4308.265 · September 21, 1988 AD
The Promise She Couldn't Keep
The Outback stretches endless and ancient, indifferent to the secrets girls carry through its red dust. Violet walks beside her sister, journal hidden in her bag, shadows still clinging to her thoughts. Jasmine notices more than she should. Asks questions Violet can't answer. And somewhere between a boulder shaped like a sleeping giant and the fading afternoon light, Violet makes a promise: I'll always come back. Some promises are made to be broken.
"Whatever you're mixed up in... just be careful, okay? I don't want anything to happen to you."
After the Silver Queen, Violet needs air. Space. Something vast enough to hold the weight pressing against her ribs. So she walks into the Outback with Jasmine at her side—her younger sister, bright-eyed and unburdened, still believing the world is a place where mysteries get solved and older sisters always come home safe.
The land unfolds around them in copper and gold. A boulder crouches in the scrub like something dreaming. Jasmine chatters about treasures and rocks that hold stories, and Violet tries to smile, tries to be present, tries not to see Sally Harlow's frantic handwriting every time she closes her eyes.
But Jasmine is thirteen now. Old enough to notice silences. Old enough to find newspaper clippings hidden in bedrooms. Old enough to ask questions that cut too close to truths Violet desperately wants to protect her from.
And when Jasmine asks her to be careful—voice small, eyes wide with a fear she shouldn't have to carry—Violet pulls her close and makes a promise.
I'll always come back.
Nine days later, she won't.
