Chapter 7
Chapter 7
A day after returning from the membrane, the group gathers at a normal café to decompress. Just as they start to believe it's over, a series of small anomalies suggests the seal isn't holding. Aena's cryptic message and a mysterious package pull them back into the mystery.
The café was aggressively normal. Fluorescent lights hummed overhead. A barista called out orders in a monotone. Someone’s phone was playing a tinny pop song at half volume. Elias sat in a booth by the window, nursing a coffee that tasted exactly like coffee—no dimensional overlap, no strange aftertaste, just burnt beans and steamed milk.
Lena was across from him, scrolling through her phone with the kind of focus she usually reserved for disproving conspiracy theories. Lily had commandeered a napkin and was sketching something that looked like a cross between a door and a spiral. Dee Jay was at the counter, arguing with the barista about whether the espresso machine had been tampered with.
“I’m just saying,” Dee Jay called back to them, “the crema is too even. That’s not normal.”
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