Seraphina's Point Of View
The impact should have been nothing.
A bump. A stumble. A half-second of awkwardness before the world righted itself again. That's what happens when you collide with a stranger in a hallway… you apologize, you move on, you forget.
But this?
This was different.
The moment my shoulder hit hers, I knew. Before I even lifted my head, before I saw her face, before the words left her lips, my body recognized her. My skin prickled, my stomach dropped, and something deep in my chest twisted, like a knife turning in a wound I'd forgotten I had.
The air around us seemed to thicken, pressing in on me from all sides, heavy and suffocating, like the room had suddenly shrunk to the size of a coffin.
I lifted my head.
And then I saw her.
Time stopped.
Not slowed. Not paused. Stopped.
