Chapter 2: The Geometry of a Lie

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 23:40:37 +0000

The walk home was a gauntlet of shadows beneath the L-train tracks. Every few minutes, a train roared overhead, shaking the rusted iron pillars and drowning out the world in a screech of metal on metal. Elias kept his chin tucked into the collar of his frayed denim jacket, his eyes fixed on the cracked Chicago pavement. To anyone else, the city was a feat of engineering; to Elias, it was a series of blind spots where a boy could be broken without a soul hearing him scream.