4338.205 · July 24, 2018 AD
Scissors and Bloodlines
Armed with scissors, a kitchen knife, and his father's dusty toolkit, Luke steps back through the Portal. The mundane meets the impossible. Jamie and Paul have been busy—tent boxes reorganised, the skeleton of shelter rising against ochre sky. For one breath, it looks like progress. Then someone tests the Portal again. Then someone pushes too hard. And Clivilius answers in fire and fury, revealing exactly how deep the fractures run.
The study feels like a cage. But Luke cannot stand still—not while Jamie and Paul wait in the dust, not while guilt gnaws at his chest like something with teeth.
He moves through the house with manic purpose, gathering what he can: scissors from the kitchen drawer, a knife still smelling faintly of last night's dinner, his father's toolkit pulled from beneath years of forgotten clutter. The items feel absurd in his hands—a shopping bag full of domestic scraps reimagined as survival gear. But absurdity is all he has.
When he returns to Clivilius, Jamie and Paul have made progress. The tent boxes stand in ordered rows. The skeleton of shelter rises against the ochre sky. For one suspended moment, Luke dares to hope.
Then Jamie tests the Portal again. Then he shoves Paul into it.
The explosion tears the air. Paul's body is flung backward, scorched and gasping. And when he rises, there is no hope left in his eyes—only the confirmation of what Clivilius has whispered: You can never leave.
Jamie's fury turns on Luke. Fists fly. Paul intervenes. And Luke flees through the Portal, carrying nothing but the weight of what he has broken.
