Chapter 16 · Sister in the Scope

The door's off its hinges.

I'm still staring at chat when the wood frame splinters inward and the whole thing just—drops. Flat on my carpet like someone kicked it from the outside but there's no one there. Just night air. Just the smell of pine and something burnt.

Chat's going insane. Sixty messages a second. Half of them are saying RUN and the other half are saying WINDOW CHECK WINDOW.

I look.

There's a girl on the roof across the street. She's crouched next to the AC unit. She's got a rifle.

She's looking right at me through the scope.

My whole body locks. I can't move. Can't breathe. The stream's still live. The camera's still on my screen, not my face, but the mic's hot and I know they can hear my heartbeat because I can hear it too, slamming in my ears like a drum track.

The girl on the roof doesn't move either. Just holds the scope steady. Then she shifts. Not the rifle. Just her head. She tilts it like she's trying to get a better look at me.

And I realize—she looks like me.

Same jawline. Same build. Her hair's shorter, darker, tied back tight.