GRACE POV
I couldn’t believe my own ears.
For a moment, just one, fragile, disorienting moment, I thought I had misunderstood him, that the words spilling from Nathan’s mouth were warped by fear, twisted by pain, distorted by desperation. I wanted to believe there had to be another explanation, another version of reality where this wasn’t true.
But then he kept talking.
And the truth settled into me with a weight that went straight to my bones.
They sucked happiness.
They sucked energy.
They fed on students.
On us.
Not in alleys or forgotten corners of the world, but in classrooms flooded with artificial light, in offices lined with books and accolades, in libraries that smelled of dust and paper and promise. In an institution built to nurture curiosity and ambition, turned inste
