It was just past midnight when the city went still.
The kind of stillness that presses into your lungs like a held breath. Somewhere outside, sirens wailed distant warnings. Inside the shelter, the hum of tech and ghosts had faded. But sleep never came easy to people with blood on their hands.
Lilly sat by the wall, arms curled around her knees, eyes trained on the floor like it might spell out a future she didn't know how to read.
Sam was watching her.
Across the room, wrapped in a threadbare blanket, she rose slowly and crossed the cold floor. Didn't say anything. Just sat beside her, thigh brushing thigh, heat shared in silence.
"You don't have to stay," Lilly said, voice low, cracking at the edges.
Sam didn't flinch. "But I want to."
"That's not safe."
Sam turned to face her. "Neither are you."
Lilly huffed out a breath that could've been a laugh if it hadn't hurt so much. "I'm serious, Sam. I'm dangerous. You saw Ava. You've heard what I've done. People around me end up dead."
Sam leaned in, eyes firelit and unshaken. "Then teach me how to survive it. But don't push me away because you're scared."
"I'm not scared," Lilly lied.
"You are," Sam whispered. "And so am I. But I'm more scared of losing you."
That was it.
The dam broke.
Lilly turned to her like the tide turns to the moon—inevitable, aching, ancient. She cupped Sam's face, fingers trembling like she hadn't touched something soft in a decade and kissed her.
Slow. Desperate. Quiet enough to feel like a prayer.
And when they broke apart, Sam took her hand.
"Come with me," she said.
"To where?"
Sam's lips twitched. "Where else? The roof."
The door creaked open to a skyline smeared in ink and light. The rooftop was broken concrete and forgotten cigarette buds, but to them? It was the edge of the world.
They sat on the ledge together, legs swinging into the air like two girls who hadn't been hunted, haunted, or betrayed. Just… breathing.
"You ever wonder who you'd be," Sam said, "if none of this had happened?"
"All the time," Lilly murmured.
Sam reached into her jacket and pulled out a little silver lighter. Click. Flame. Flicker. She didn't smoke. She just liked having fire near her fingertips.
"I think I'd be boring," she said. "Like, old grandma boring. College girl. Bookstore job. Cat named Chaos."
Lilly smiled, real and wrecked. "I think I'd still be looking for someone like you."
Sam's smile cracked open wider.
And then—CRACK.
Gunshot. Close.
Both girls dropped low, instincts flaring, breath caught.
Another shot. Not at them. Not yet. But near.
From the east side. Too close for comfort.
Lilly's expression hardened. "They found us."
Sam didn't blink. "Then we make them regret it."
Lilly stared at her for a beat, heart pounding, pulse matching the chaos blooming across the city skyline.
"You're not just here for me," Lilly whispered. "Are you?"
Sam turned her head, eyes molten.
"I'm here for all of you," she said. "The broken parts. The sharp edges. The secrets you think make you unlovable. I want it all."
Another gunshot split the night.
This time, Lilly didn't flinch.
She kissed Sam again, quick and fire touched. "Then let's make it out alive."
They stood; guns drawn, back-to-back.
Lovers. Warriors.Storm and shelter.
And somewhere beneath them, the city burned.