4338.214 · August 2, 2018 AD
Against Orders
Sergeant Claiborne orders exhausted Sarah Lahey to go home after Karl Jenkins vanishes at Jeffries Manor. Sarah gets in her car, nods agreement—and drives straight to Luke Smith's house in Berriedale. The place where Karl killed a man. Where her blood is on the floor. Where evidence of her complicity waits. She can't stop herself. She's already crossed the line.
"Go home, Sarah."
Sergeant Claiborne's order is clear. Sarah's exhausted, traumatised, barely functional after watching Karl and Luke vanish from an empty shed. She should go home. She should rest. She should let someone else handle this.
She gets in her car. Starts the engine. Claiborne taps the roof twice—trust—and turns away.
Sarah's hands turn the wheel.
But not toward home.
Toward Berriedale. Toward Luke Smith's house. The place where Karl killed a man and she helped cover it up. Where her blood stains the floor. Where evidence of her complicity waits in the darkness.
Just need to check. Just need to see if Karl's there. Won't take long.
The lies come easily. But Sarah knows the truth—she's not going because it makes sense. She's going because she can't stop.
This is the drive between what Sarah should do and what Sarah does. Between following orders and following compulsion. Between the detective she thought she was and the person she's becoming. The radio crackles with routine calls—domestics, accidents, shoplifting—reminding her that normal police work still exists somewhere outside this nightmare.
But Sarah isn't part of that world anymore.
