LOGINThe last morning is ordinary.That’s how I know it’s real.I wake without an alarm, sunlight already filling the room in soft, unremarkable bands. No urgency hums under my skin. No mental checklist snaps into place the second my eyes open. Just awareness. Breath. The quiet weight of a body that slep
Silence stretches. Not tense. Evaluative. The kind that follows the realization that the conversation has already ended, even if mouths are still moving.“And if it doesn’t,” he asks quietly, eyes lifting to mine.I lean forward just enough to make the movement intentional. Enough that everyone in t
The meeting happens at ten.Not nine, not eleven. Ten, because precision matters when you’re ending something that’s been allowed to blur for too long. I arrive early anyway. Habit. Control. A need to feel the room before anyone else starts shaping it. I walk the perimeter once, slow, measured, lett
Ben watches me like he knows exactly why I do that.In the afternoon, the first complication arrives.Not resistance. Not sabotage.A person.Her name is Leona. Mid-level administrator. Clean record. Efficient. She’s been requesting a meeting for three days under a dozen different pretexts. Budget c
The work begins with a toothbrush.That’s how I know this isn’t going to be cinematic. No speeches. No sweeping orders that echo down hallways. No moment where the lights shift and the music tells you something important is happening. Just me standing at the sink before sunrise, brushing my teeth wh
The quiet doesn’t last.I don’t realize that’s what it is at first. Quiet feels earned now, like something we fought for and won in increments small enough not to bruise. It settles into the compound gently. Patrols rotate without tension. Reports come in on time and say what they mean. People stop







