Thalira Fowler had learned to trust very few things, but the theater was the only place that still felt real. The lights buzzed softly overhead, and for a moment she let herself believe this was just another bad day, another rumor, or another bad joke taken too far. Then the floor trembled. Not enough to panic. Just enough to notice, and when the doors sealed shut behind us, that's when she knew the building decided something they hadn't. At that moment she knew she should've let go. Everyone else did, but his hand was still there, warm and shaking, and she realized too late, that surviving without him felt worse than what was coming next. But Silas Moon was there, moving ahead with quiet confidence, and without thinking, she followed. The pull of him made the impossible seem slightly survivable and she knew too late that surviving without him might hurt more than whatever was coming next. As the walls began to shift in ways they shouldn't, Thalira had to decide to trust the patterns she glimpsed, follow Silas, or risk everything on her own. Whatever lay beyond the wall wasn't just a game, or a monster, or a system built to break them. It was the cost of holding on to someone in a world that had already let go.