Ava didn't sit with us at lunch the next day.
She showed up to class, eyes tired, jaw tight, but kept her distance. I caught her looking at me once, then quickly looked away like she wasn't sure if I was still me .
Lena noticed too.
"She's scared," Lena said quietly as we walked between periods.
"No kidding," I muttered. "They just told her she's not normal either."
"That's not it," Lena said, frowning. "It's the pull."
I stopped walking. "What pull?"
She hesitated, like she wasn't sure how much to say. Then she sighed.
"When you start seeing ahead… it doesn't just change how you see the world." Her voice dropped. "It changes what you want ."
I stared at her. "That doesn't make sense."
"It didn't to me either," she admitted. "But everyone who gets this ability feels it eventually. Like there's something out there calling to you. Something you're meant to find."
I thought about the building. About the man in the suit. About my own flashes showing me things I never wanted to see.
And I hated how badly part of me wanted to go back.
"Is that why you came back?" I asked.
Lena didn't answer right away. Then she whispered, "Maybe."
We reached homeroom. Ava was already inside, sitting near the window. She didn't look at us.
I took the seat behind her.
Halfway through class, I got another flash.
Not of the future.
Of her.
She was standing in front of a mirror, whispering words I couldn't hear.
Then the image shifted.
She was holding her phone.
Reading a message.
I couldn't read the screen clearly.
But I knew who had sent it.
It was the same number that had texted me.
The one that said:
"You'll come back."
I blinked hard, heart pounding.
When I looked at Ava again, she was staring at her phone.
Her face was unreadable.
But her hands?
They weren't shaking.
They were steady.
Like she'd made a decision.
And maybe—just maybe—
She was ready to see what was on the other side.