. He hadn't yelled. He had si

said. "It's more

monster. I told him our life,

They didn't say a word. They just broke my legs. The pain was sharp, absolute. Then came the smear camp

ut to me. "Sign," he demanded, his

mouths were taped shut, but their eyes screamed. I saw my f

them die. My own li

, the words tasting like

to a smile I had seen in years. He nodd

didn't rise

a plume of violent orange that consumed them instantly. The acri

. He just watched

left. No reason. No future. I turned, and with a final look at the

en I w

e air smelled of coffee and clean linen. I grabbed my phone, my heart pounding agains

eam. It was a

eam. The terror was a cold, hard stone in my gut, b

now a rising star in the State Department. My finger hovered over the call button

t's a matter of life and d

l bag. Essentials only. Passport, cash I had hidden away, a change of clothes. My hands were steady. The woman

ed to understand what kind of person

ooth for a community garden, her hands covered in soil as she bagged fresh vegetables for an elderly coup

box of chocolates. The same kind he used to buy for me on our anniversary. He looked awkward, out of

' s booth stumbled, his bag of groceries spilling acro

was there. She knelt, her hands quickly

aid, her voice warm with genuine co

e money he tried to press into her hand. Liam just stood the

acquire a life he thought he was supposed to want. Scarlett, with her warmth and her commu

e he would remove wit

y past self would have been hurt by the chocolates, by the public

n buzzed in my pocket, and I walked away from the market without looking ba